The Andrea Chegut
Fellowship Fund
School of Architecture and Planning
This fellowship celebrates the life of Dr. Andrea Chegut and will inspire creative innovators across the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Andrea believed deeply in people, possibilities, creativity, and truth. She was a brilliant mind. She fought injustice, lifted people up and was a passionate catalyst for her students and their creative possibilities.
Benefits & Eligibility
Funding
Fellows receive a grant of $5,000
Mentorship
Fellows will have access to mentors and advisors from across the DesignX community.
Workspace
Fellows will have a dedicated desk in the DesignX studio.
The Andrea Chegut Fellowship is awarded once a year to a graduate student in any department, lab or center of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Students must be enrolled full time at MIT during the Fall semester.
Applicants should demonstrate a creative vision for the future, an ability to set and achieve challenging goals, an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving, and a strong will and passion to make an impact
Areas of study could include, but are not limited to, design innovation, real estate technology, and entrepreneurship. The fellowship funds can be used for a variety of projects such as research, prototyping, pilot testing and installations. What the Andrea fellows have in common is they apply design and data to solve urgent and complex problems
and aspire to make a positive impact.
Dr. Andrea Chegut 1981—2022
This fellowship celebrates the life of Dr. Andrea Chegut and will inspire creative female innovators across the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Andrea believed deeply in people, possibilities, creativity, and truth. She was a brilliant mind. She fought injustice, lifted people up and was a passionate catalyst for her students and their creative possibilities.
Cancer may have taken her life, but her memory and her legacy lives on. Andrea’s impactful work focused on the financial performance and economic outcomes of change in the built environ-ment stemming from design, technology, and innovation. Her research identified product innovation with the aid of data science and machine learning techniques. Andrea used data science to inspire a sustainable, healthy, socially inclusive, and intelligent human environment.
May Andrea continue to inspire us forever.
This fund was created and endowed by Professor Svafa Grönfeldt, Andrea’s friend and colleague, with support from Andrea’s students and loved ones.
Academic positions
2016–2022
Research Scientist,
MIT Center for Real Estate
Co-Founder and Director, MIT Real Estate Innovation Lab
Co-Founder and Head of Research, MIT DesignX
2014–2016
Postdoctoral Research Associate, MIT
Education
2013–2014
Postdoctoral Fellow, Maastricht University
2014–2016
Post-doctorate,
MIT Center for Real Estate
2009–2013
PhD Finance,
Maastricht University
2008–2009
Msc. in Economics and Law, Utrecht University
2003–2004
Bsc. in Economics,
College of Charleston,
2003–2003
Academic Exchange, Georgetown University
1999–2003
BA. in Philosophy,
College of Charleston
Fellows
2025
Nof Nathansohn
PhD 29
Developing computational design tools that harness living materials and natural processes to fabricate architecture, merging biological systems with built environments.
Richa Vera Udayana
MCP 26
DeTracing how historical industrial “residues” enable or constrain future regional development trajectories.
2024
Adi Kupershmidt
MCP 25
Exploring and implementing sharing economy principles in urban management.
Maysaa Sati
MCP 25
Developing an innovative aid distribution framework that categorizes displaced populations based on their socioeconomic needs.
2023
Smriti Bhaya
MCP 24
Developing technology and processes to provide rural Indian households with access to clean drinking water.
Claire Gorman
MCP/ CSE 25
Environmental Intelligence: Research and Reflections on Large Language Models for Environmental Planning
