There’s a lot going on at MIT right now.
It’s back-to-school time, to be sure, and the undergrads (and everybody else) are sharpening their pencils. But we also continue to focus heavily on the types of design research that move the AI revolution forward.
Case in point: a more intuitive control for excavators, designed by MIT’s Hermano Krebs, that can help make the learning process more efficient for operators. Krebs is a research scientist at MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.
The mechanical arm of this system imitates the mental mapping that operators have learned through traditional practice, and changes the ways that the human approaches the job.
“‘World-space’ refers to everything in the world that is outside of yourself, or in this case, outside of the excavator’s cab,” Krebs explained, in coverage by Jennifer Chu at MIT Review, explaining that mental mapping. “Normally, operators have to build a mental map of how to manipulate things in the world-space. But now, we can just mime picking up rocks or dirt, and the computer will do that translation to the world-space for us.”
Chu notes that these systems can be very useful for companies like Caterpillar, Hyundai, and Komatsua and that the team is looking to add various types of haptics to make this solution even more sophisticated.
This type of design work is going on in many industries, as people explore what is now possible with AI. I wanted to mention a new book by Amos Winter and Vijay Govindarajan, on design principles, that’s also instructive in moving the ball forward. Look for that soon.
Work on Geospatial Systems
I also wanted to mention the award of the Appleton Prize to Anthea Coster and her work at the MIT Haystack Observatory, on ionospheric research, partly because it highlights some of the great things that our people do at the MIT Lincoln Lab, where Coster started out in 1984, and at Haystack, and elsewhere across campus.
As mentioned, Coster is a long-timer, and has contributed substantially to geospatial scientific efforts. She has a long list of credentials and project credits, and rose through the ranks while working on GNSS and ionospheric systems.
“Anthea Coster has made seminal contributions to the state of the profession, enabling the international science community to conduct ionospheric research at spatio-temporal scales that were previously unachievable,” said Larisa Goncharenko, Haystack assistant director. “Her pioneering work on introducing and relating GPS measurements to fundamental research has led the community to employ GNSS as an information-rich sensor for ionospheric remote sensing and space weather monitoring. Her effort enabled countless discoveries in the near-Earth space environment that has become increasingly important for human activities in space. I am truly in awe of Anthea’s pioneering accomplishments, and incredibly proud of her receiving the Appleton Prize.”
We’re proud, too.
Programs for the Future
There’s also a new agentic AI course at the MIT CSAIL lab, run by my friend and colleague Daniela Rus.
This program has a lot of promise for those new grads who are going to have to enter a very competitive business world. Students will learn the basics of genAI and other LLM-based systems, and how to assess them according to criteria like strategic fit, capabilities, business value, and, importantly, risk. They’ll learn the compliance side, too, with components aimed at considering GDPR, HIPAA or other privacy and security requirements. It’s a comprehensive look at how to tackle AI in the new age. Graduates will get an MIT Professional Education Certificate and Continuing Education Units (CEUs), if applicable.
All of this exciting news helps to demonstrate how much is going on here at MIT, as summer winds down. Keep an eye out as the AI revolution speeds forth.
