Lincoln Laboratory/MIT Campus Interactions

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lincoln Laboratory's status as a research and development center of MIT promotes research collaborations, knowledge exchange, and staff development. The MIT Office of the Provost and the Laboratory Director's Office strongly support the Campus Interaction Committee.

As a large interdisciplinary system laboratory, Lincoln Laboratory is able to offer a breadth of expertise to campus researchers, both faculty and students. The Laboratory's ability to architect and build sensors that enable significant campus science research is well established. The synergy between the campus focus on basic research and the Laboratory knowledge of defense applications has benefited both communities.

Collaborative studies and research and development are under way in the following areas:

  • Convex optimization of integrated communications systems
  • Air traffic management with weather-induced capacity constraint
  • Magneto-optical materials for integrated optical isolators
  • Multispectral infrared detector arrays using amorphous semiconductors
  • Blind calibration algorithms for a digitally enhanced high-speed analog-to-digital converter architecture
  • Nanotube dispersions in polymer matrices

Collaborative Initiatives

Advanced Concepts Committee

The Lincoln Laboratory Advanced Concepts Committee (ACC) supports the development of innovative concepts that address important technical problems of national interest. Collaborative efforts between Lincoln Laboratory and the MIT campus are encouraged. The ACC provides seed funding, as well as technical and programmatic support, to investigators with new technology ideas. These ideas are typically high risk, but offer the potential to significantly impact national needs by enabling new systems or improving existing capabilities. Projects are scoped to demonstrate concept feasibility and typically last 9 to 12 months.

Photo of organic-based solar cellUnder ACC funding, an organic-based solar cell with a lithographically defined interface was designed to demonstrate a 3D device geometry that enables 2 to 3 times the efficiency over planar geometry.

Recent ACC initiatives include research on technologies for imaging geosynchronous satellites and the development of biodefense technologies, such as an aerosol generator for use in standoff biodetection systems and techniques for identifying individuals who have handled explosives.

The ACC sponsors a Defense Studies Seminar Series that includes speakers associated with the MIT Security Studies Program. The 2008 seminars included the following:

  • "American Grand Strategy for the New Era," Professor Stephan Van Evera of the MIT Security Studies Program
  • "A Nuclear Capable Iran: Containment or Preventive War," Professor Barry R. Posen, Director of the MIT Security Studies Program
  • "Democratization and the Future of U.S.–China Relations,"
    Assistant Professor Jennifer M. Lind, Dartmouth College

Lincoln Laboratory/MIT Campus Technical Seminar Series

Lincoln Laboratory and MIT have broadened their collaborative initiatives through two important seminar series. These well-attended seminars have spawned a range of research collaborations, resulting in new technical concepts and funded programs.

Under this Technical Seminar Series, scientists from Lincoln Laboratory and MIT give guest lectures on their institutions' current research.In his on-campus seminar, Dr. Barry Burke of the Advanced Imaging Technology Group spoke of supplying charge-coupled devices like this one during a 20-year collaboration with the X-ray astronomy group at MIT's Kavli Institute.

The Spring Technical Seminar Series at Lincoln Laboratory provides Laboratory staff the opportunity to engage with leading-edge research from the MIT campus. The Laboratory has hosted an overview of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, an overview of the EECS Department, and seminars on topics in brain and cognitive sciences. This series also included talks from the Center for Collective Intelligence, the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology, and the MIT Energy Research Council.

A reciprocal Fall Seminar Series on campus provides a forum to extend the Laboratory’s intellectual footprint on campus. This past fall, nine talks provided students and faculty an opportunity to hear about ongoing and emerging work at Lincoln Laboratory.

Integrated Photonics Initiative

Jade Wang, under the Integrated Photonics Initiative, is working with the Laboratory's Optical Communications Group to investigate ultrafast all-optical switches.As an MIT graduate student participating in the Integrated Photonics Initiative, Jade Wang worked with the Laboratory's Optical Communications Group to investigate ultrafast all-optical switches. She is now a member of the technical staff in that group.

A unique collaboration between Lincoln Laboratory and the MIT campus is the Integrated Photonics Initiative (IPI), a multiyear, Laboratory-funded effort that enhances the research experience for PhD candidates working on integrated photonics devices and subsystems for potential insertion into advanced communications systems. The program also gives students a broader awareness of the DoD's communications mission and needs. The Laboratory's specialized facilities and expertise in applied research add another dimension to the students' thesis development. Monthly IPI status meetings rotating between the Laboratory and the campus foster interaction between the students, Laboratory staff, and campus faculty.


During the past year, IPI students focused on topics including fabrication and test of integrated ultrafast all-optical switches, development of hybrid optoelectronic integrated circuits, characterization of the noise and dynamic properties of high-power semiconductor optical amplifiers, investigation of materials for use in integrated optical isolators, and development of interferometric lithography techniques.

New Technology Initiatives Program

The New Technology Initiatives Program (NTIP) supports initiatives that significantly extend the application of new technologies and approaches to our nation's current and future problems. The NTIP works with the Laboratory community and outside resources to identify user needs, capability drivers, and enabling technologies. Board members provide leadership to frame a problem, outline candidate architectures, identify emerging technical capabilities that might apply across the Laboratory, and approve funding for new initiatives. Interdivisional activities and risk-taking are encouraged.

Illustration of thermoelectric generator This illustration depicts a system concept for an NTIP initiative to develop a portable 20 W thermoelectric generator that can be used to recharge batteries. This project is a strong collaborative effort between multiple Laboratory divisions, MIT, and industry. The prototype will be built in early 2009.


MIT Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program

Lincoln Laboratory is one of the centers with which undergraduates may partner under MIT’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). UROP cultivates research partnerships between MIT undergraduates and faculty, offering students the chance to work on cutting-edge research and participate in each phase of standard research activity.

Decision Modeling Research Initiative

The Decision Modeling Research Initiative (DMRI) is a collaboration between technical staff members at Lincoln Laboratory and MIT's Stochastic Systems Group (SSG). The objective is to make significant contributions to the area of decision modeling.

With the deployment of complex sensor systems in diverse, challenging environments comes the need for autonomous decision-making and sensor-fusion algorithms. The DMRI is providing a forum for sharing research findings and ideas in order to develop enhanced and scalable sensor fusion, inference, and decision-making algorithms and methodologies. Joint discussions have promoted the transfer of SSG–developed algorithms to Laboratory researchers and in-depth dialogue on challenges of interest to Laboratory programs.

Through DMRI–sponsored seminars at Lincoln Laboratory, researchers have presented on a range of topics of relevance to decision modeling, including other technologies such as wide-angle synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image formation and algorithms for large-scale inference.

Administrative Resources

Some Lincoln Laboratory administrative functions and services are enhanced by connections with resources at MIT.

  • Under the umbrella of the SAP business software system, the Laboratory's finance and human resources systems are integrated with those of Campus.
  • The Laboratory's Safety and Mission Assurance Office draws upon the resources of the Radiation Protection and Industrial Hygiene programs operating within the EHS Office on the MIT campus.
  • Child care services are available to Laboratory employees at a center that is one of the four MIT Technology Children's Centers.
  • The MIT Medical and Athletic departments operate the Health and Wellness Center and the Fitness Center, respectively, at Lincoln Laboratory.

 

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