AZ is set to graduate from MIT in May 2026 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Computer Science. He credits Gann’s academics and flexibility to pursue advanced electives, like computer science and engineering courses, number theory, and independent studies on cybersecurity, planes, and neural networks, with laying the foundation for his work in robotics and autonomous systems. AZ has continued building on that foundation at MIT, where he conducts research in the Biomimetic Robotics Lab on reinforcement learning for humanoid locomotion. His work on the Walking Oligomeric Robotic Mobility System (WORMS) project was presented at the 2024 Amazon MARS Conference.
He has completed internships with Anduril Industries, Embraer in Brazil, and the Technion’s CoNeCt lab over the past three summers. On campus, AZ serves as an autonomy engineer for MIT Driverless and will travel to Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit this spring to support static testing of the team’s fully autonomous Formula 1 race car, with dynamic testing and international competition (A2RL) planned later in the year.
AZ is currently weighing several next steps, including pursuing an M.S. at MIT focused on bridging model predictive control and reinforcement learning for legged robots, exploring industry roles in Orange County and San Francisco, and awaiting a PhD decision from Stanford. He is also building a startup turning AI traffic into revenue (if you know any VCs that might be interested, feel free to hit him up!).
Beyond academics, AZ previously played right back for the MIT Men’s Varsity Soccer team, serves as Vice President of Pi Tau Sigma (the MIT mechanical engineering honor society), and co-presides over the MIT Open Discourse Society. He won the 2024 MIT MechE De Florez Design Competition (Undergraduate category). AZ also volunteers as a Little Beavers coach, partnering with children on the autism spectrum and plays guitar in the Performative Brother Ensemble (PBE), the house band of his fraternity Phi Beta Epsilon (PBE).
AZ also just returned from a trip to Colorado to visit Elon S. and Ethan L. alongside Nate L., Josh R., and Lev M. (all friends from the class of 2022 as well)!
