Projects in Southeast Asia

Faculty Research

Professor Karen Zheng | Faculty Director, Faculty Research
MIT faculty and researchers have a long history of engaging with partners in the ASEAN region to address pressing challenges in agricultural productivity, community resilience, water management, and sustainability. We are excited to build on this legacy to deepen these efforts — strengthening partnerships, scaling impact, and uncovering new opportunities for innovation across the region.

Projects and Research in Southeast Asia

MIT Sloan facilitates and supports research and action learning opportunities in Southeast Asia for MIT and MIT Sloan faculty and researchers. The MSAO plans to develop a seed funding program which is aligned to MIT strategic priorities, to support research projects with regional impact. 

Research Highlights 

 

               Market and Incentive Design for                                Sustainable Agriculture

Professor Zheng has been conducting active research in the South and Southeast Asia regions (specifically in India & Indonesia) for the past eight years, with a focus on sustainability issues in global supply chains, specifically concerning disadvantaged, smallholder communities in developing countries. Earlier, she collaborated with state governments and nonprofit organizations in India to investigate how digital platforms and technologies can be better designed and utilized among smallholder farmers to optimize their production and sales decisions, hence improving their welfare. Most recently, her team’s efforts have focused on designing incentive systems to motivate long-term adoption of sustainable practices by smallholder farmers while protecting their livelihoods. 

Zheng also supports the FSAS Initiative’s Water Project studying water                                              resource management in Thailand.

              Innovation in Water and Food Systems

Professor Levi has expertise in advanced analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence applied to water, food, and agriculture systems and supply chains. His current research is focused on the design of analytical data-driven decision support models and tools addressing complex business and system design decisions under uncertainty in areas such as health and healthcare management, supply chain, procurement and inventory management, revenue management, pricing optimization, and logistics. Levi leads the FSAS Initiative’s Water Project, working with collaborators in Thailand to understand and model both weather patterns and water management systems. This will enable water system decision makers to predict seasonal rainfall and weather events, prevent flooding, and optimize water storage and allocation.

              Innovations in Sensing Technology

 

Dr. Springs is a principal investigator with expertise in chemistry, biomanufacturing, rapid detection technology development, and regulatory science. Her research interests include biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing, risk management, regulatory and translational science and food safety and food supply chains. 

She supports multiple facets of the FSAS Initiative’s Water Project, with a focus on water quality testing.

  • Stacy Springs: Executive Director, Food Supply Chain Analytics and Sensing (FSAS) Initiative / Executive Director, Center for Biomedical Innovation

 Digital Systems for Food Security & Water Resources

Professor Aouad’s research focuses on the operations and economic analysis of digital platforms and algorithms with applications including supply chains, marketplaces, and public sector organizations. His research includes two projects to enhance food security in Southeast Asia, via both supply-side and demand-side interventions. One project seeks to improve productivity and sustainability in smallholder farming systems by providing AI-powered advisory services, targeting the adoption of agricultural technologies. The second project evaluates and optimizes food assistance programs for low-income households in India. Additionally, Aouad contributes to the FSAS Initiative’s Water Project studying water resource management and water allocation in Thailand.

  • Ali Aouad: Assistant Professor, Operations Management

     Empowering Communities for Climate Action        

Professor Mazereeuw is an associate professor of architecture and urbanism and is the director of the Urban Risk Lab. She is also one of the six climate mission directors at MIT. Her work focuses on designing resilient, climate-prepared cities through interdisciplinary research, education, technology, and community engagement.  

Learn more about Mazereeuw's work in the ASEAN region - Empowering Communities for Climate Action.  

More resources on the Urban Risk Lab:  https://urbanrisklab.org/copin/ https://urbanrisklab.org/work#/riskmap/ https://urbanrisklab.org/work#/surabaya-circumtransit/

  •  Miho Mazereeuw: Director, Urban Risk Lab, MIT

              Using Physics and AI for Sustainability 

Dr. Sai Ravela is a Principal Research Scientist in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, where he directs the Earth Signals and Systems Group. His work in Climate Risk and Earth’s Sustainability advances the Computational Sustainability Stack (CS²)—a systems framework that connects hazard, exposure, vulnerability, impact, and decision-making to build climate resilience. Dr. Ravela’s research integrates physics-coupled machine learning for hazard downscaling, co-active observing systems for environmental monitoring, computer vision for exposure mapping, large language models for vulnerability assessment, agent-based models for impact analysis, and game theory for participatory, community-driven decision-making. He is internationally recognized for pioneering the use of CS² in coastal risk quantification in Bangladesh, now                                       being expanded across ASEAN.

  • Dr. Sai Ravela: Principal Research Scientist, Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), MIT