Climate scientist Sai Ravela is using games to help coastal communities find creative adaptations to climate change.
Climate scientist Sai Ravela is using games to help coastal communities find creative adaptations to climate change.
Sai Ravela, principal research scientist in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), works with a team of researchers, local partners, and community collaborators to develop game-based computer models to help local communities find solutions to their unique geographical and environmental challenges.
Ravela came to MIT as a postdoc in 2002. Prior to that, he had been working on robotics and computer vision, but he was excited by the idea of studying the climate system and wanted to work in the field of sustainability. “Suddenly, overnight, I became a climate person,” Ravela says.
His project, funded by a 2025 Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) India Grant, explores how agricultural decision-making occurs under climate stress. Using localized climate projections and a participatory approach, the project aims to help communities discover ways to improve their collective agricultural resilience.
Read More: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Image: Left to right: Researchers Anamitra Saha and Sai Ravela of the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, and Jayanta Basu of the University of Calcutta design the board for a "snakes and ladders" game. The game is the first step in encouraging community members to use an app-based simulation that suggests solutions to their unique geographical and environmental challenges.
Credits: Photo courtesy of the Ravela research team.
