Our Bureau
Cambridge, MA
Adi Mehrotra, a second-year master’s degree student in mechanical engineering, is following his passion for designing clean energy vehicles and enhancing mechanical engineering education at MIT. He helms the MIT Electric Vehicle Team, a student-led research team that is probing the future of transportation by designing a hydrogen-powered motorcycle, as per the release. Being a part of his master’s thesis research, Mehrotra is building a new mechatronics curriculum, an interdisciplinary course at the intersection of mechanical and electrical engineering.
Mehrotra during his first four years of undergraduate degree in 2022, at the Institute, was a critical member of the Solar Electric Vehicle Team (SEVT) and eventually led the group to victory in a five-day, 900-mile race. Later, he applied the skills learned from SEVT to a summer internship in Ghana with the startup Moving Health, where he worked on low-cost ambulances that could transport patients from remote villages to medical care, without relying on gasoline, as per the release.
After his master’s degree, Mehrotra plans to pursue a PhD focusing on hydrogen energy systems. “Climate change disproportionally affects people who live in underserved communities around the world, despite the fact that most of climate change’s causes originate from western nations. Solving the energy crisis has implications to many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and social impacts far beyond just mitigating climate change” he said.
Mehrotra credits his parents with fostering his interest, by encouraging scientific thinking with subscriptions to Ask magazine and National Geographic, and lots of LEGO play from a very young age.
“My mom always knew she wanted me to go to MIT,” said Mehrotra. So, he wanted to see MIT for himself and Campus Preview Weekend (CPW) gave him that opportunity.
Life at MIT made Mehrotra learn about mechanical design, but also about life. “The people on the team remain some of my best friends. The older people in solar cars were the best personal and engineering mentors. They taught me how to lead a team and treat people well,” added Mehrotra.
He has an interest in cinematography and film and is currently working on a documentary.
