Keeping the cosmos clean

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 area was “brown and dusty and simply surrounded by tons and tons of area junk,” he cautions, “If we’re not good stewards of our native area atmosphere, we might truly find yourself in a scenario like that — the place we will’t get something into area 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 underneath the steerage of Hamsa Balakrishnan, the William E. Leonhard Professor of aeronautics and astronautics (AeroAstro) and affiliate dean of MIT’s Faculty of Engineering. “Numerous my work,” he continues, “is attempting to maintain area sustainable.” When satellites or spent rocket our bodies crash into one another, they create area particles transferring in several 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 area atmosphere.”

Shtofenmakher’s analysis pursuits reside on the intersection of area situational consciousness and management of multi-agent programs, 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 instances sooner than a bullet. “My aim is to leverage the cameras on the hundreds of lively Earth-orbiting satellites to maintain the area round Earth clear and sustainable for generations of area 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 programs engineer on a number of small satellite tv for pc packages. “I made a decision to return to graduate college to unravel among 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 programs and multi-agent programs.”

“Numerous my work had been broader and extra common in aerospace engineering, and I wished to change into 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 known as CubeSats, that are these actually small, student-built satellites that may be despatched into area for affordable 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 area analysis. Reviewing his graduate college utility, she thought Shtofenmakher’s experience could be useful in her lab.

“What Hamsa makes a speciality of (amongst different issues) is multi-agent optimization,” he explains. “If in case you have a fleet of drones which can be attempting to concurrently accomplish a bunch of various duties, how do you distribute them in such a approach that you just reduce gasoline throughout the fleet?”

It’s a special taste of controls and optimization, he explains, than controlling particular person CubeSats — however he’s studying expertise and utilizing strategies that can allow him to work on purposes on land (self-driving vehicles), within the air (autonomous drone networks), and in area (distributed satellite tv for pc programs) when he completes his diploma.   

Crucial fellowship assist

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 out of the blue had the flexibleness to work on precisely what I wished to work on.” With out the funding supplied by the fellowship, he factors out, he might need spent 20 hours every week working as a analysis assistant on an unrelated subject moderately 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 frequent historical past: Each have been the kids of immigrants who labored laborious and valued training. Rising up in California, he says, “My mother and father each labored greater than full time in order that we might lastly land on our toes. I modeled my work ethic after theirs in order that I might get training, 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 department Resources 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 assist from the division, he and classmates transformed a storage space into the AeroAstro graduate scholar lounge, which now provides 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 considered one of them, and we will 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 effectively with science. Mixology, he laughs, “is the closest I can get to artwork with my double left mind.”