Annika Thomas

Hey! My name is Annika Thomas and I’m in my 4th year of pursing my Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where I work with Jonathan P. How in the Aerospace Controls Laboratory. Prior to joining MIT, I obtained a B.S. in Mathematics and Physics from The College of Idaho and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University in the City of New York.

My primary research interests are centered around robotic perception in multi-agent systems. My research is driven by a desire to create environment representations that are both compact and context-rich, with the ultimate goal of creating a platform for autonomous systems to meaningfully understand and interact with the environment. Recently, my research has focused on these key areas:

• Perception and Localization: I am investigating ways to improve environment representations for autonomous agents to efficiently and compactly localize in open-set environments: SOS-Match (IROS 2024), ROMAN (IROS Long-Term Localization Workshop; arXiv preprint), PUMA (ICRA 2024), Object-Based Global Localization in Unstructured Environments (IROS 2023). I am one of the lead organizers of the MIT Perception and Localization Seminar.
• Autonomy in Space: I am interested in the applications of robust perception and mapping methods for applications in extreme environments, such as on the moon and Mars. I integrated multi-agent operations into a systems architecture for a long-duration simulation on the moon for our award-winning NASA RASC-AL concept MARTEMIS and am currently leading team to develop navigation and perception algorithms for the Lunar Autonomy Challenge. I was invited to speak about enabling collaborative perception on Mars at TEDxMIT and how robotics will enable construction on the moon at TEDxBoston.

I am also passionate about advocating for underrepresented minorities in STEM. I regularly give talks, mentor students, and engage in outreach initiatives to empower and support the next generation of women pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.