Lincoln Laboratory AI Education and Training Initiative

The Lincoln Laboratory AI Education and Training Initiative will support the Department of Defense (DoD) in developing an elite, AI-ready workforce. These resources will help trainees to contextualize and connect ongoing AI advancements to mission-specific challenges and constraints.

For this initiative, we will identify, assess, and design instructional models and methods to improve training for people in diverse DoD mission roles and with various backgrounds. Our work is driven by five key objectives:

• Provide the government’s workforce with a foundational understanding of how AI is developed, evaluated, and deployed
• Emphasize an AI system architecture approach that is applied to engineering prototypes
• Discuss the key drivers and challenges that characterize modern AI
• Emphasize hands-on learning based on DoD and national security case studies
• Support synchronous and asynchronous delivery of courses similar to massive open online courses

Successful training combines theory and practice through hands-on projects based on real-world case studies. The Laboratory will leverage its deep engagement with national security initiatives to provide training capabilities that bridge the gap between ongoing AI advancements and mission–specific challenges and constraints.

Currently, we are offering AI training options that provide a broad, yet tailored overview of AI advancements and how they apply to national missions; online training provided via our Open edX platforms and that is accessible at various security levels; on-the-job training via internships and other work agreements; and workshops and conferences that focus on advancing the understanding of AI throughout the DoD while connecting the DoD with academic and university researchers.

For more information about recent and ongoing AI education and training events, visit https://llx.mit.edu/.