David Mindell

David A. Mindell, PhD, is Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. David has spent twenty-five years researching the myriad relationships between people and machines. He served as an MIT department head for five years, and has led or contributed to more than 25 oceanographic expeditions. David has developed and commercially licensed spread-spectrum sonar technologies for undersea navigation. He is the author of five books, including Our Robots, Ourselves: Robotics and the Myths of Autonomy (2015), Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in the First Six Lunar Landings (2008) and Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing Before Cybernetics (2000). David is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a Senior Member of the IEEE. He is Co-founder and CEO of Humatics Corporation, which is pioneering microlocation technologies to revolutionize how people and machines locate, navigate and collaborate.

Academic Degrees

B.S. 1988 Electrical Engineering, Yale University; B.A. 1988 Literature, Yale University; Ph.D. 1996 The History of Technology, MIT

Honors and Awards

Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow, MIT; Sally Hacker Prize, Society for the History of Technology; IEEE Life Member Prize in Electrical History; Abbott Payson Usher Prize, Society for the History of Technology

Society Memberships

Associate Fellow, AIAA; Senior Member, IEEE; Fellow, Explorers Club; Fellow, Massachusetts Historical Society; Society for the History of Technology

Positions Held at MIT

Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing (Assistant Professor 1996-99, Associate Professor 2000 2005); Director, Program in Science, Technology, and Society; Professor of Engineering Systems; Housemaster, MIT Edgerton House; Chair, MIT 150th Anniversary Steering Committee (2011)

Positions Held outside MIT

Visiting Scientist, Deep Submergence Laboratory, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Consultant, Hermetic Sciences; Member, NASA Historical Advisory Committee; Member, IEEE Spectrum Editorial Board; Member, Deep Submergence Science Committee

Specialization and Research Interests

Human-machine interaction, deep ocean robotics, archaeology in the deep ocean, history of aviation and spaceflight, social implications of engineering

Teaching Interests

Engineering Apollo, Introduction to the History of Technology (STS. 340), The History of MIT (STS)