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Watch live now as the Zero Robotics education program hosts our international high school competition! Zero Robotics is led by Team @space_enabled & Innovation Learning Center. Teams from 17 countries and 19 US states join our space programming challenge!

https://web.mit.edu/webcast/zerorobotics/s26/e

In Acta Astronautica, Media Lab Professor Danielle Wood (@space.enabled) and collaborators describe the use of the Environment-Vulnerability-Decision-Technology (EVDT) framework developed in Professor Wood's Space Enabled research group to track deforestation in Ghana. The results highlight how satellite data can be used to support the work led by African nations to make progress with their environmental challenges.

“You can’t improve what you can’t monitor,” Professor Wood, who holds a joint appointment in the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (@mitaeroastro), says. “The government of Ghana invited my team and me to join them in this effort, and we were happy to do so. I’ve seen government officials work really hard to get accurate, validated data about their country and to be transparent about their findings.”

She adds, "The exciting thing is we’re able to confirm the EVDT framework works in understanding the ways humans and the physical environment affect each other. It helps governments, companies, and major actors transition from science into policy, and includes a feedback loop to see if further improvement is needed.”

Read more:
https://aeroastro.mit.edu/news-impact/to-stop-deforestation-the-solution-may-be-out-of-this-world/ or link in profile.

Photo credit: Doug Segars (@dougsegars)

We invite you to join the November meeting of the Environment-Vulnerability-Decision-Technology (EVDT) Community. The purpose of the EVDT Community meetings is to share research approaches led by the Space Enabled Research Group and our collaborators that combine insights into social, environmental and policy challenges that can be addressed with geospatial information systems.

The meeting will take place on Tuesday, November 18th from 11:00am to 12:00pm ET.

Speaker name: Prof. Eric Tate
Presentation Title: Advancing Social Vulnerability Modeling for Equitable Flood Adaptation
Abstract: Reducing disaster inequity has become a central focus in flood adaptation efforts. Social vulnerability indicators are widely used to support this goal, but persistent challenges have hindered their evolution from generalized to context-specific metrics. A key limitation is a weak understanding of which characteristics of vulnerable populations are most relevant across different hazards, geographic settings, and scales of analysis - from local to global. This presentation profiles research pathways to address these challenges, toward developing a new generation of social vulnerability indicators tailored to specific use cases in flood adaptation modeling, planning, and policy.
Organizational Affiliation: Princeton University

We invite you to join the November meeting of the Environment-Vulnerability-Decision-Technology (EVDT) Community. The purpose of the EVDT Community meetings is to share research approaches led by the Space Enabled Research Group and our collaborators that combine insights into social, environmental and policy challenges that can be addressed with geospatial information systems.

The meeting will take place on Tuesday, November 18th from 11:00am to 12:00pm ET.

Speaker name: Prof. Eric Tate
Presentation Title: Advancing Social Vulnerability Modeling for Equitable Flood Adaptation
Abstract: Reducing disaster inequity has become a central focus in flood adaptation efforts. Social vulnerability indicators are widely used to support this goal, but persistent challenges have hindered their evolution from generalized to context-specific metrics. A key limitation is a weak understanding of which characteristics of vulnerable populations are most relevant across different hazards, geographic settings, and scales of analysis - from local to global. This presentation profiles research pathways to address these challenges, toward developing a new generation of social vulnerability indicators tailored to specific use cases in flood adaptation modeling, planning, and policy.
Organizational Affiliation: Princeton University

Professor Danielle Wood discusses her career, from an internship at NASA, through undergrad and grad studies at MIT, back to NASA + Johns Hopkins University, and finally to founding the Space Enabled group at the Media Lab (@space.enabled), with a joint appointment in MIT AeroAstro (@mitaeroastro).

Read the interview:
https://www.media.mit.edu/articles/meet-professor-danielle-wood-a-trailblazer-in-mit-s-aeroastro-department/ or link in profile.

Photo credit: Jonathan Wood

Professor Danielle Wood, who directs the Space Enabled research group at the Media Lab (@space.enabled), and alum Dr. Joy Buolamwini (@poetofcode), founder of the Algorithmic Justice League (@ajlunited), are among the MIT community members featured in The Genius Within, a new public art installation in Kendall Square (Cambridge, Massachusetts).

Designed by Innovators for Purpose (@innovatorsforpurpose) in collaboration with MIT, the 7.5-foot rotating aluminum tower at One Broadway uses mirrored panels to invite viewers to “see the genius within.” The installation not only honors the diverse innovators who helped Kendall Square become known as the most innovative square mile on the planet; it also reminds viewers that genius is not limited to a few, but alive in all of us.

https://www.media.mit.edu/posts/media-lab-community-featured-in-genius-within-installation-in-kendall-square/

This winter, Zero Robotics (@zero.robotics)—an education outreach program led by Professor Danielle Wood, the Media Lab’s Space Enabled research group (@space.enabled), and the Innovation Learning Center—invites teams of US high school students to program Astrobee robots to manage crops in microgravity!
Team registration closes November 21. Learn more at https://www.media.mit.edu/posts/zero-robotics-high-school-program/ or link in profile.

Calling all US high school teams! Get ready to grow the future of space robotics 🌱
Zero Robotics is hosting its 2026 competition: Galactic Greenhouse, where students will program NASA’s Astrobee robots to manage crops in microgravity.

📅 Register by November 21, 2025 at the link in our bio, or join an informational webinar on October 30 to learn more!

In Sky and Telescope (@skyandtelescopemag), Professor Danielle Wood, who directs the Space Enabled research group at the Media Lab (@space.enabled), emphasizes the ongoing need for environmental oversight of satellites and other space-based operations. “It’s actually quite evident that the need for environmental protection in space is only growing, not decreasing,” she says.

Read more: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/environmental-exclusions-proposed-for-u-s-satellite-industry/ or link in profile.

Photo credit: Prof. Danielle Wood

Robotic Collab with Space Enabled 🚀

The Critical Matter Group is contributing to Space Enabled’s Zero Robotics program, an educational initiative that teaches middle and high school students to code and control real robots.

This year, students will compete using water, land, and air robots. The land-based platform will feature four-legged assembly robots developed by Critical Matter’s graduate researcher @sergiomutis1.

#robots #robotics #zerorobotics #mitmedialab #criticalmatter #medialab #mit #stemeducation #roboticseducation #collaborativerobotics #designengineering

More than 150 middle school students from across the Northeast filled the MIT Media Lab for a day of hands-on STEM exploration during the 2025 Zero Robotics summer outreach program. Led by Prof. Danielle Wood and Katie Magrane of the Innovation Learning Center, Zero Robotics gives students the chance to code robots like the ones on the ISS, while learning teamwork, strategy, and creativity along the way.

Since 2006, MIT teams have been inspiring the next generation of space explorers through this one-of-a-kind program. Read more at the link in our bio 👩🏽‍🏫 🚀

More than 150 middle school students from across the Northeast filled the MIT Media Lab for a day of hands-on STEM exploration during the 2025 Zero Robotics summer outreach program. Led by Prof. Danielle Wood and Katie Magrane of the Innovation Learning Center, Zero Robotics gives students the chance to code robots like the ones on the ISS, while learning teamwork, strategy, and creativity along the way.

Since 2006, MIT teams have been inspiring the next generation of space explorers through this one-of-a-kind program. Read more at the link in our bio 👩🏽‍🏫 🚀

More than 150 middle school students from across the Northeast filled the MIT Media Lab for a day of hands-on STEM exploration during the 2025 Zero Robotics summer outreach program. Led by Prof. Danielle Wood and Katie Magrane of the Innovation Learning Center, Zero Robotics gives students the chance to code robots like the ones on the ISS, while learning teamwork, strategy, and creativity along the way.

Since 2006, MIT teams have been inspiring the next generation of space explorers through this one-of-a-kind program. Read more at the link in our bio 👩🏽‍🏫 🚀

Happening now! Learn about the emerging technology of Global Navigation Satellite Systems with Reflectometry! Learn novel ways to estimate wind speed and soil moisture from space. Today Team @space.enabled hosts the EVDT Community meeting with Dr Raji Balasubramaniam of the CYGNSS mission at the University of Michigan with Prof Chris Ruf.

Today at 10am to 11am ET via Zoom.

Details and connection info at link in profile and here:

https://www.media.mit.edu/events/evdt-community-meeting-july-2025/

In a new paper published in Acta Astronautica, Media Lab Research Engineer Minoo Rathnasabapathy, Professor Danielle Wood (@space.enabled), and collaborators discuss the history, motivation, and design of the Space Sustainability Rating (SSR). Created in 2019, the SSR is an incentive system that provides a score for space operators based on their effort to reduce space debris and the related risk of collisions.

“Satellites provide valuable services that impact everyone in the world by helping us understand the environment, communicate globally, navigate, and operate our modern infrastructure,” says Professor Wood, who is jointly appointed in the Program in Media Arts and Sciences and the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (@MITAeroAstro). “As innovative new missions are proposed that operate thousands of satellites, a new approach is needed to provide space traffic management. National governments and space operators need to design coordination approaches to reduce the risk of losing access to valuable satellite missions. The Space Sustainability Rating plays a role by compiling internationally recognized responsible on-orbit behaviors, and celebrating space actors that implement them.”

Read more: https://news.mit.edu/2025/deploying-practical-solution-space-debris-0514 or link in profile.

Image credit: European Space Agency (@europeanspaceagency)