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Mary "Missy" Cummings
Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Mary "Missy" Cummings received her B.S. in Mathematics from the US Naval Academy in 1988, her M.S. in Space Systems Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1994, and her Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2004.A naval officer and military pilot from 1988-1999, she was one of the Navy's first female fighter pilots.
Cummings is currently a Professor in the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering, the Duke Institute of Brain Sciences, and is the director of the Humans and Autonomy Laboratory and Duke Robotics. Her research interests include human-unmanned vehicle interaction, human-autonomous system collaboration, human-systems engineering, public policy implications of unmanned vehicles, and the ethical and social impact of technology.
Appointments and Affiliations
- Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
- Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Professor of Computer Science
- Associate of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society
Contact Information
- Email Address: m.cummings@duke.edu
- Websites:
Education
- Ph.D. University of Virginia, 2004
Research Interests
Human-unmanned vehicle interaction, human-autonomous system collaboration, human-systems engineering, public policy implications of unmanned vehicles, and the ethical and social impact of technology.
Courses Taught
- COMPSCI 393: Research Independent Study
- COMPSCI 590: Advanced Topics in Computer Science
- ECE 391: Projects in Electrical and Computer Engineering
- ECE 493: Projects in Electrical and Computer Engineering
- ECE 590: Advanced Topics in Electrical and Computer Engineering
- ECE 899: Special Readings in Electrical Engineering
- ME 392: Undergraduate Projects in Mechanical Engineering
- ME 492: Special Projects in Mechanical Engineering
- ME 555: Advanced Topics in Mechanical Engineering
- ME 591: Research Independent Study in Mechanical Engineering or Material Science
- ME 592: Research Independent Study in Mechanical Engineering or Material Science
- NEUROSCI 496: Research Independent Study 4
In the News
- Missy Cummings: 'I Don't Know How Professors Teach Without Fighter-Pilot Experience' (May 2, 2018 | The Atlantic )
- Technological, Regulatory Innovation Needed to Ensure Safety in Autonomous Vehicle Research (Apr 9, 2018)
- Deterring Drones from Ballparks and Botanical Gardens (Oct 13, 2017 | Pratt School of Engineering )
- The Workplace of the Future (Aug 30, 2017)
- Drones Take Research to New Heights (Mar 15, 2017 | Duke Magazine )
- Missy Cummings: We just need a new DMV for driverless cars (Sep 21, 2016 | The Atlantic )
- Missy Cummings comments: Facebook's Aquila drone completes first test flight (Jul 25, 2016 | USA Today )
- Plans for self-driving cars have pitfall: The human brain (Jul 20, 2016 | New York Times/AP )
- Missy Cummings: The quest for the next human-computer interface (Jul 13, 2016 | The Atlantic )
- Mary “Missy” Cummings comments: Deadly force by robot may be first for law enforcement (Jul 11, 2016 | The Boston Herald )
- Mary “Missy” Cummings comments: Automakers worry Tesla autopilot crash could have chilling effect on driverless car industry (Jul 7, 2016 | KPCC-Pasadena )
- Mary “Missy” Cummings: Tesla's troubles (Jul 6, 2016 | CNBC )
- A Tesla fatality and the future of self-driving cars (Jul 1, 2016 | The Atlantic )
- Missy Cummings comments: NHTSA probes Tesla self-driving cars after fatal crash (Jul 1, 2016 | The Detroit News )
- Mary Cummings comments: Why is Google's co-founder secretly investing in flying cars? (Jun 10, 2016 | The Christian Science Monitor )
- Missy Cummings comments: The almost self-driving car is here (Apr 19, 2016 | WBUR-NPR’s “On Point” )
- Driverless-car makers on privacy: Just trust us (Mar 25, 2016 | The Atlantic )
- Missy Cummings: Self-driving cars are ‘absolutely not’ ready for deployment (Mar 16, 2016 | PBS NewsHour, AP )
- Video: Missy Cummings testifies at hearing on self-driving cars (Mar 16, 2016 | C-SPAN )
- Robots may be eyeing your job, and other lessons from Cusp Conference (Oct 13, 2015 | Chicago Tribune )
- Duke Engineering Invaded by Robots! (Jun 11, 2015)
- Missy Cummings: Drones Fly Into the Future (May 27, 2015 | Duke Magazine )
- Mary Cummings: Drones and the future of war (May 22, 2015 | Australian Broadcasting )
- Mary “Missy” Cummings quoted: Planes without pilots (Apr 7, 2015 | The New York Times )
- What To Do About Drones (Jan 29, 2015 | CNN )
Representative Publications
- Cummings, ML; Quimby, PW, The power of collective intelligence in a signal detection task, Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, vol 19 no. 3 (2018), pp. 375-388 [10.1080/1463922X.2017.1381776] [abs].
- Nneji, VC; Cummings, ML; Stimpson, A; Goodrich, KH, Functional requirements for remotely managing fleets of on-demand passenger aircraft, AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, 2018 no. 210059 (2018) [10.2514/6.2018-2007] [abs].
- Cummings, MM, Informing Autonomous System Design Through the Lens of Skill-, Rule-, and Knowledge-Based Behaviors (2017), pp. 155534341773646-155534341773646 [10.1177/1555343417736461] [abs].
- Stimpson, AJ; Tucker, MB; Ono, M; Steffy, A; Cummings, ML, Modeling risk perception for mars rover supervisory control: Before and after wheel damage, Ieee Aerospace Conference Proceedings (2017) [10.1109/AERO.2017.7943871] [abs].
- Elfar, M; Zhu, H; Raghunathan, A; Tay, YY; Wubbenhorst, J; Cummings, ML; Pajic, M, WiP abstract: Platform for security-aware design of human-on-the-loop cyber-physical systems, Proceedings 2017 Acm/Ieee 8th International Conference on Cyber Physical Systems, Iccps 2017 (Part of Cps Week) (2017) [10.1145/3055004.3064846] [abs].