ESP Biography



LISA MAIOCCO, Materials Engineer / MIT alumna/ aspiring Chef




Major: Course 3 Materials Science

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: 1986

Picture of Lisa Maiocco

Brief Biographical Sketch:

- Lisa Maiocco was a student in HSSP while in high school, and got her Bachelors degree from MIT in Materals Science and Engineering, and her masters degree from Dartmouth. She has worked as a metallurgist and engineer in many different companies, including 3D printing of metals. -Lisa started paperfolding polyhedra in high school, and likes math, geometry & polyhedra, crystals & crystallography, statistics, manufacturing, metallurgy, many different types of engineering classes, international travel, hiking, bread baking, and Italian cooking.
-Lisa has made 3 visits to Italy thus far, and her family used to own an Italian restaurant in the North End of Boston.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

E15782: Crystals and Crystallography in Splash 2023 (Nov. 18 - 19, 2023)
Crystals are beautiful and sparkling! Have you ever wondered about their properties? Or wondered how "Lab grown" crystals are made? We will delve into the science of crystals & crystallography. We will look at samples of naturally occurring sapphire crystals found in rocks from a sapphire mine. We’ll also talk about how sapphire is manufactured in industrial factories and look at a sample of man made sapphire.


E15574: Crystals and Crystallography in Spark 2023 (Mar. 18 - 19, 2023)
Crystals are beautiful and sparkling! Have you ever wondered where they come from? Or wondered how "Lab grown" crystals are made? We will delve into the science of crystals & crystallography. We will look at samples of naturally occurring sapphire crystals found by mining. And then we'll talk about how sapphire is manufactured in industry and see a few examples of man-made sapphire.


E14985: It's a materials world! in Spark 2022 (Mar. 12 - 13, 2022)
In this class, we will learn about the fascinating world of materials science and engineering. We talk about the major specialties within materials, such as metallurgy, ceramics, polymers, semiconductors, nanomaterials. We touch on techniques and tools used by materials engineers. And talk about cool stuff and hot stuff!


E14825: Would you like to be an engineer? in Splash 2021 (Nov. 20 - 21, 2021)
In this class, we will talk about engineering as a possible college major and as a career. We talk about the different types of engineers, and what a typical day at work may be like. Engineering classes involve challenging projects and hard work , but the resulting career possibilities can be fantastic! If time allows, I will also talk about my specialty, which is Materials Engineering.


E14461: Metals & Metallurgists & Manufacturing in Spark 2021 (Mar. 13 - 27, 2021)
We'll take a look at metal objects and how they are made, ranging from common items in your home to industrial manufacturing operations for metals. We’ll talk about the properties of metals versus more brittle material such as ceramics, watch how some industrial processes work, and discuss what engineers who work in manufacturing do. If watching glowing, molten red hot metal sounds interesting to you, join us! We’ll also talk about 3D printing of metals, versus more historical ways of making metals by casting and rolling.


M14462: Tessellations of 2D planes & 3D space in Spark 2021 (Mar. 13 - 27, 2021)
Tessellations of 2D and 3D sounds like fun with math and geometry, and it is! But tessellations also relate to beautiful art & the chemistry of crystal structures. In this class we talk about how shapes like squares and triangles can fit together perfectly to cover a plane ( such as squares and hexagons), and talk about 3 dimensional shapes that tessellate 3D space ( such as cubes). Then we will look at repeating shapes in art, including artists like M.C. Escher and talk about repeating shapes in 3D crystals such as table salt, sugar, and industrial materials such as metals and crystals.