Ila Kumar: Tickling Creative Bones within Communities for Innovative Breakthroughs

“Ila Kumar: Innovating with communities”

“Senior Ila Kumar has been taking the initiative to innovative with communities, whether by organizing a hackathon to address high school education or by researching ways to coordinate drone traffic in her role at the MIT Media Lab.”

Oh, Ila. Do you ever take a break? With a flair for innovation akin to Steve Jobs deciding one button was enough for a smartphone, Kumar has really been flexing her creativity muscles. First, pulling a hackathon out of her bag of tricks to tackle the Goliath that is high school education – no biggie, right? Then, just casually managing drone traffic over at the MIT Media Lab like she’s controlling real-life Quidditch matches.

“The way she’s approached [it] is very MIT: She’s recognized a problem, figured out innovative ways to solve that problem, and has the tech chops to make a real impact,” says Sarah Kleinman, who advised Kumar in the Scheller Teacher Education Program.

Very MIT, indeed! Because why take the beaten path when you can strap on a jetpack and fly to your destination? Not only does Kumar have the eye of an eagle spotting problems, but she also possesses the brain of an engineer constantly churning out bright solutions and the skills to actually make them a reality.

Regarding the drone traffic issue, she explains: “The goal of the system is to prevent drones from crashing into each other, other aircraft, or anything else.”

Well, when put like that, it sounds simple. But between the couch and here, our experience managing drone traffic is limited to not stepping on kid’s toys. So, we can all picture how complex this system could be. But trust Kumar to reduce it to a one-liner.

Christopher Peterson, a senior in mechanical engineering and Kumar’s colleague at the MIT Media Lab, said, “Ila is relentlessly pragmatic and productive. She consistently brings a fresh perspective and pushes the team to consider angles we might not have otherwise.”

Couch potatoes, let’s bemoan together. In roll call of pragmatic and productive people, we might be still hunting for a parking spot while Ila has already clocked in, delivered a presentation, and is onto her third cup of joe.

So, whether it’s transforming education or innovating with drones, here’s an honest cheers to Ila Kumar. We’re all just trying to keep up.

Read the original article here: https://news.mit.edu/2026/ila-kumar-innovates-with-communities-0901