Director

Faculty

Andy is a Research Scientist in the Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics and also the Man Vehicle Laboratory. His current research interests are in the intersection of human-machine and human-automation interaction, human spaceflight, spatial cognition, and fatigue. His current projects are sponsored by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Federal Rail Administration. In 1993, he helped establish Cambridge Basic Research, a basic science research laboratory for the Nissan Motor Company, and was on the research staff developing models of human driver behavior for smart cars. He moved to MIT in 1999. He received a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Post Doctorate Associates

Jamie's current research explores human interaction with automated systems both during long missions with low task loading, and in single pilot-multiple unmanned aerial vehicle control settings. He is modeling complacency and boredom in autonomous vehicle system operators, and studying methods to mitigate negative effects on performance in these domains. Other projects include modeling and designing decision support systems for insertion and extraction missions with multiple unmanned rotorcraft.

Jamie received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA in 2010, where he studied medical monitoring systems and developed "medical econometrics" models for human physiological processes. He also holds a B.S. in Math-Physics from Brown University and a M.S. in Physics from Stanford University.

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Erin is a postdoctoral fellow, supported by a Computing Innovation Fellowship from the National Science Foundation and Computing Research Association. Her main research area is human-computer interaction, specifically next-generation interaction techniques. Her Ph.D. research investigated the use of non-invasive brain sensor data as an implicit, supplemental input stream to interactive systems. She is particularly interested in supporting users dealing with multitasking, interruptions and information overload, as well as understanding users working with autonomous systems.

She received her bachelor’s degree in computer science from Harvard University, and spent several years as a software engineer before completing her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science at Tufts University.

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Research Scientists

Hank received an M.Eng in EECS in 2009 and holds a B.S. in EECS and a B.S. in Management Science from MIT. He spent the last two years working in the high frequency trading industry as a quantitative researcher before returning to academic research. His current research explores human-computer interactions during long duration low task load settings and is looking at various ways to model the work load of human operators.

He enjoys a variety of activities outside of HAL but is most often seen playing pick-up basketball in the Z center at night and out on the driving range practicing his swings when the weather is nicer.

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Farzan holds an SM in Human Systems Engineering from MIT, a MASc in Systems Design Engineering and a BCS in Computer science from University of Waterloo and a BA in Information Technology from York University. He also holds an undergraduate degree in Architecture and a graduate degree in Human-Computer Interaction. Farzan's main research interests are human factors and information visualization in complex sociotechnical systems. His current research focus is on complexity of Human-System Interfaces (HSI) in safety-critical task environments.

Outside HAL, he enjoys traveling; playing and coaching soccer; and live music.

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Doctoral Students

Fei is a PhD student in the Engineering Systems Division at MIT. Fei received her Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering in 2008 and Master’s in Human Factors in 2010 from Tsinghua University in China. She is working on the Human/Automated Planner Interaction for NCW project in the Humans and Automation Lab.

Outside of her studies, Fei enjoys travelling, swimming, Chinese history and wants to learn sailing in MIT.

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Armen is a doctoral degree candidate in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of North Dakota and Master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT. Armen’s research focuses on modeling human interaction with highly automated systems. In the future, the modeling work will be expanded to predict the optimal degree of automation needed for helicopters, airplanes, and other systems.

Outside of work, Armen likes cycling, playing tennis, scuba diving and analyzing growth strategies of Fortune 500 companies.

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Jason (JC) finished his Master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics in Course XVI and is pususing his Ph. D studies as part of the Engineering Systems Division. Jason’s research focuses on the development of decision support and monitoring displays for complex systems. His prior work focused on the development of a collaborative planning systems for aircraft carrier deck operations, which can be expanded to a variety of logistics and planning domains. Jason’s areas of interest for his Ph. D. include the expansion of these systems to perform health and status monitoring on complex process control and planning systems, the development of methodologies to approve and regulate these systems, and the sociotechnical affects of the implementation of such systems on existing organizational structures.

When he's not in the lab, you can expect to find him enjoying sports of all kinds, music, history, and cooking.

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Alex is a doctoral degree candidate in MIT’s department of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. Alex received his SM in Humans in Aerospace from MIT in 2011 and his Bachelor’s in Biological Engineering from the University of Florida in 2007. His research focuses on the application of Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) to monitoring trainees’ behavior during instruction. He has experience in human factors, particularly display design and evaluation.

Outside of his studies, Alex enjoys squash and tennis, as well as supporting the departmental student groups.

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Masters Students

Alina is a Masters of Engineering student in computer science. She graduated
from MIT in 2010 with Bachelor's degrees in math and computer science. Her
research involves designing and testing an interface for efficiently
controlling multiple UAVs using a randomized path planner.

Outside of work, she likes art (particularly drawing and painting), traveling,
skiing, and being outdoors.

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Kim graduated from MIT in June 2010 with a Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering at MIT in 2010 and is now a new Master's student in the Humans and Automation Lab. Her current research involves operator interaction with Micro Air Vehicles in unknown environments and intuitive visualization of LIDAR data.

Outside of the lab, Kim is involved in MEET (MIddle East Education through Technology), and she enjoys playing piano and alto sax, skiing, hiking, and traveling.

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Andrew is a first year grad student at MIT. He received his bachelors degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2006, after which he commissioned as US Air Force officer. For the next four years, he was stationed at Tyndall AFB, Panama City FL, where he served as a developmental engineer at the Air Force Research Labs Airbase Technology Division. There he developed, managed, and tested small tactical UAV and ground robotic systems used for airbase support. In September 2010, Andrew returned to school to pursue his research interests in unmanned aircraft systems and multi-unmanned vehicle mission coordination here at MIT. He is currently working on a multi-vehicle coordination research project in partnership with the MIT Aerospace Controls Laboratory.

Outside of work Andrew loves to fly airplanes, travel the world, run, and cook.

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Kathleen is a fellow in MIT’s System Design and Management Program where she is pursuing a master’s degree in engineering and management. Kathleen received her Bachelor's degree from MIT in 2007 in Aerospace Engineering with Information Technology. She has worked 5 years in the defense industry as a Systems Engineer of Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance Systems. In the lab, Kathleen is working on the development and evaluation of high speed rail scheduling and HUD displays.

Outside of academics, Kathleen serves in the US Air Force Reserves and enjoys yoga.

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Undergraduate Students

Carine is a Bachelor's degree candidate in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Her research in the area of human factors engineering at HAL has focused on designing and testing unmanned micro aerial vehicles exploration and has worked on improving user interfaces.

Outside of classes, Carine enjoys traveling the world, making music, and spending times with friends.

Stephen is a Bachelor's degree candidate in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. At HAL, he works on visualization of unexplored environments through unmanned micro aerial vehicle control and iPhone development.

Outside of classes, Stephen enjoys playing viola in MIT's Emerson Music program, Chamber Music Society, and just hanging out with friends.

Paul is a Bachelor's degree candidate in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His research with HAL focuses on developing the infrastructure for Human-Computer Interaction experiments involving Micro Aerial Vehicles.

Paul also pursues studies in philosophy, while enjoying vocal performance and technical theater as an officer of the MIT Gilbert and Sullivan Players.

Hosea is a Bachelor's degree candidate in MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is currently working on an experiment to test how well machine learning can be used to people's predict workplace performance given their training data.

Apart from classes, Hosea enjoys reading and working with an MIT international development group.

Visiting Students and Co-ops

Robby is a Bachelor's candidate at Northeastern University studying Computer Science and Music Technology. He is a composer of new music and a developer of audio software. His research focuses mainly on Digital Signal Processing and interfacing. He is the founder of Conductive IO, a music technology R&D firm that creates intelligent musical interfaces and applications.

When he is not at work, Robby likes to brew beer, cook, hike, and attend concerts.

Henk Peterse
email: hpeterse "at" mit.edu

Henk is a visiting student from Delft University of Technology where he pursues a MSc degree in Aerospace Engineering. In HAL, Henk is working on the long duration low task load experiment for the control rooms of nuclear power plants. Besides studying,

Henk likes to play soccer and tennis. He also loves travelling, and has visited Australia and New Zealand just before he came to Boston. In the winter he likes to go snowboarding.

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Wouter Van den Broeck
email: wbroeck "at" mit.edu

Wouter is a visiting student from Delft University of Technology. He received his BSc in Aerospace Engineering from Delft last year and is now pursuing a master degree in Aerospace Engineering. After his time in HAL, he will start on his graduation project in the field of Control and Operation. At HAL he will be involved in the testing phase of a new mobile application for utility domains.

When not in the lab, Wouter likes reading, going out with friends and skiing. Of course discovering the Boston area is high on the list as well.

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Affiliated Faculty and Researchers

Staff