Carlos Sandoval Olascoaga

(he/him)

Assistant Professor, Khoury College of Computer Sciences Affiliate Appointment

Carlos Sandoval Olascoaga
  • Artificial intelligence  
  • Data visualization  
  • Human–computer interaction  
  • Software engineering 
  • PhD in Design and Computation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
  • MS in Computation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology  
  • MArch in Architecture, UC Berkeley  
  • BArch in Architecture, National Autonomous University of Mexico 

Carlos Sandoval Olascoaga is an assistant professor in the College of Arts, Media and Design and an affiliate assistant professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University, based in Boston. He directs the Scalable Design Participation Lab. 

Sandoval Olascoaga explores how computing, public service, planning technologies, and design can be employed in architecture and urban planning to allow as many community members as possible to shape their environments. Drawing on the traditions of community design in planning, as well as collaborative computing and participatory AI in research, he crafts frameworks for incorporating user participation in the development of planning technologies. Considering how much urbanization is set to take place in the coming decades, Sandoval Olascoaga partners with a growing number of local and federal governments, local nonprofits, and open-source software initiatives to implement their tools and promote the design of cities that reflect their inhabitants’ needs and desires.  

Before joining Northeastern University in 2023, Sandoval Olascoaga held a variety of teaching and research positions at MIT and UC Berkeley, and received the Norman B. Leventhal City Prize. He was drawn to Khoury College by the school’s interdisciplinary nature and enjoys working with his strong faculty peers and talented students. 

In his free time, Sandoval Olascoaga is an avid rock and ice climber, with his adventures taking him everywhere from Alaska and Patagonia to Yosemite National Park’s infamous El Capitan. Along the way, he has made first ascents of several unclimbed walls around the world.