Huge thanks to MIT JTL-Transit Lab for their leadership in forming this program, and for the contributing mentors from my group: Han Zheng Jung-Hoon Cho Yining Ma Wenbin Ouyang Tianyue Zhou

Interviews will be held from April 18 to 30, and the program will run from late May to early September.

More information and application can be found here, including mentors and specific research topic areas from my group: www.wucathy.com/prospective/

Past participants have contributed to impactful research projects across urban systems, operations research, machine learning, and generative AI, with outcomes including top publications and admission to leading graduate programs.

This summer program brings together faculty and mentors across MIT, UF, and Northeastern to support students interested in transportation, urban planning, machine learning, generative AI, and optimization for complex systems. The program will be held online and is completely free of charge.

I am happy to announce that for the first time my group is participating in the MIT-UF-NEU 2026 Joint Summer Research Camp.

Applications are open until April 17.

More info in thread and here: www.wucathy.com/prospective/

This wouldn't have been possible without an amazing team. Huge shoutout to Han Zheng (lead author), Yining Ma, Brandon Araki, Jingkai Chen, and Symbotic!

#DeepRL #Robotics #WarehouseAutomation #AI

AI system learns to keep warehouse robot traffic running smoothly A new system increases throughput in automated warehouses by adaptively determining which robots should go first to avoid congestion and collisions. The work was led by researchers from MIT and Symbot...

MIT News: news.mit.edu/2026/ai-syst...
Paper (JAIR): jair.org/index.php/ja...
Code: github.com/MikeZheng777...

Deep RL learns high-level right-of-way priorities, while a fast search solver takes care of low-level path planning. This prevents gridlock on the warehouse floor, achieving ~25% more throughput than hand-crafted rules.

If pure AI or pure search isn't working for you, consider learning-guided optimization!

This approach combines the best of both worlds; our most recent work demonstrates this for coordinating agents in warehouse robotics.

Parking-aware navigation system could prevent frustration and emissions By minimizing the need to drive around looking for a parking spot, this technique can save drivers up to 35 minutes — and give them a realistic estimate of total travel time.

MIT prof @cathywu.bsky.social suspected that nav apps inaccurately calculate “time to arrive,” esp re: parking.

In a new paper, she and colleagues built a model to direct urban drivers to garages that best balance proximity and likelihood of an open spot.

Result: Drivers could save up to 35 min.

Eco-driving measures could significantly reduce vehicle emissions Implementing co-driving techniques, like the use of intelligent speed controls to mitigate congestion at traffic lights, can significantly reduce intersection carbon dioxide emissions without impactin...

Great fun (and great exercise) this morning with Omar shoveling out the driveway.

* Sorry to explain the reference, but friends will know that I've been very interested in eco-driving and its policy implications. news.mit.edu/2025/eco-dri...

What's an energy-efficient way to shovel snow?

Introducing eco-shoveling*, a two-stage technique to handle snow accumulation, while conserving energy in preparation for more shoveling later... Built to withstand three winter storms.

Yeah I think it varies based on context, like big city vs suburbia.

Here’s some cool stuff you can do with Bluesky It’s not just an Alf pics repository.

There is a mention of it as late as Nov 2024: www.theverge.com/24295933/blu...

Did something happen to the “my bangers” feed of your top bluesky posts? Is there an alternative?

Parking-aware navigation system could prevent frustration and emissions By minimizing the need to drive around looking for a parking spot, this technique can save drivers up to 35 minutes — and give them a realistic estimate of total travel time.

​New research from @cathywu.bsky.social et al. confirms something I've long suspected:

Navigation apps could save their users a lot of time — and tilt travel decisions toward transit and biking — if they showed users how long it takes to find parking.

That's an interesting suggestion!

Parking-aware navigation system could prevent frustration and emissions By minimizing the need to drive around looking for a parking spot, this technique can save drivers up to 35 minutes — and give them a realistic estimate of total travel time.

More here: news.mit.edu/2026/parking....

Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2601.00521
Code: github.com/chickert/Pro...

Joint work with lead author Cameron Hickert, Sirui Li, Zhengbing He

#transportation #multimodal #parking #navigation #dynamicprogramming

Our resulting paper, Probability-Aware Parking Selection, shows that doing so can improve travel time estimates, save drivers time by routing them to parking, and make for fairer comparisons across transportation modes! And this work is featured today on the MIT Home Page!

Have you noticed how navigation apps include walking & waiting for public transit, but excludes parking & walking for driving? After being late a few times 😅, we finally did. We got curious: what if these apps account for parking?

Please share with anyone who might be a great fit!

Join us in our mission to use 𝗔𝗜/𝗠𝗟 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀 and to enable 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲-𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀.

🗓️ Applications are reviewed 𝗼𝗻 𝗮 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗶𝘀, starting immediately.
🔗 Details + how to apply: cathywu.github.io/prospective

📣 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗱𝗼𝗰 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽!

I’m looking to hire 𝟭–𝟮 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘀 to work with us across the group’s research areas, including:
🤖 Deep reinforcement learning
🚦 Traffic modeling & control
🧠 Neural combinatorial optimization

Tesla's Roadmap to Nowhere I'll give him this: Elon Musk has a solid grasp of futurity-as-PR.

I'm gearing up for next week's Hype Studies conference in Barcelona, so I'm thinking about this stuff a lot. @davekarpf.bsky.social makes some great points here, but there's a 'Yes and...'

Yeah, same deal with navigating a city thanks to google maps

I think it goes beyond cost. There’s also talent and the know-how to adapt & implement the tech. For example, I don’t think the public sector has caught up on the last bunch of waves of tech yet, despite it getting commoditized. In general, I think it’s the rich getting richer phenomenon.

I've been struggling with this since realizing that the rich and powerful get first dibs on new tech. The only way I've been able to resolve the issue for myself is to deliberately work on applications for the public interest.

do you mean cost-benefit of research that's already done?

We should be asking ourselves more what research should be done vs what research can be done

Inviting #orms @thserra.bsky.social @vanhentenryck.bsky.social @vidalthi.bsky.social @bistradilkina.bsky.social @akazachk.bsky.social @lawlessopt.bsky.social @annanagurney.bsky.social