Snapshots from MLSS 2026

Credit: Brooke Slezak/Siobhan Mullan

In a lecture hall at Columbia University’s Machine Learning Summer School, attendees sit in blue seats with laptops and notebooks while two participants stand in the aisle chatting; one smiles and laughs as others settle in around them.
Credit: Brooke Slezak
Gary Kazantsev speaks into a handheld microphone beside a laptop at a lecture podium, with audience seating blurred in the background.
Gary Kazantsev, head of Quant Technology Strategy at Bloomberg, gives opening remarks. Credit: Brooke Slezak
David Rosenberg stands in front of a large screen showing a slide about reinforcement learning methods for LLMs, while attendees watch from the front rows.
David Rosenberg, Head of ML Strategy in the Office of the CTO at Bloomberg and former Adjunct Associate Professor in the Center for Data Science at NYU, lectures on the session “RL for LLMs”. Credit: Brooke Slezak
Wide view of a packed auditorium during a talk at Columbia’s Machine Learning Summer School, with participants seated in rows facing the presenter and projection screen.
Amanda Stent, head of AI Strategy & Research in the Office of the CTO at Bloomberg, speaks on NLPs in her keynote. Credit: Brooke Slezak
Elias Bareinboim gestures toward a projected slide featuring the book cover “Causal Artificial Intelligence” and a web link, while the audience looks on.
Elias Bareinboim, Associate Professor of Computer Science, leads the session “Causal ML: foundations. Credit: Brooke Slezak
Enrico Santus stands near the front of the room mid-talk, with a projected slide behind him.
Enrico Santus, The Principal Technical Strategist at Bloomberg, gives his lecture “Agentic AI: Foundations.” Credit: Brooke Slezak
Two attendees wearing lanyards discuss a research poster on an easel; one points at the poster while the other listens.
Francesco Freni, a researcher in causality at the University of Copenhagen, showcases his research at the posted session. Credit: Siobhan Mullan
At the poster session, an attendee with a backpack holds a water bottle and gestures toward a poster while speaking with another attendee.
Credit: Siobhan Mullan
Ali Hirsa points at a poster while talking with two attendees, one holding a cup, in a busy poster-session space.
Ali Hisra, professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Director of Center for AI in Business analytics and FinTech, and Director of the MS program in Financial Engineering, at the poster session. Credit: Siobhan Mullan
A poster presenter wearing a name badge explains a research poster to several attendees gathered closely in conversation.
Zachary Laborde, a PhD student at Indiana University, showcases his research in neuroscience and machine learning at the poster session. Credit: Siobhan Mullan
At Columbia University’s Machine Learning Summer School, two attendees review a research poster; one points at figures on the poster while a large “Machine Learning Summer School” slide is projected above the auditorium stage.
Credit: Siobhan Mullan
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3. Agentic AI is more than just a buzzword.

Taqiya Ehsan, a PhD candidate in electrical and computer engineering at Rutgers University, whose research collaborates with Columbia’s Center for Smart Streetscapes, said the sessions dedicated to agentic AI stood out as particularly useful.

"We hear the agentic AI buzzword everywhere. Most of us don't really know what it means," she said. The summer school addressed that gap head-on, bringing in experts who build these systems to explain exactly what agentic AI is and how it works in practice.

Specifically, a talk by Brendan Rappazzo Hogan – a Morgan Stanley representative of alphaLab – on the firm's agentic AI framework stood out to Ehsan, offering a rare look at how a major financial institution is putting these systems into practice outside the lab. "It was really, really helpful to get insight into exactly what AI agents are from the experts who are building it," she added.

4. AI research must be interdisciplinary.

Transformative breakthroughs in AI rarely come from just one discipline – and the summer school made sure participants understood the importance of drawing AI research from multiple backgrounds.

Zachary Laborde appreciated the strong emphasis on interdisciplinary research and the importance of these intersections beyond the lab. Coming in with a background in psychology, Laborde was drawn to the program specifically to understand how language models — tools largely outside his own research — were reshaping fields like robotics and embodied AI. 

"My work doesn't involve natural language processing or large language models, but a lot of recent work has shown that in spaces like robotics and embodied AI, using language models leads to incredible results," he said. "I was hoping to better understand those components to be able to apply them to my work, or to work that I might do in the future."

For Emily Bejerano, what stood out most about the summer school was the sheer range of people and perspectives in the room. "I just thought it was a great opportunity to meet a lot of people from a variety of different areas with this overlapping interest in AI, and how we can leverage it to help our systems," she said. "I love meeting people from all around the world with various interests, hearing about their research, and sharing my research to get valuable perspectives from different people."

The 2026 Machine Learning Summer School delivered on the comprehensive view of the field that Columbia Engineering set out to showcase. From the theoretical promise of causal AI to the practical demands of interpretability, the agentic AI systems reshaping industries, and the deeply interdisciplinary nature of the work itself, participants left with more than just new technical knowledge – but a sharper sense of where the field is headed, and the responsibility that comes with building it.

“The challenge in the quantum industry is no longer a science challenge: it’s becoming an engineering challenge.”

Xuanjing Chu

How was the process to figure out your method?

I’m an experimentalist, but we had to go pretty heavily into theory and modeling for this paper. Usually, you think a theory is out there in the literature, even if it’s a few decades old, and that if there isn’t a supporting theory, you’ve done something wrong in your experiments. But there was no theory for our specific experimental case! I had to learn about microwave engineering, and we had to do all the modeling and simulations ourselves. That’s a unique challenge!

What brought you to quantum, and to Columbia originally?

I did my undergraduate degree at Fudan University in Shanghai. I was leaning towards more traditional solid-state physics, but it became really exciting to see quantum computing concepts emerge. I started seeing more and more papers pop up, and I wanted to help make the impossible possible: to go from pure laboratory demonstrations to industry-level, practical techniques. I’m a superfan of science fiction, and we’re seeing the transition from the classical to the quantum world in everyday life. I want to be part of it. 

I was aware of Jim’s SuperVan collaboration with Kin Chung Fong to explore novel qubits, and I also love New York City. I love to bike around the five boroughs and feel the architecture, the people, and the cultures change. It can feel like you are in different cities. I’ve loved being exposed to the complexity of New York, which gives me a nice break from the lab.

What does the quantum future hold?

The challenge in the quantum industry is no longer a science challenge: it’s becoming an engineering challenge. That will take a lot of people from different backgrounds to overcome. We live in a classical world, so quantum mechanics can feel intimidating, but don’t be afraid. Now is the time to jump in! 

Xuanjing Chu is mentored by James Hone, Wang Fong-Jen Professor of Mechanical Engineering and a Columbia Quantum Initiative faculty member.

Highlights: Designing for Impact

Here’s a look at some of the capstone projects on display at Senior Design Expo 2026. Credit: Timothy Lee

Large group photo of students on a stage in front of a screen reading “Senior Design Expo ’26, Columbia Engineering.”
Biomedical Engineering students pose with Lecturer Lauren Heckleman (center).
A team in “Senior Design Expo ’26” shirts stands behind a table display for “DesiCool: Humidity-First Air Conditioning,” with prototypes and a monitor.
DesiCool (Mechanical Engineering) is a product that aims to mitigate the effects of humidity, enabling more energy-efficient dehumidification.
Four students pose beside a research poster
The Industrial Engineering and Operations Research team Advisor Assistant created an AI-enabled email advising system that can generate and draft email responses.
A student in a “Senior Design Expo ’26” shirt explains a safety harness worn on a mannequin to an older attendee.
Mechanical Engineering’s LumenFlex is a science-backed wearable device that limits harmful spinal motion contributing to multiple forms of back pain.
A presenter gestures toward a poster titled “TurmerID Wipe” while two attendees listen at a project display.
TumerRID Wipe (Chemical Engineering) is a specialized stain remover that uses an optimized solvent system to remove hard-to-clean stains.
Close-up of hands demonstrating a device with tubing connected to a mannequin head on a tabletop.
Biomedical Engineering’s O2-Matic is an automated, low-cost respiratory ventilation system that reduces the inconsistency of manual ventilators and improves patient outcomes.
A team presents medical-device prototypes and a project poster to an attendee at a crowded expo table.
GJ-Stay (Biomedical Engineering) aims to prevent Gastrojejunostomy tube flipping by providing a new design that anchors the tube in the small intestine.
Five students stand behind a table display for “NiNa,” showing prototypes, a laptop, and a monitor with the tagline “Secure, noninvasive comfort for all.”
NiNa, The Night-Time Nanny (Biomedical Engineering) is a real-time baby monitoring system that checks vital signs and sleep duration of newborn infants.
Two students sit at a table looking at a laptop, with a football in the foreground.
Electrical Engineering’s Smart Football provides measurements on the acceleration, spin RPM, and spirality for immediate feedback for quarterbacks to refine their throws.
Two presenters stand at a “PaceMate” display about wearable EMI awareness for pacemaker safety, speaking with an attendee across the table.
PaceMate (Biomedical Engineering) sought to create a more reliable and convenient way to alert patients with pacemakers on the presence of high Electromagnetic Interference.
A student wearing a “Senior Design Expo ’26” sweatshirt stands next to a poster about a phone-screen crack-filling resin.
Chemical Engineering’s Samir Farraj created ScreenSavior - a solvent that can heal cracks on a phone or tablet screen.
Two students examine and adjust a clear scale model of a suspension bridge on a table at an indoor exhibit.
Civil Engineering’s Baltimore Blueway Bridge aims to redesign and construct the Francis Scott Key Bridge, a truss bridge that collapsed after a cargo ship collided with one of its piers.
A speaker at a podium addresses the crowd onstage, with a large screen behind reading “Senior Design Expo ’26, Columbia Engineering.”
Dean Shih-Fu Chang addresses attendees of the Senior Design Expo.
Five students in “Senior Design Expo ’26” shirts pose behind a table of laptops and electronics, with one holding up a sensor device on a cable.sor device on a cable.
The Electrical Engineering team at CLACS shows off their clip-on live-annotation system, which uses AI to recognize letters as they're written and transcribe them to a companion app.
Four students pose in front of project posters at the expo; one holds a wearable device strapped to their leg.
Mechanical Engineering’s GoPower created a wearable, energy-harvesting device that converts the motion of walking into usable mechanical energy, for long-distance hiking and off-grid travel.
At a demo table, a presenter points to a screen showing circuit-board designs while another student watches and an attendee leans in to look.
Anura (Mechanical Engineering) created noise-canceling headphones with live translation capabilities.
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Many of the projects in this year’s expo integrated AI with custom hardware. The Clinical Handwashing Coach, which tracks handwashing sessions, is being tested at a hospital in Pasadena, California. The team of electrical engineering students designed an AI system to ensure that medical professionals comply with handwashing protocols. Other teams from the department used AI to create noise-canceling headphones with real-time language detection and translation (team ANURA) and a wearable device that inexpensively creates digital transcriptions (CLACS).

A couple of projects tackled wheelchair comfort and mobility autonomy. The Mechanical Engineering team STAR (Self-Transfer with Automated Reversing) Lift made moving in and out of a wheelchair easier for wheelchair users with upper-body mobility, allowing them to transfer themselves to a bed without assistance. Team Wheel-E created a specialized seat cushion for wheelchair users that helps alleviate the painful symptoms of prolonged sitting. 

Urban green infrastructure was the main theme for many projects in the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. The Morningside Park Rehabilitation Project reimagined the local neighborhood park by proposing two new community centers for public use and an upgraded drainage system that can handle heavier rainfall runoff. 

From AI devices to reimagining a neighborhood park, the Class of 2026 proved that the best engineering goes beyond the classroom and makes an impact in the world.

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