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Course

Field Trips

Throughout the Remote Sensing course, students embark on field trips to learn more about crisis response and about possible applications of their coursework. The following represents the field trips completed during the 2019 Remote Sensing program. The specific field trips done by each class may vary in future years.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory

MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT-LL), a co-sponsor for the Beaver Works Summer Institute. The Laboratory focuses on research that improves national security and assists in humanitarian aid. More specifically, the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) branch of the laboratory works with crisis response. Throughout the trip, employees from MIT-LL share information about their research.

  1. What HADR research does MIT Lincoln Laboratory do?
  2. What kinds of data do we collect?
  3. What tools do we use?
  4. What problems do we address?
  5. What backgrounds do we have?

Massachusetts Task Force One

Massachusetts Task Force One (MA-TF1) handles much of the on-the-ground operations for disaster response and recovery. MA-TF1 plans evacuation routes, manages search-and-rescue missions, and analyzes aerial images to predict and model disasters and create recovery plans. During this trip, MA-TF1 shares about its work and gives demonstrations of search-and-rescue missions.

  1. What is MA-TF1 and what do they do?
  2. What is their role in FEMA and organizational structure?
  3. How to they prepare?
  4. What tools do they use?
  5. What challenges do they face?
  6. What opportunities are there to use sensing and data?

Draper Laboratory

Engineers at Draper Laboratory worked hard to design technology for the Apollo moon progam. For the last 50 years, they have expanded to work on drone imaging for crisis response while still planning future space missions. As part of this trip, students will learn about the Apollo and Hack the Moon initiatives of the Draper Laboratory. In addition, the students will be able to fly a full size lunar landing simulator designed by Draper Laboratory.

  1. What was Draper’s role in the Apollo moon program?
  2. What is Draper doing now for manned space flight?
  3. Fly the full size lunar landing simulator.