The Coast Guard Academy has signed a new agreement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology- Lincoln Laboratory (MIT-Lincoln Laboratory), affording new research opportunities for Academy faculty and cadets. The venture is spelled out in a Memorandum of Understanding formally establishing how the two institutions will create collaboration opportunities for faculty, staff, and cadets in support of mutual interests.
First established in 1951 by scientists working on the national air defense system, the MIT-Lincoln Laboratory is a state-of-the-art national research and development (R&D) facility located in Lexington, Massachusetts. Today, its mission includes developing a wide range of advanced technologies in support of national security. Two of its major achievements include fabricating ground and space terminals for the fastest data downloads from a NASA moon-orbiting satellite and creating the first and highest-resolution dual-band radar in the world. The MIT-Lincoln Laboratory also operates New England’s most powerful supercomputing center (see ll.mit.edu).
Dr. Zachary Kudlak, CGA Mathematics Department, embraced one of the first opportunities made possible by the new agreement: an Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) arrangement. The IPA permits a federal employee to work at another host agency, with the institutions sharing salary costs.
During his sabbatical this year, Kudlak joined MIT-Lincoln Laboratory as Visiting Scientist, working with the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology Systems Group. He and his colleagues used machine learning and artificial intelligence to solve important problems related to national defense. Specifically, Kudlak’s work investigated the use of pre-trained, foundational Visual Language Models to caption and label video data.
Back on campus, Dr. Jillian McLeod and LCDR Justin Sherman mentored seven cadets working on two research projects sponsored by the MIT-Lincoln Laboratory. One project focused on AI-enabled satellite image recognition to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of buoy monitoring on the nation’s coasts. The other was aimed at developing a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline. Essentially, this is a Large Language Model tailored to work with locally hosted datasets and designed to ultimately assist enlisted U.S. Coast Guard service members in studying for Service-Wide Exams.
In addition to cadets conducting research in New London, seven 2/c cadets majoring in ORDA and in Electrical Engineering travelled to MIT-Lincoln Laboratory, where they worked with the AI Technology Systems Group, Advanced Imaging Group, and Laser Communications Group. Their projects involved the use of AI to caption video footage and to develop test procedures for infrared imaging and laser systems.
The Coast Guard Academy looks forward to further expanding the partnership in years to come. In the short term, Kudlak plans to return to the Academy with new cadet capstone projects furthering collaborative work with the AI Technology Group. The MOU also encourages other groups at MIT-Lincoln Laboratory with missions overlapping Academy programs to engage with Academy faculty and cadets, raising prospects for more joint opportunities in the future.
