Jesse L. Austin-Breneman

He/him

Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Active

Jesse Austin-Breneman portrait, white glasses, curly hair, smiling at camera

Office

MH 259

education

  • B.S. Ocean Engineering, MIT
  • M.S. Mechanical Engineering, MIT
  • Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, MIT

select courses taught

  • Mechanical Design
  • Modeling and Simulation of the Physical World

awards

  • 2020 ASME Ben C. Sparks Medal

research

  • Design
  • Optimization
  • Sustainable Development

Jesse Austin-Breneman is an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering here at Olin.

Working towards his vision of sustainable design methods which incorporate an understanding of system-level social impact, his research interests include design for development, design optimization, complex system design by teams, and modeling socio-technical systems in real organizations. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 2014 and was a MIT Tata Center Post-doctoral Fellow in 2015. There he studied design processes used by teams of practitioners in both developing economies and aerospace organizations. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a development engineer in Peruvian NGOs, working with rural communities and local doctors. He also spent two years as a high school mathematics teacher in Boston, MA. Jesse is currently the co-chair of the ASME Engineering for Global Development Research Committee and is a recipient of the 2020 ASME Ben C. Sparks Medal.