WITNESS Labs goes online and names its first fellows
Our first WITNESS Lab Fellows for 2026 are Sarah Lahmadi, Nathan Tavares, Yasmin Morais Torquato, and Pratima Guragain. Fellowship applications for future cohorts will open here.
A place to play with materials, test ideas, and measure what works. Students, faculty, designers, and engineers research a more sustainable built environment together.
How we work
Every project follows the same simple loop. A brick, a sensor study, and a software tool can all run through it.
- Ask
Frame a question. Find out what is already known and where the gaps are.
- Make
Build the specimen, prototype, tool, or dataset the question needs.
- Measure
Record how it performs: heat, moisture, strength, air, light, sound.
- Test
Put it under real and simulated conditions. Compare it with what exists.
- Learn
Read the evidence. Name what it shows and what it cannot show.
- Share
Publish findings, data, and tools so others can build on them.
- Repeat
Each answer opens the next question.
Find your place in the lab
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Students
Bring a question you care about. Fellows run their own research with support from faculty and a cohort of other students from different disciplines.
About the fellowship -
Faculty
Run a studio project, course, independent study, or funded study through WITNESS. Share methods and equipment with colleagues across schools.
How research runs here -
Designers and engineers
Firms, manufacturers, fabricators, contractors, and testing labs can help shape questions, supply materials or data, and test ideas with us.
Partner with us -
Funders
Learn what WITNESS will build, what it will produce, and how support turns into research.
Support the lab