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Assistant Professor Maurizio Porfiri’s research lab aims to close the loop between engineering and nature. Porfiri and his team of grad students study how robotic fish and other underwater devices can be used to affect animal behavior. Can they develop a robotic feeding device for the New York Aquarium, for example, that will mimic the natural stimuli that fish in captivity lack? Porfiri also works with Poly’s Assistant Professor Nikhil Gupta to use nanotechnology to create composite materials that are strong enough to deflect blast debris, but light enough to build marine structures and space shuttles. Porfiri recently received the National Science Foundation’s prestigious CAREER award which “supports the early career development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.”