What is Terrascope?
Terrascope is a learning community where first-year MIT students collaborate to solve complex, real-world problems.
“With each new class of first-year students, Terrascope explores a different global issue – and it’s the students who take command. [We] work in teams to develop solutions, drawing on diverse perspectives, interdisciplinary research, and a supportive Terrascope community” (Terrascope | About, 2025)
This year, Terrascope’s focus is sustainable agriculture and food security in Puerto Rico. Roughly 45 students were part of the class. We take control of our own learning process by self-organizing into teams, deciding on our own how we will meet deadlines, and what problems we will focus on.
For more information about the Terrascope program, visit: The Terrascope Website
Our Mission
This year, Terrascope’s focus is sustainable agriculture and food security in Puerto Rico. After research and deliberation, we drafted this problem statement:
“ Puerto Rico experiences high levels of food insecurity, stemming from repeated natural disasters, a lack of resiliency in the power grid and distribution systems, and insufficient food production on the island due to limited arable land and potential for profitability. Our task is to design a system that will reduce food insecurity and improve long-term resiliency against natural disasters in farms and surrounding infrastructure by reimagining Puerto Rico with a prolific agricultural production network, a stable and consistent way of preserving food, and improved access to food through resilient transportation infrastructure in order to promote self-sufficiency.”
Our task included:
- Breaking this problem down into manageable pieces
- Performing extensive background research on everything from government acts to population statistics to the best way to grow vegetables
- Refining our problem statement
- Organizing ourselves into teams and research groups
- Pulling everything together into a proposal that was both holistic and realistic
Click here to read more about our process.
Our People
Students
Our work, research, proposal, and this website were all group efforts, made possible thanks to the students of Terrascope 2029.
Madison Cardona
Mariam Kazimli
Mary Breckling
Osadebamwen John-Nejoh
Ruby Mykkanen
Sanyambe Sichuma
Serena Zhu
Stacy Chen
Stephanie Fischer
Tan Le
Yanna Tenorio
Victoria Reguyal
Hillary Hernandez-Garcia
Isam Ibrahim
Iman Babiker
Isha Madey
Jacob Yutong Zhao
James Holmes
Jayden Lin
Jojo Placides
John Oggeri
Jennifer Lin
Liam Gault
Luis Macias
Alan Ventura Duran
Amy Kuang
Anniston Pierce
Cassia Colombara
Christian Le
Dakota Cameron
David Sevilla
Demilade Alade
Diego Fernandez
Durgan McBroom
Emily Watson
Gideon Neave
Guillermo Santiago
Undergraduate Teaching Fellows
We would also like to thank our wonderful Undergraduate Teaching Fellows (UTFs), Terrascope members who decided to come back again to help Terrascope 2029 students by reviewing website content, giving us helpful advice, and keeping the class running smoothly.
Jordyn ‘27
Lucy ‘27
Rachel Mohammed ‘27
Celestina Pint ‘27
Graciela ‘27
Haylea Brock ‘27
Angela Lin ‘28
Elsa ‘28
Katie Stabb ‘28
Teaching Staff
Thank you to the MIT faculty instructors of the Terrascope class (12.000), and our Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) for their support and guidance throughout this process.
Ari Epstein
Elise Chambers
Timothy Cronin
Maddie Paoletti (GTA)
Mentors
Finally, thank you to our mentors (Terrascope alumni or affiliates), who gave us advice and feedback on our work throughout the semester. Read about who they are, and what they’re up to here:
References
Terrascope | About. (2025). Mit.edu. https://terrascope.mit.edu/overview/