Over 230 faculty and senior research staff at MIT are engaged in transportation research.  Below we have highlighted faculty speakers from our Transportation@MIT Seminar Series, and to the right you can view additional faculty members by their transportation Areas of Expertise.

Names link to faculty profiles.

  • Emilio Frazzoli
    Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics

    Research interests include algorithmic, computational and geometric approaches to the design and development of decision and control architectures for complex networked and autonomous systems, in aerospace and other domains. Application areas include distributed cooperative control of multiple vehicle systems, guidance and control of agile vehicles, high-confidence software engineering for high-performance dynamical systems, verification of hybrid systems.

  • Nigel H. M. Wilson
    Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Nigel Wilson’s specific research activities include workforce planning in the transit industry, short range transit planning methods, the role of private operators in public transportation and the potential for computers and communication systems to improve the performance of transit systems through better operations control and passenger information. He has authored more than sixty papers covering a wide range of transportation topics and has co-authored chapters of several books dealing with the role of analysis methods in public transportation. He also directs a one-week summer course at MIT on transit operations and service planning which has served more than 250 mid-career transit planners and managers over the past fifteen years.

  • John B. Heywood
    Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering Director, Sloan Automotive Laboratory (SAL) Co-Director, Ford-MIT Alliance
    Co-Director, Center for 21st Century Energy

    John Heywood is the Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and Director of the MIT Sloan Automotive Research Laboratory, which is a leading center in research on automotive engines and fuels, as well as on critical issues of lubrication system design. He researches internal combustion engine performance, combustion, emissions, fuel requirements, and lubrication, as well as longer-term evaluations of how engines, fuels, and vehicle technology may evolve in the future. Professor Heywood and colleagues are working with MIT’s Plasma Research and Fusion Center on how to use plasmatron reforming of fuels to hydrogen can be used with novel IC engine concepts. He is also examining the potential for the reduction of greenhouse gases in a road transportation technology study).

  • Andreas S. Schulz
    Associate Professor of Operations Research Operations Research/Statistics

    Andreas Schulz is an expert in operations research – the science of making better decisions based on profound mathematical models. A trained mathematician, he focuses on advancing our understanding of the theoretical limits of today’s optimization methods in view of incomplete information, non-coordinated decision making, or limited computational power. His industrial collaborations include projects in telecommunications network design, vehicle routing, and scheduling.

  • Cynthia Barnhart
    Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems
    Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, School of Engineering
    Co-Director, Operations Research Center (ORC)

    Cynthia Barnhart’s teaching and research interests involve the development of optimization methods for large-scale transportation and logistics problems. Her approaches often require the development of new models and algorithms, and their implementations in real operating environments. Her research foci include: integrated schedule planning, robust scheduling and real-time re-planning. In 1997, she formed the Large-Scale Optimization Group at MIT. It is comprised of graduate students and researchers developing and applying optimization models and algorithms to large-scale problems arising in transportation, telecommunications and other problem domains.

  • William J. Mitchell
    Alexander W Dreyfoos (1954) Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences
    Director, MIT Design Laboratory

    Professor William J. Mitchell holds the Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr. (1954) Professorship and directs the MIT Design Laboratory and the Smart Cities group at the Media Laboratory. Mitchell’s research focuses upon new technologies in architecture, urban design, and product design. His books include City of Bits, E-topia, Me++, Placing Words: Symbols, Space and the City, and most recently Imagining MIT: Designing a Campus for the 21 Century. His latest, World’s Greatest Architect, is forthcoming from the MIT Press.

Areas of expertise

To view detailed information on faculty members in particular areas, click below:

Airlines

Automation

Behavior and Economics

Energy Sources

Environmental Impact

Logistics and Supply Chains

Networks

Propulsion

System Control

Urban Challenges

Vehicles

Broad Categories

Human Behavior

Policy and Business Practices

Science and Engineering

 

MIT Faculty

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