Requested to explain his work for a lay viewers, Allan Shtofenmakher responds with an sudden query: “Have you ever ever seen the film ‘Wall-E?’” Recalling that the 2008 Disney-Pixar film’s view of Earth from house was “brown and dusty and simply surrounded by tons and tons of house junk,” he cautions, “If we’re not good stewards of our native house setting, we may really find yourself in a state of affairs like that — the place we are able to’t get something into house as a result of it’s so cluttered and soiled.”
Shtofenmakher, a PhD scholar, works in MIT’s Dynamics, Infrastructure Networks, and Mobility (DINaMo) analysis group below the steerage of Hamsa Balakrishnan, the William E. Leonhard Professor of aeronautics and astronautics (AeroAstro) and affiliate dean of MIT’s Faculty of Engineering. “Loads of my work,” he continues, “is attempting to maintain house sustainable.” When satellites or spent rocket our bodies crash into one another, they create house particles transferring in numerous instructions at very excessive speeds. “Then they’ll create much more junk that may crash into one another … and you find yourself with a totally unsustainable house setting.”
Shtofenmakher’s analysis pursuits reside on the intersection of house situational consciousness and management of multi-agent methods, with a give attention to monitoring orbital particles utilizing in-space satellite tv for pc sensors. He’s experimenting with strategies resembling mixed-integer programming and multi-agent reinforcement studying to maximise our consciousness of — and talent to keep away from — rogue objects orbiting the Earth at speeds 10 occasions sooner than a bullet. “My purpose is to leverage the cameras on the hundreds of energetic Earth-orbiting satellites to maintain the house round Earth clear and sustainable for generations of house explorers to come back,” he says.
After incomes a bachelor’s diploma in aerospace engineering from the College of California at Irvine, and a grasp’s in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford College, Shtofenmakher labored as a spacecraft methods engineer on a number of small satellite tv for pc packages. “I made a decision to return to graduate college to resolve a number of the challenges related to distributed satellite tv for pc networks,” he says, “and I selected MIT AeroAstro for its wealth of experience in each satellite tv for pc methods and multi-agent methods.”
“Loads of my work had been broader and extra common in aerospace engineering, and I wished to turn out to be good at one thing. That one thing was controls and optimization.”
A life-changing dialog
When Shtofenmakher was initially making use of to PhD packages, he says, “I wished to work with precise spacecraft and {hardware} … on what are referred to as CubeSats, that are these actually small, student-built satellites that may be despatched into house for reasonable to do one thing cool and novel.” He acquired a name from Balakrishnan, whose analysis had targeted totally on air visitors management and optimization however was now shifting into house analysis. Reviewing his graduate college software, she thought Shtofenmakher’s experience could be useful in her lab.
“What Hamsa focuses on (amongst different issues) is multi-agent optimization,” he explains. “When you have a fleet of drones which are attempting to concurrently accomplish a bunch of various duties, how do you distribute them in such a manner that you just reduce gas throughout the fleet?”
It’s a special taste of controls and optimization, he explains, than controlling particular person CubeSats — however he’s studying abilities and utilizing strategies that can allow him to work on functions on land (self-driving vehicles), within the air (autonomous drone networks), and in house (distributed satellite tv for pc methods) when he completes his diploma.
Crucial fellowship help
In his second 12 months at MIT, Shtofenmakher was awarded an endowed fellowship in honor of the late Arthur Gelb ScD ’61, an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and former member of the MIT Company. “Getting the Artwork Gelb Fellowship,” he says, “meant that I all of a sudden had the pliability to work on precisely what I wished to work on.” With out the funding offered by the fellowship, he factors out, he may need spent 20 hours every week working as a analysis assistant on an unrelated subject somewhat than dedicating his time to pursuing his personal analysis pursuits.
Shtofenmakher regrets that he by no means met Gelb, who handed away in 2023, as a result of he sensed that they shared some widespread historical past: Each have been the youngsters of immigrants who labored onerous and valued schooling. Rising up in California, he says, “My dad and mom each labored greater than full time in order that we may lastly land on our toes. I modeled my work ethic after theirs in order that I may get an excellent schooling, which is the primary factor that they wished for me.”
Work and life
Nonetheless a tough employee, Shtofenmakher now additionally sees the worth of work-life stability, serving as co-president of AeroAstro’s division Assets for Easing Friction and Stress (dREFS), by means of which he advocates for graduate scholar psychological well being and helps college students set up wholesome boundaries with their analysis advisors. With help from the division, he and classmates transformed a storage space into the AeroAstro graduate scholar lounge, which now affords couches, a flat-screen TV to look at soccer and different occasions, and a spot, he says, “the place individuals can simply chill.”
Additionally including to Shtofenmakher’s high quality of life at MIT are crusing and skateboarding alongside the Charles River and spending time with fellow college students. “I do know I can simply message any one among them, and we are able to stroll to the Banana Lounge, or go all the way down to the ping-pong desk within the basement, or simply seize meals or drinks after work.” He has additionally developed an curiosity in bar tending, which aligns nicely with science. Mixology, he laughs, “is the closest I can get to artwork with my double left mind.”
