Fadel Adib

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Associate Professor, MIT
CEO & Co-Founder, Cartesian Systems (startup)
Founding Director, Signal Kinetics Research Group
MIT Media Lab & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science      


BRIEF BIO: I am an Associate Professor at the MIT Media Lab and EECS. I direct the Signal Kinetics group which invents new wireless and sensor technologies to interconnect, sense, and perceive the physical world in ways that were not possible before. Our technologies aim to address complex problems in networking, health monitoring, robotics, and ocean IoT.

My research has led to multiple startups. I am currently CEO and co-founder of Cartesian Systems, a startup that aims to sense the physical world at an unprecedented scale and precision. Prior to that, my PhD research on wireless sensing (ACM SIGMOBILE Dissertation Award) led to Emerald Innovations, whose devices are used for remote health monitoring of thousands of patients.

I have received various honors for my work, including being named as one of the world's top 35 innovators under 35, the ACM SIGMOBILE Rockstar Award, and the Sloan Research Fellowship. My research was named as one of the 50 ways MIT has transformed computer science, and one of the 103 ways MIT is making a better world. I have had the honor to present my research to multiple heads of state, including demoing to President Obama at the White House. My research has also been broadly featured in public media, and videos featuring my work have reached over 25 million people.

Before joining MIT as faculty, I received my Masters (2013) and PhD (2016) in Computer Science from MIT and my Bachelors (2011) from the American University of Beirut.

Interested in joining my research group? You can find information on how to apply for MS/PhD, MEng, postdoc, UROP, and software/hardware/ML engineer positions here.

Interested in joining my startup? We have openings for research interns & full-time engineers at Cartesian.

Research Overview

My team's current research on wireless and sensor technologies focuses on four main areas:

My past research includes:

Finally, stories behind my research appeared in an MIT News profile (junior faculty journey) and IEEE Spectrum (PhD research).

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