Director

Research Scientists

Lee Spence received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1966, and M.S. and Ph.D degrees, again in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967 and 1969 respectively. Following graduate school he spent two years at the Institute for Defense Analysis. Since 1971 he has been at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory where his primary efforts have been in the application and exploitation of radars in problems in the areas of space surveillance and ballistic missile defense. His current research interests include investigating the roles for human operators in complex systems and in developing displays and decision aids to support them.

Visiting Professors

Heecheon You received his B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Seoul
National University in 1988 and 1990, respectively, and his Ph.D. in IE from
the Pennsylvania State University. He won the Alphonse Best Student Paper
Award at the 43rd Human Factors & Ergonomics Society conference for his
research on the development of risk assessment models for carpal tunnel
syndrome.

His research interests include ergonomic product design, digital human
simulation, and work-related musculoskeletal disorder prevention. He has
conducted ergonomic design projects for various products including bus
driver's workstation, helicopter cockpit, vacuum cleaner, refrigerator,
flame-protective clothing, and flight suites. He has also studied on
developing novel ergonomic design techniques by using digital human models,
motion data, and 3D anthropometric data. He is currently pursuing an
expansion of his research arena to smart product interface design during his
sabbatical at MIT.

Post Doctorate Associates

Luca is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Humans and Automation Lab. He obtained his BS in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at Purdue University in 2002, his MS and PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT in 2004 and 2008 respectively.

His PhD thesis addressed robustness to modeling errors in Markov Decision Processes with applications to UAV systems, His thesis presented a new sampling method for solving robust MDPs for real-time implementation, and extended this method for online adaptation. The thesis also demonstrated the importance of an integrated robust and adaptive architecture in persistent surveillance-like missions that could be modeled as MDPs.

His work in HAL involves modeling visual search in UAV missions while accounting for operator workload. His interests are in robust planning, real-time adaptation and control, integrated human-unmanned systems, and distributed decision-making.

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Birsen Donmez is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Humans and Automation Laboratory. She has a PhD (2007), and MS (2004) in Industrial Engineering, and an MS (2007) in Statistical and Actuarial Sciences, from the University of Iowa. She received her BS in Mechanical Engineering from Bogazici University, Turkey.

Birsen’s research interests are centered on understanding and improving human behavior and performance in multi-task, complex situations, using a wide range of statistical techniques. Her dissertation research examined ways to design in-vehicle systems that enhance driver performance, behavior, productivity, and satisfaction. For her dissertation, she developed a framework of different feedback timings, which focused on inducing a positive behavioral change in addition to improving immediate driving performance.

Birsen’s current research focuses on supporting unmanned vehicle operations, and defining metrics to evaluate performance in supervisory control.

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Doctoral Students

Mr. Bruni holds a S.M. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT and a Diplôme d’Ingénieur from the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité (Supélec, France). He is a doctoral candidate in Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT’s Humans and Automation Laboratory. While at MIT, he managed the Mobile Advanced Command and Control Station (MACCS) project under funding from the Office of Naval Research.MACCS is a commercial vehicle outfitted with a fully autonomous replica of a US Navy multi-modal workstation. MACCS is used as a mobile experimental testbed, which allows researchers to travel with their equipment where subject-matter experts and military personnel are located, with minimal schedule disruption and at a fraction of typical experimental costs.

Currently he is employed as a Human Systems Engineer at Aptima, Inc., where he provides expertise in human-automation interaction, interface design, and the statistical design of experiments. His research targets the design of computer-supported interactive training systems and the conceptualization of human-automation collaboration interfaces for multi-vehicle command and control.

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Farzan recieved his MASc in System Design Engineering and his BCS in Computer science from University of Waterloo, Canada and his BA in Information Technology from York University, Canada. He also holds a BA in Architecture, Restoration of ancient sites. He's also an MSc candidate in Human Computer Interaction at Lund University, Sweden. Farzan's research interests include Human-Computer Interaction and Information Visualization. His current research focus is on Interruption Recovery in safety-critical task environments.

Outside HAL, he enjoys watching, playing and coaching soccer. He plays electric guitar and can't say no to rock concerts.

Masters Students

Ryan Castonia is a B.S/S.M degree candidate in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Ryan is an Air Force ROTC cadet and will commission in the Air Force after graduating in June of 2010. His research consists of developing decision support for team supervisors in human supervisory control settings.

Outside of classes and research, Ryan enjoys playing tennis, snowboarding, building planes, and various other sports/activities.

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Christin Hart is a Master’s degree candidate in Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. Christin graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in Astronautical Engineering and became commissioned as an Air Force officer in May 2008. Her research in human factors engineering focuses on evaluating multi-UAV interfaces. After completing her graduate work, Christin will attend the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program at Sheppard Air Force Base. Christin enjoys dancing, tumbling, travelling, hanging out with friends, and being a cosmetic consultant.

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Armen is a Master’s degree candidate in the Deparment of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. He graduated from University of North Dakota in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and minors in Math and Physics. His current research focuses on modeling human-UAV interaction in low workload conditions.

Outside of work, Armen likes cycling, working out, playing tennis, analyzing the stock market, and reading historical books.

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David Pitman is a Master's degree candidate in MIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department. He graduated in 2006 from MIT with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. David's research interests include Human-Computer Interaction and Information Visualization. His current research focus is on human interaction with path planning algorithms.

Outside of the lab, David enjoys any outdoor sport and traveling to foreign countries.

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Jason is currently a graduate student in MIT's department of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. He joined the lab through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program as a Junior in MIT's undergraduate Course XVI program. His current research focuses primarily on Algorithm vs. Human performance in track smoothing experiments as related to radar data collected in space.

Outside of work, Jason is on the MIT's Varsity Lacrosse Team and a member of the USAF ROTC program. After completing his graduate requirements, Jason will be attending flight school.

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Jason is a new Master’s student in Aero-Astro, having graduated with his Bachelor’s of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Alabama in 2007. After spending two years working for a small engineering R&D firm that specialized in UAV research, Jason made the return trip back to graduate school to earn his higher degrees. Jason’s research current involves decision support tools for environments involving the close interaction of manned and unmanned vehicles. Outside of work and school, you can find Jason enjoying football, music, literature, history, and cooking.

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Jackie Tappan is a Master’s degree candidate in the Engineering Systems Division at MIT. Jackie graduated from the University of Waterloo in April 2008 with a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Systems Design Engineering. Her research in the area of human factors engineering at HAL focuses on the development of supervisory displays in complex work domains.

Outside of her studies, Jackie enjoys snowboarding, tap dancing, running, and baking. While attending MIT, she also hopes to pursue her growing interest in photography.

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Undergraduate Students

Javier is a Bachelor's degree candidate in MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.During his time at HAL, he has worked on evaluating Unmanned Vehicle displays, and human-computer Collaborative Decision-Making. Currently, he works on Interruption Recovery during Human-Supervisory missions.

Outside of MIT and HAL, he enjoys traveling, camping, snowboarding, and almost any other sport.

Visiting Students

Ian is a PhD student in the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory,
UK, and is working as a visiting student in the MIT Humans and
Automation Lab for the summer of 2009. He received his BA in Computer
Science from Cambridge University in 2007, and worked as a research
assistant in the Computer Laboratory for a year before starting his PhD.
His research interests lie in the area of Human-Computer Interaction,
focusing on the use of Affective Computing techniques for cognitive
workload measurement in Command and Control environments.

Outside of work, Ian is training as a glider pilot as well as being a
keen musician and ballroom dancer.

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Thomas Villaren is a French visiting student at MIT Humans &
Automation Lab. He is a Master's Degree candidate in Human-Computer
Interaction at TELECOM Bretagne (formerly École Nationale des
Télécommunications de Bretagne) and obtained a M. Eng. in Computer
Science and Information Technology from TELECOM Bretagne in April
2009.

His research interests include user interface design and
human-computer interaction. His current research focuses on interface
design, context switching and task transition and recovery.

Outside of work, Thomas' interests lie principally in new technology,
in particular web-oriented technologies (he used to work as a web
software engineer). He also enjoys biking, hiking and eating Nutella®
(on crêpes, of course).

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Affiliated Faculty and Researchers

Staff