Mary (Missy) Cummings

Mary (Missy) Cummings received her B.S. in Mathematics from the United States Naval Academy in 1988, her M.S. in Space Systems Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1994, and her Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2004. A naval officer and military pilot from 1988-1999, she was one of the Navy’s first female fighter pilots. Her previous teaching experience includes instructing for the U.S. Navy at Pennsylvania State University and as an assistant professor for the Virginia Tech Engineering Fundamentals Division. She is the director of the MIT Humans and Automation Laboratory and holds appointments in the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics department, the MIT Engineering Systems Division, and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. She is also currently an Associate Professor at Duke University. Her research interests include human supervisory control, human-unmanned vehicle interaction, collaborative human-computer decision making, and the ethical and social impact of technology.