MAS.S76 Spring '21
MAS.S76: Adventures in Sensing
Spring, 2021
Lecturers:
Head TAs:
Course time: Tuesdays from 1pm-3pm EST (virtual)
Note: Detailed course syllabus (including Zoom link) available on MIT Canvas Site.
Summary:
This class will explore the current landscape in sensing, focusing on sensors pushed into extreme environments or pushing technical and implementational limits of various sorts. Each week of class, we’ll be bringing 1-2 presenters who are experts in a particular class or application of sensing to expose class participants to different technologies, applications, and perspectives. The invited lectures will range from novel sensing applications (e.g., in space missions or frontier physics) to edgy technology in domestic applications (e.g., ultra low power accelerometers). The first hour of class will be dedicated to the guest presentation(s) and the second hour will be around class discussion and assigned classwork.
Class Limit:
To keep interaction possible, we are limiting enrollment in the course. Further details will be provided on the first day of lecture.
Course Lectures
- February 16 - Intro
Prof. Paradiso and the class go over what the class will cover, introduce the guest lectures and fields discussed, cover the work required, and also discuss the theme and role of sensors more broadly.
- February 23 - Planets [Video Recording of Lectures]
Sensor systems and robotics fielded on current and proposed planetary missions. One half of the session will cover NASA’s EELS snake robotic probe aimed at exploring the geysers of Enceladus. The other half will cover the sensor payloads on Japan’s Hayabusa 2 asteroid probe.
Speaker #1 Prof. Hajime Yano (JAXA) [Hayabusa2 Asteroid Sample Return Mission]
Speaker #2 Prof. Kalind Carpenter (NASA JPL) [Exobiology Extant Life Surveyer (EELS) "Snake Robot"]
- March 2 - Small Satellite Revolution [Video Recording of Lectures]
To send manmade sensors to interstellar space, we will need to miniaturize our spacecraft hardware and accelerate this hardware to relativistic speeds. How can we make an armada of tiny pieces of silicon work as coordinated sensors light-years away and send their information back to Earth? This is one of the greatest engineering challenges of our era. This lecture will focus on PCB-scale satellite engineering challenges, potential applications for coordinated swarms of small satellites, as well as the well popularized Breakthrough Starshot Initiative, a proposal to use radiation pressure to accelerate a macro-scale sensing package to 0.25c.
Speaker #1 Prof. Zachary Manchester (Carnegie Mellon) [Microsatellites (KickSat) and Interstellar Travel (Breakthrough Starshot)]
Speaker #2 Prof. Dave Miller (VP/CTO, Aerospace Corp; MIT SSL (on Leave)) [Reconfigurable Swarms, SmallSat Revolution]
- March 16 - Astrophysics in Antarctica [Video Recording of Lectures]
This week will focus on fundamental astrophysics research taking place in Antarctica, a unique environment with conditions well suited to detecting neutrinos and space dust from astrophysical sources - these measurements are now discovering evidence of particles and phenomena that have no easy explanation under established theoretical physics frameworks. We will learn about the adventurous researchers designing and deploying sensors for the Antarctic environment, and in particular we will take a close look at two detection examples (1) the IceCube detector, an array of kilometer-scale, string-like detectors inserted into Antarctic ice boreholes. Photomultiplier tubes incorporated into these strings are used to detect Cherenkov radiation produced by relativistic neutrinos penetrating through and occasionally interacting with the ice (2) the detection of an iron isotope in fresh Antarctic snow that originated from an ancient supernova many light years away.
Speaker #1 Prof. Justin Vandenbroucke (University of Wisconson) [IceCube Antarctic Neutrino Detector]
Speaker #2 Prof. Brian Fields (University of Illinois) [Evidence for Near Earth Supernova Explosion in Antarctic Snow]
- March 23 - NO CLASS - (Student Holiday)
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March 30 - MEMS [Dr. Bernstein Slides] [Video Recording of Lecture #1]
How do accurate accelerometers run on a handful of microamperes? How can you passively detect audio that has a spectral signature?
Speaker #1 Jack Memishian (Analog Devices) [Micro/Nano Watt MEMS Devices]
Speaker #2 Dr. John Bernstein (Draper Lab) [MEMs Resonators for Zero Power Audio wakeup devices]
- April 6 - Extreme Networks [Video Recording of Lecture #1]
Sensing is now commonly embedded into nodes that get ever smaller and talk via large diverse networks. The early visions of ’Smart Dust’ begin to be realized, and this session explores this frontier.
Speaker #1 Prof. Kris Pister (UC Berkeley) [Smart dust & synthetic insects]
Speaker #2 Prof. Paul McEuen (Cornell) [MEMS fabricated microrobots]
- April 13 - Underwater [Video Recording of Lectures]
While sensing technology has made it possible for researchers to see into the depths of our galaxy, over 80% of our oceans are still unseen. Our oceans are some of the most robust and biodiverse ecosystems, involved in regulating global weather and temperature, providing food for billions, and sequestering significant amounts of carbon. One of the primary reasons for this is the difficulty in sensing in navigating the housing, power, and communication requirements of an aquatic environment. This lecture will explore the current state of the art and future directions of underwater sensing which will allow us to better explore, monitor, and protect these critical areas.
Speaker #1 Prof. Brennan Phillips (University of Rhode Island) [Oceanographic instrumentation]
Speaker #2 Prof. Allan Adams (MIT Future Ocean Lab) [Underwater sensing]
- April 20th - NO CLASS - (Holiday)
- April 27th - Environment [Video Recording of Lectures]
Environmental sensing is a vast field that cuts across different ecological realms, physical and temporal scales, applications, technologies, and sensing modalities. Standalone sensors and sensor networks have been used to monitor biodiversity, forecast weather patterns and earthquakes, detect the impacts of climate change, and more. Advances in communications infrastructure, battery technology, and data analysis have enabled more extreme and in-depth explorations of our most unique and vulnerable environments. These lectures will explore the way different environmental sensing modalities are used to provide critical and surprising insights into the natural world and the creatures that inhabit it.
Speaker #1 Prof. Howie Epstein (University of Virginia) [Navigating the New Arctic: Sensor networks in Alaska]
Speaker #2 Prof. Rex Cocroft (University of Missouri) [Insect generated vibration sensing in plants]
- May 4th - Audio
The future of technology that seamlessly mediates the sonic information around us and pushes our hearing to new extremes in complex auditory environments is being accelerated by advances in context-aware audio processing, real-time sound capture and analysis with low-power hardware, and statistical models of human perception and intent. This lecture will provide an industry perspective on the state-of-the-art in audio wearables, computation, and rendering, and the compelling future that it points towards.
Speaker #1 Dr. Andrea Fanelli (Dolby Laboratories) [Wearables and sensing for audio/visual entertainment]
Speaker #2 Dr. Kevin Bastyr (Harman Research) [Automotive noise cancellation systems that preserve/enhance in-vehicle music]
- May 11th - Hybrid Sensors
Researchers have been hijacking biology to do sensing - both in terms of biomimetic systems as well as commandeering lifeforms (e.g., insects) as cyborgs to do a human’s bidding.
Speaker #1 Prof. Shyam Gollakota (University of Washington) [Augmented insect sensor systems]
Speaker #2 Joseph Register (Draper) [Optogenetics for dragonfly brain control]
- May 18th - Getting Away from the Man
With all of this sensing increasingly penetrating our environments, can we turn it off and get away from it all? Or will this question make no sense in this future we’re steaming towards? The speakers will reflect around the issues this new sensory world ushers in.
Speaker #1 Dr. Bunnie Huang [Privacy in the age of surveillance, with a focus on hardware]
Speaker #2 Prof. Shoshana Zuboff [The age of surveillance capitalism : A discussion]
