Annabel Gomez is a PhD student in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department at MIT. Her research is in robotics, specifically autonomous systems and human-robot collaboration for deep space exploration. Currently, she focuses on autonomous system health management for NASA's proposed Endurance Lunar Rover.
Annabel was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Caltech in 2023. During her time at Caltech, she interned and conducted research at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for three years. Some of the projects she worked on included sampling and caching for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover and force estimations for the Mars InSight Lander robotic arm.
At MIT, she is a department Communications Fellow, where she coaches peers on how to successfully share their research findings through effective technical and public communication. Annabel also serves as an MIT Graduate Community Fellow for the Office of Graduate Education, where she hosts workshops and presentations to help undergraduates prepare for graduate school applications. When not in the lab, Annabel enjoys painting, watching movies, and exploring new cafes around Boston to enjoy a good read.