Justin Solomon, associate professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), has been appointed associate dean of engineering education in the MIT School of Engineering, effective July 1.
In this new role, Solomon will focus on driving innovation in engineering education across the school. He will help shape new educational approaches in the context of an AI-enabled world and explore experiential, practical and other ways of learning. Working closely with academic departments, Solomon will serve as a thought partner in integrating AI into the curriculum and help facilitate interdisciplinary and shared learning opportunities across departments and other schools. He will also play a key role in helping the school implement the relevant recommendations of the committee on the use of AI in teaching, learning and research training.
Solomon will explore opportunities to create industry collaborations, including new models for internships and industry-related learning on campus. Collaborating with department heads and the School of Engineering leadership team, he will also support faculty in designing new curricula and developing existing programs to meet emerging opportunities in engineering.
“Justin’s interdisciplinary approach will be especially valuable as we continue to evolve engineering education to meet new opportunities and challenges. His extensive experience applying AI in a variety of fields will help each academic department thoughtfully integrate AI and new educational models into their curriculum,” says Paula T. Hammond, dean of the School of Engineering and Institute Professor. “I look forward to the vision and perspective he will bring to the school’s leadership team.”
A dedicated teacher, Solomon has played a central role in shaping computing education at MIT. He is a key contributor to Common Ground for Computing, where he co-teachs the core class 6.C01 (Modeling with Machine Learning: From Algorithms to Applications) with Regina Barzilay, Delta Electronics Professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Affiliate Faculty Member in the Institute of Medical Engineering and Science. Within EECS, he teaches 6.7350 (Numerical Algorithms for Computing and Machine Learning) as well as 6.8410 (Shape Analysis). He is also the founder of the Summer Geometry Initiative, a six-week program that introduces students to geometry processing through intensive training, collaboration, and research experiences.
Solomon’s dedication to teaching and helping students has been recognized with various awards, including the EECS Outstanding Teacher Award and the Burgess (1952) and Elizabeth Jamieson Awards for Excellence in Teaching. He is the author of “Numerical Algorithms”, a textbook that presents a modern approach to numerical analysis for computer science students.
Solomon is a principal investigator at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), where he leads the Geometric Data Processing Group. His research sits at the intersection of geometry and computation with applications spanning computer graphics, autonomous navigation, political redistricting, physical simulation, 3D modeling, and medical imaging. He is also a core faculty member of the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, contributing to research that advances the foundations and applications of artificial intelligence.
His scholarly contributions have been recognized with numerous distinctions, including the 2023 Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award for exceptional contributions to teaching, research, and service. In 2025, he was named Schmidt Polymath, supporting interdisciplinary research in areas such as acoustics and climate that rely on large-scale simulations of physical systems.
Solomon joined the MIT faculty in 2016. He previously received an NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Princeton University’s Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics. He earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Stanford University. While studying at Stanford, he also worked as a research assistant at Pixar Animation Studios.
