Group mission:
The Signal Kinetics group focuses on inventing, building, and deploying new wireless and sensor technologies to interconnect, sense, and perceive the physical world in ways that were not possible before. Our technologies aim to address complex problems in networking, health monitoring, robotics, and ocean IoT.Our work has received many awards and honors including best paper awards (SIGCOMM, MobiCom, Nature Communications) and popular media highlights (BBC, CNN, Economist, TechCrunch, The Big Bang Theory). We regularly interact with more than 100 sponsor companies and have had the honor to demo our research to the President of the United States, the US Director of National Intelligence, the Chairman of the FCC, and 50+ state senators and legislators.
Our current research focuses on three main areas:
- Ocean Internet-of-Things: including batteryless subsea IoT, underwater-to-air communications, underwater imaging, and localization/robotic navigation. Our technologies enable new applications in climate and ecological monitoring, aquaculture, energy, and robotic navigation.
- RF Perception/Localization for Robots and Drones: Our research focuses on enabling robots to perform new tasks that were not feasible before as well as new ways for drone localization, tracking, and mapping.
- Mixed/Augmented Reality with RF-Visual Fusion: specifically AR with X-ray vision including sensor fusion, UI design, signal processing, and antenna design.
What We're Looking For:
Signal Kinetics is looking to admit students (and postdocs) with technical backgrounds (e.g., undergraduate degree and/or research/technical experience) in computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, oceanography, material science, and/or physics. We expect all applicants to be passionate about inventing and developing software and/or hardware solutions for real-world impact. We also expect applicants to be team players (check out our Instagram and Twitter accounts to learn more about our team activities).
Do you need a publication to be considered for admission to Signal Kinetics? Publications are helpful for admissions, but they are not necessary. If you are an undergraduate student applying for grad school, we understand that you may have contributed to a research project whose publication is still pending. As long as you have conducted research with one of your recommendation letter writers, we will consider you favorably for admission.
What type of research interests would match Signal Kinetics? Our research spans different aspects of sensor design and engineering. You are encouraged to apply if you are interested in conducting technical research in any of the following areas: wireless networks and sensing systems (including communications, signal processing, network architectures, WiFi, RFID, radar, SONAR), software-hardware designs (including PCB, IC, RF, FPGA, image sensors), applied machine learning (robotic manipulation and navigation, computer vision, deep learning, edge ML, imaging), oceanography (acoustics), material science (piezoelectric materials).
Do you need to submit a portfolio for applying to Signal Kinetics? A portfolio is not required (or useful) for admission into the group; if you submit a portfolio, it will neither help nor hurt your chances of being considered for admission.
How to Apply?
Graduate Students: We admit graduate students in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, the Program in Media Arts & Sciences, and the MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program. If you are interested in joining our group, you can apply to either of the programs and select Prof. Adib to be a preferred reader for your application.
Postdocs: If you're interested in a postdoc position, send an email to fadel-postdocs@mit.edu. We have openings in the areas of acoustics/transducers for ocean IoT, applied ML for robotic perception/manipulation, low-power edge ML, underwater imaging, and underwater/miniature robotics.
MEng: We typically have multiple MEng openings for MIT undergrad students spanning our different application areas. If you're interested in our research, please check out our most recent publications and send an email with CV, transcript, and a paragraph about the project(s) you're most interested in to: fadel@mit.edu
UROPs: We have UROP positions in multiple areas listed below. If you are an MIT undergrad in EECS/Mechanical/Physics (or related degrees) and are interested in joining our team and working on any of these areas, please check out our most recent publications and reach out with your CV, transcript, and a paragraph about the project(s) you're most interested in to fadel@mit.edu.