Our Team – MIT Project Manus

Contact Quick Links:

For general inquiries about MIT Project Manus, please contact Saana McDaniel at saana [at] mit.edu

For questions about the Mobius app, please contact Jonathan Hunt at jmhunt [at] mit.edu

For questions about the Make Impact Consortium, please contact Saana McDaniel at makeimpact [at] mit.edu

Professor Martin Culpepper

MIT Maker Czar

Marty Culpepper, a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, is MIT's first Maker Czar. He is passionate about all aspects of making and breaking as demonstrated in his 2.72 class where the student teams spend the semester building desktop lathes. Professor Culpepper is the recipient of an NSF Presidential Early Career Award, two R&D 100 awards, a TR100 award and a Joel and Ruth Spira Teaching Award. He is not one to be afraid of getting his hands dirty. His favorite maker tools are mills and waterjets, though he's become fond of glass blowing.

Jonathan M. Hunt

Associate Director & Maker IT Guru

Jonathan is the Associate Director and Maker IT Guru on MIT's Project Manus. He has 20 years of IT leadership experience and is in his happy place when making solar panel jewelry, circuits or anything with his kids. He earned his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from MIT and is responsible for managing the IT components including Mobius app development and data collection. His favorite tools include small mills, laser cutters and 3D Printers.

Saana McDaniel

Senior Program Manager

Saana serves Project Manus as its Senior Program Manager. She is a jack-of-all-trades who is a self-confessed workaholic. She is busy keeping everything running smoothly but manages to find time to be a manuscript editor for a scientific journal and to teach Finnish at Harvard. Although her Husqvarna sewing machine is by far her favorite tool, she cannot wait to master the waterjet.

Oliver Thomas

Maker Digital Systems Architect

A jack of all trades and master of none, Oliver's superpower is that he is able to sound plausible in almost any situation. He styles himself an amateur technologian and a professional pitchman not trying to sell anything. He constantly struggles with being a passionate generalist in an age that increasingly values specialization. He strives to master his fears of crowds, clowns, and peak oil before any of them can do him in. He likes chocolate, dogs (but not chocolate near dogs), and making things. He believes that waterjet cutters > laser cutters even though lasers >> water, and that 3D printers will someday become really useful.

(Also, 25 years of enterprise IT, architecture, and software design experience at MIT, yada yada yada.)

Paul Butler

Manager of Business Partnerships

Paul is responsible for engaging with our Business Partners here at Project Manus, and comes to the Maker environment with a keen interest in woodworking and metalwork – largely fueled by the need to repair old houses, keep sailboats afloat, and ensure antique motorcycles and bicycles stay roadworthy.

His background in technology startups and small companies has furnished him with a strong appreciation of the importance of creativity and entrepreneurship when coupled with the skills to execute on a design.

He is most excited about the potential 3D printing offers, and wants to be able to design and print one off parts.

Seth Avecilla

Maker Technical Specialist

Seth Avecilla specializes in delivering skills to students to shorten the path between their wildest ideas and reality. He is a Maker Technical Specialist for Project Manus. Having studied architecture and sculpture, he built large scale mixed-media installations, both for artists and high-end wayfinding signage, before running the fabrication shop for MIT's Program in Art, Culture and Technology. People come to him for welded metal fabrication, precision or unusual casting and moldmaking, and electronics. Sometimes you will find Seth dancing as though to shake his soul loose.

Robyn Goodner

Maker Technical Specialist

Robyn Goodner is thrilled to serve as a Maker Technical Specialist for Project Manus. Though her masters is in Operatic Performance, she has spent her entire professional career making and breaking in all sorts of media. Hailing from UMass Lowell, Tufts, and Olin College, she specializes in creating peer-to-peer training programs and optimizing makerspace accessibility. Her areas of making specialization include CNC machining and woodworking, though she is obsessively learning to make all of the things.

Angelina Jay

Technical Instructor

Angelina Jay is the Technical Instructor on the Project Manus Team. She was born and raised in Massachusetts and received her B.S. in aerospace engineering and her Ph.D. in structural engineering – spending many hours over many years getting her hands dirty in the lab. After a quick stint in consulting, she is happy to be back to more hands-on adventures. Her favorite things to make include jewelry and baked goods and she’s happy to break almost anything. In her spare time, she loves to travel, go to hockey games, and relax by the water with an iced coffee in her hand. Her favorite tools include soldering irons and cutting torches.

Conor McArdle

Video and Digital Content Specialist

Conor serves as the Video and Digital Content Specialist for Project Manus. He wears many hats, and is our in-house webmaster, filmmaker, photographer, audio editor, social media manager and more. Before his time at MIT, Conor worked in private high school education. He was a Digital Arts teacher at Vermont Academy and Assistant Director of Multimedia Strategy and Production at Peddie School. Conor uses his iMac and Adobe software for most of his making, but is excited to delve into the world of 3D printing.

Laura Zaganjori

Administrative Assistant II

Laura is a long-time MIT employee and happy to be part of the Project Manus team. Always eager to help out, she’ll jump into to any project that needs an extra hand. Laura was a creative kid and loved making things (especially when it involved chocolate chips). She earned an MFA in sculpture and spent many hours in the woodshop and printmaking studio. Her favorite tools are an X-Acto knife and cutting mat.

Sarah Gallaher

Administrative Assistant II

Sarah is an avid maker of many things from baked goods and floral design, to picking up a hammer and building things around the house. Originally having been from Michigan, Sarah was a teacher of music there for two years before moving to Massachusetts. As a musician, Sarah sings, dabbles on the piano, and creates arrangements for various types of instrumentation. In her free time, she enjoys painting, dancing, creating costumes, and constantly striving to better herself through practice and study.

Eric Duyette

Flameworking Instructor

Eric is the Flameworking Instructor in MakerLodge & beyond excited to be working with the MIT Project Manus team. He has been behind the torch creating his art for 17 years and before that working at his father's company installing sheet & auto glass. Since 2005, Eric has taught over a thousand students how to safely melt glass with fire at his studio in Somerville, MA, the Sharon Arts School in NH and at various locations around the country. His favorite tools are lapidary wheels, glass lathes & of course his glass blowing torch. In his spare time, he loves seeing live music, bicycling, & spending time with friends & family.

Rob Klein

Safety Specialist

Rob Klein is an environmental health and safety professional and Certified Industrial Hygienist with 30 years of experience in the field, primarily with higher educational institutions and national labs. He is a Lecturer at the Yale University School of Medicine and the principal of Coastal Safety, LLC, an EH&S consultancy. Until 2014, Rob was the Deputy Director for the Office of Environmental Health & Safety at Yale University. Rob has published numerous peer-reviewed articles on applied EH&S issues facing higher education, and is a frequent presenter at national and international meetings. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, bicycling, and woodworking.