(Liam Ackerman ’21)
Course 6-2 Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
“I always knew I wanted to be an engineer,” says Liam Ackerman ’21. “I never stopped talking about how technical solutions could solve problems.”
After his father suffered an injury that significantly reduced the family’s financial resources, the Ashar Aziz Mens et Manus Scholarship made it possible for Ackerman to pursue his dreams at MIT. “As a low-income student, I’ve been uniquely lucky,” he says.
A varsity pole vaulter, Ackerman honed his leadership skills as captain of MIT’s track team. His time as an athlete and inspiration from his father’s impressive recovery from two hip replacements led him to research human mobility, and he joined the MIT Media Lab’s Biomechatronics group through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. Passionate about health care equity, Ackerman used his technological expertise to build a predictive model that uses socioeconomic data to identify areas most in need of mobile health clinics.
Ackerman says he is grateful to have completed his undergraduate years without student loans, and he will return to MIT to pursue his master’s degree in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His goal? “I can use what I learned at MIT to make the world a better place.”
Meet more MIT scholarship recipients.
—Christine Thielman
This article was originally published in August 2021.
