Current Research

Aeronautics & Astronautics: Course 16

The Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) has a wide range of research programs offering opportunities for undergraduate student participation. UROP openings in AeroAstro are available to Course 16 students as well as other majors and freshmen. A student interested in particular areas should contact faculty members conducting research in those areas. See the AeroAstro UROP Directory below. Students desiring more information about ongoing projects or specific UROP openings in AeroAstro can contact Marie Stuppard, mas@mit.edu.

The UROP Office (http://web.mit.edu/urop/students/index.html) provides guidelines on UROP proposal content and format; research collaboration; lab safety; ethical expectations; assessment of the UROP experience; patents and copyrights; etc. Eligibility criteria; proposal deadlines; and travel guidelines are also covered at http://web.mit.edu/urop/basicinfo/.

To do a UROP for pay, a student submits a proposal for direct UROP or research-sponsored funding. Students must keep track of time spent on their project and submit time sheets on a weekly basis.
To do a UROP for credit; a student submits a proposal and registers in either 16.URG (letter grade) or 16.UR (Pass/Fail). (A Course 16 student doing a UROP for credit outside of the department registers for a UROP number in that department, e.g. 2.URG, 6.UR, 8.UR.) Students seeking a UROP should discuss the aforementioned options with their potential UROP supervisor and submit their proposal by the appropriate UROP deadline.

Safety

Students must meet Institute and departmental safety training requirements before beginning a UROP. They are also advised to discuss immediate safety-related concerns with their lab supervisor or lab safety coordinator. For more information on safety requirements, visit http://ehs.mit.edu/site/ and http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/about/health-safety.html.

Some Related Areas for UROPs

Aerospace Computational Design Lab, Aerospace Controls Lab, Communications and Networking Research Group, Complex Systems Research Lab, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Gas Turbine Lab, Humans and Automation Lab, International Center for Air Transportation, Lab for Information and Decision Systems, Lean Advancement Initiative, Man Vehicle Lab, Mars Gravity Biosatellite, Partnership for AiR Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction, Space Grant Consortium, Space Propulsion Lab, Space Systems Laboratory, Technology Lab for Advanced Materials and Structures, and the Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel.

Faculty Research Descriptions

Below is a directory of Aero-Astro UROP supervisors and their research areas. These listings are subject to change.

Prof. Hamsa Balakrishnan, 33-328, x3-6101, hamsa@mit.edu

Air traffic control; traffic flow management; airport operations scheduling; hybrid systems.

Prof. Prof. Steven R.H. Barrett, Room 33-406, 2-2550, sbarrett@mit.edu (On Leave, Fall)

Aviation and ground transportation climate and air quality impacts; geoengineering; low-emissions propulsion; contaminant dispersion.

Dr. Peter Belobaba, 33-318, x 3-7573, belobaba@mit.edu

Air transportation economics and operations analysis; airline pricing and revenue management; application of quantitative decision methods to aerospace management; airline and aerospace industry analysis.

Dr. Kim B. Blair, 17-110, (781) 266-6375, blairk@mit.edu

Sports engineering; sports product development; biomechanics of sports; aerodynamics of athletes and sports equipment development.

Kerri Cahoy; 37-371; 3-5199; kcahoy@mit.edu

Planetary atmospheres; Exoplanet atmospheres with optical direct imaging instruments (coronagraphs) onboard spacecraft; solar system planets with spacecraft radio occultation; earth with GNSS radio occultation.

Prof. Edward F. Crawley, 33-413, x3-7510, crawley@mit.edu

System architecture; spacecraft design; structural dynamics; aeroelasticity; controlled structures. 

Prof. Mary (Missy) L. Cummings, 33-305, x2-1512, missyc@mit.edu, (On Leave, Fall/Spring)

Human Supervisory control; human-unmanned vehicle interaction; bounded collaborative human-computer decision making; decision support; information complexity in displays; ethical and social impact of technology.

Prof. David Darmofal, 33-207, x8-0743, darmofal@mit.edu

Computational fluid dynamics, numerical analysis, probabilistic aerothermal design, and engineering education

Prof. Olivier L. De Weck 33-410, x3-0255, deweck@mit.edu,

Systems engineering for changeability and commonality; space exploration logistics.

Prof. Mark Drela, 37-475, x3-0067, drela@mit.edu

Boundary layers; computational fluid dynamics transonic aerodynamics; low-speed aerodynamics; design methodology.

Prof. Emilio Frazzoli, 33-326, x3-1991, frazzoli@mit.edu, (On Leave, Fall)

Automatic control; autonomous vehicles (including UAVs, spacecraft, ground vehicles);
coordination of large-scale robotic networks; air traffic control; software design and verification for aerospace embedded systems.

Prof. Edward M. Greitzer, 31-226, x3-2128, greitzer@mit.edu

Gas turbine engines; turbomachinery; silent aircraft initiative; robust turbine engine design; propulsion; active control of aeromechanical systems.

 

Prof. Steven R. Hall, 33-313; x 3-0869, srhall@mit.edu

Automatic control, control of helicopters, control of structures.

Dr. Robert Haimes, 37-467, x 3-7518, haimes@mit.edu

Applied computational geometry, computational fluid dynamics, scientific visualization, high-performance computing, simulation based design methods.

Prof. R. John Hansman, 33-303, x3-2271, rjhans@mit.edu

Aviation safety, aircraft/atmospheric interaction, cockpit human factors and information management, air traffic control, airline operations, instrumentation

Prof. Wesley L. Harris, 4-250, x3-0911, weslhar@mit.edu

Unsteady aerodynamics, aeroacoustics, computational fluid dynamics, bio-medical fluid dynamics (hemodynamics), sustainment, logistics, government acquisition policy.

Prof. Daniel E. Hastings, 7-133, x3-0906, hastings@mit.edu

Plasma physics, spacecraft-environmental interactions, power generation in space, space systems, space policy.

Dr. James I. Hileman, 31-214, hileman@mit.edu

Alternative fuels, aircraft design, aeroacoutics, environmental effects

Prof. Jeffrey A. Hoffman, 37-227; x 2-2353, jhoffma1@mit.edu

Space flight operations, extravehicular activity, space systems architecture.

Prof. Jonathan P. How, 33-328, x3-3267, jhow@mit.edu

Navigation and control: GPS sensing for navigation and control of formation flying spacecraft; experimental and theoretical robust control; activity coordination and trajectory optimization of multiple UAVs.

Prof. Paul A. Lagace, 33-310, x3-3628, pal@mit.edu

Composite materials, fracture and fatigue (longevity), damage tolerance, manufacturing technology, system engineering, management issues.

Prof. Nancy G. Leveson, 33-334, x8-0505, leveson@mit.edu

Software engineering, safety of software controlled systems, system engineering, system safety engineering, human computer interaction

Prof. Paulo C. Lozano, 37-401, x 8-0742, plozano@mit.edu

Electric propulsion, rocket propulsion, space mission design.

Prof. Manuel Martinez-Sanchez, 37-341, x3-5613, mmart@mit.edu

Rocket propulsion, space power, space tethers, dynamics of turbomachinery.

Prof. Youssef M. Marzouk, Room 33-305, ymarz@mit.edu

Energy conversion and propulsion, chemically reacting flows, transport processes, fluid mixing, vortex dynamics, chemical kinetics. Computational mathematics. Uncertainty quantification, data assimilation, inverse problems, Bayesian inference.

Dr. Rebecca Masterson, 37-387; x4-5328; becki@mit.edu

Precision telescope structures; integrated modeling and jitter analysis; space-based robotic assembly

Dr. David W. Miller, 37-327, x3-3288, millerd@mit.edu

Distributed satellite systems, precision telescope structures, formation flying satellites.

Prof. David Mindell, E51-185F, 3-0221, mindell@mit.edu (On Leave, Fall/Spring)

Human-machine interaction; deep ocean robotics; archaeology in the deep ocean; history of aviation and spaceflight; social implications of engineering.

Prof. Eytan H Modiano, 33-326, x2-3414, modiano@mit.edu

Communication networks and protocols, satellite and hybrid networks, high-speed networks.

Prof. Dava J. Newman, 33-307, x8-8799, dnewman@mit.edu

Aerospace biomedical engineering: biomechanics and energetics, control, and dynamics; astrocaut adaptation; advanced spacesuit design; human factors; engineering systems and design; space policy

Prof. Deborah J. Nightingale, E38-670, 3-7339, dnight@mit.edu

Lean enterprise integration; enterprise transformation and architecting; systems sngineering

Prof. Amedeo R. Odoni, 33-219, x3-7439, odoni@mit.edu

Airport planning and design, air traffic control, applied probability theory, operations research, transportation systems analysis

Dr. Charles M. Oman, 37-211, x3-7508, cmo@space.mit.edu

Aerospace physiology and human factors, human planetary exploration mission design, cockpit displays and flight simulation, human orientation and navigation in real and virtual environments.

Prof. Jaime Peraire, 37-451, x3-1981, peraire@mit.edu

Aerodynamics, computational fluid mechanics, numerical analysis, parallel computing.

Prof. Raul A. Radovitzky, 33-316, x2-1518, rapa@mit.edu

Computational solid mechanics and fluid-structure interaction; mechanics of materials; multi-scale modeling and simulation, high-performance and massively parallel computing.

Prof. Nicholas Roy, 33-315, x 3-2517, nickroy@mit.edu

Mobile robotics, autonomous systems, human-computer interaction, decision-making under uncertainty and machine learning.

Dr. Alvar Saenz-Otero, 37-381, x4-6827, alvarso@mit.edu

Formation flight systems: SPHERES Project. Avionics and testbed environment design and operations.

Prof. Julie Shah, 33-408, 4-4879, julie_a_shah@csail.mit.edu

Autonomous systems; human-robot collaboration; AI planning and scheduling; interactive robotics for aerospace, medical, and manufacturing.

Prof. Zoltan S. Spakovszky, 31-265, x 3-2196, zolti@mit.edu (On Leave, Spring)

Turbomachinery, propulsion systems and control, aeroengine dynamic system modeling, silent aircraft initiative.

Dr. Choon S. Tan , 31-267, x3-7524, choon@mit.edu

Unsteady and three-dimensional internal flow in turbomachinery and propulsive devices, propulsion systems, computational techniques.

Prof. Ian A. Waitz, 33-207, x3-0218, iaw@mit.edu

Propulsion, fluid mechanics, combustion, aeroacoustics, environmental effects, microengines.

Prof. Qiqi Wang, 37-447; x3-0921; qiqi@mit.edu

Aerodynamics; control and optimization; uncertainty quantification; numerical analysis.

Prof. Brian L. Wardle, 33-314, x2-1539, wardle@mit.edu

Advanced composite materials and systems; microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) materials and structures; MEMS power devices and energy harvesting; nano composites; structural health monitoring (SHM); active materials modeling and design, fracture, fatigue and damage mechanics; durability modeling/testing; finite-element modeling; structural response and testing; buckling mechanics; project design and management; business strategy and growth; cost modeling.

Prof. Annalisa L. Weigel, 33-404, x3-1207,alweigel@mit.edu

Complex systems architecture and design, space systems, systems engineering, air and space policy, finance and markets

Prof. Sheila E. Widnall, 33-411, 3-3595, sheila@mit.edu

Fluid dynamics; space and aeronautical systems; acquisition reform; defense aerospace management.

Prof. Karen E. Willcox, 37-447, x3-3503, kwillcox@mit.edu

Model reduction, multidisciplinary design optimization, environmental and economic impacts of aviation, computational fluid dynamics.

Prof. Brian Williams, 33-330, x3-1678, williams@mit.edu

Space and aerial robotics; cognitive robotics; automated reasoning and artificial intelligence; automation for operations and design; hybrid control systems; robot coordination; energy management.

Prof. Moe Win, 32-D658, 3-9341, moewin@mit.edu

Wireless communications; optical communications; space communications systems.

Prof. Laurence R. Young, 37-207, x3-7759, lry@mit.edu

Human factors, bioastronautics, ski safety.