I am the Boeing Career Development Associate Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Principal Investigator in the MIT Laboratory for Information & Decision Systems (LIDS).

I am the director of the MIT SPARK Lab, where we work at the cutting edge of robotics and autonomous systems research. My goal is to enable human-level perception and world understanding on mobile robotics platforms (drones, self-driving vehicles, ground robots) operating in the real world. Towards this goal, my work involves a combination of rigorous theory and practical implementations. In particular, my research interests include nonlinear estimation and probabilistic inference, numerical and distributed optimization, and geometric computer vision applied to sensing, perception, and decision-making in single and multi-robot systems.

Human-level perception will increase reliability in safety-critical applications of robotics and autonomous vehicles (including self-driving cars and robots for disaster response), and increase efficiency and effectiveness in service robotics and consumer applications (manufacturing, healthcare, domestic robotics, augmented reality).

 

   Learn more about the MIT SPARK Lab

 

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:

I am committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in my research group, in my courses, within the AeroAstro department, at MIT, and within my research communities [inspired by Yisong Yue‘s website]:

  • Diversity: I recognize that diversity, in all its shapes and forms, strengthens us both culturally and intellectually.
  • Equity: I will fight for equal treatment of all people, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or any other attributes that do not define a person’s academic and research potential.
  • Inclusion: I will work to create an inclusive working environment so that everyone feels their voices are heard and their contributions are recognized.

Selected awards and recognitions:

For prospective students interested in SPARK:

  • if you are an undergraduate student at MIT and you want to join SPARK: please consider taking 6.141 / 16.405 (Robotics: Science and Systems), 16.485 (Visual Navigation for Autonomous Vehicles), or UROPing in the group.
  • if you are outside MIT: please consider applying to the MIT graduate program. Due to the large volume of emails, I might not be able to reply to all emails from prospective students.

Other links:

Research Interests

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Certifiable Perception: robust perception algorithms and systems for high-integrity autonomous systems

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High-level Perception: super-human geometric, semantic, and physical scene understanding

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Efficient and Task-driven Perception: lightweight perception for resource-constrained robots