Entry Date:
March 6, 2009

Transportation@MIT


Transportation@MIT is transforming global transportation systems to meet the economic and environmental mobility needs of the 21st century.

Hundreds of MIT faculty members work in areas related to transportation, from motor vehicles to urban infrastructure planning to aviation efficiency to adaptive technologies and their influence on personal behavior. The Transportation@MIT initiative knits together the wide-ranging, robust research already under way at the Institute and creates new opportunities for education and innovation.

Transportation@MIT draws on the strengths of three schools at MIT: the School of Engineering, the School of Architecture and Planning, and the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Building on MIT’s rich tradition of engineering research and interdisciplinary collaboration, Transportation@MIT knits together the wide-ranging, robust research already under way at the Institute and creates new opportunities for education and innovation.

A recent survey of 1,300 MIT faculty and staff found that researchers across the Institute are conducting transportation research in nearly every area of study. More than 240 faculty and research staff are working in areas related to transportation, from motor vehicles to urban infrastructure planning to aviation efficiency to adaptive technologies and their influence on personal behavior.

Transportation Research Groups include:
Center for Ocean Engineering
Center for Transportation & Logistics (CTL)
Complex Systems Research Laboratory
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL): CarTel
Cooperative Mobility Program
Future Urban Mobility, part of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology
Global Airline Industry Program
Global Supply Chain and Logistics Excellence (SCALE) Network
Intelligent Transportation Research Center
Intelligent Transportation Systems
International Center for Air Transportation
International Motor Vehicle Program
Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems
Materials Systems Laboratory
MIT Age Lab
MIT-Portugal: Sustainable Energy and Transportation Systems
MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics
NEXTOR: The National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research
Operations Research Center (ORC)
Partnership for Air Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction
Sloan Automotive Laboratory
U.S. Transportation Productivity Study

The need for mobility is fundamental: from the vehicles we drive, to the public transit systems that deliver us from one place to another, to the enterprises that keep food, fuel, and the materials of daily life flowing. Many of our transportation needs, however, are currently met with vehicles, systems, institutions and assumptions that date back a century or more.

More than 240 MIT researchers from 15 departments in the School of Engineering, the Sloan School of Management and the School of Architecture and Planning are working every day on more energy efficient and environmentally friendly modes of transportation.