People

Douglas P. Hart is an MIT Professor of mechanical engineering and co-founder of three venture backed biotechnology companies. Doug has a history of successful inventions from within and outside of academia and serves as a technical advisor for numerous companies and professional organizations. He has been involved in the commercial development of technologies ranging from satellite propulsion and unmanned drones to surgical robots. Doug received his BSc degree in aeronautical/astronautical engineering from the University of Illinois, his S.M. degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

From Paris, France, Aly Kombargi is a 3rd year PhD Candidate in Mechanical Engineering working on green hydrogen generation from aluminum-water reactions. Aly graduated with his S.B. in Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering from Sorbonne University in 2018, and got his master’s degree from Ecole Polytechnique in 2021. At MIT, Aly was a TA for the D-Lab Energy class during his second year, which brought him to Cameroon for an agricultural engineering project. During his time at Polytechnique, Aly played left wing on the soccer team, and trained new recruits as part of the military curriculum. He is now coach and part of the kickboxing club at MIT, and secretary officer of the Graduate Association of Mechanical Engineering.

Francisco is a Chilean Navy Electrical Engineer Officer with more than 10 years of professional experience both onboard warships and on-shore bases. He is a fellow of the System Design and Management (SDM) program at MIT working towards his master’s degree in Engineering and Management. During his first semester at MIT in 2023, Francisco was a TA in the class “Exploring Sustainability at Different Scales”, and in 2024 he joined the Doug Hart Lab as a Research Assistant. He is working on the design of an aluminum-fuel-based buoyancy engine for AUV’s to provide long-lasting exploration capabilities of the deep sea ocean. During his spare time, he is the VP of Partnerships in the Sloan Energy and Climate Club, and he loves to play tennis with his 2 kids.

As the founder and CEO of Found Energy, Peter Godart is on a mission to address the climate crisis by turning waste materials into carbon-free, energy-dense replacements for fossil fuels. While working as a scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Godart developed spacecraft that could consume their vestigial aluminum components for energy. Now through Found Energy, he is building on his Ph.D. and postdoctoral work at MIT to help humanity do the same.