As a PhD student at MIT, Dr. Mariana Matus started wastewater epidemiology research, so she could apply her technical skills to improve public health. With the support of Professors Eric Alm and Carlo Ratti, her research grew into the MIT Underworlds Project. Newsha Ghaeli, an architect and cities researcher, joined the work with an interest in how new technologies can improve cities and urban life. Their collaboration resulted in several scientific publications, coverage by dozens of local and national media outlets, and Dr. Matus’ PhD dissertation in Computational Biology.