Missy Cummings
Born
Mary Louise Cummings

1966 (age 57–58)
Academic background
EducationUnited States Naval Academy (BS)
Naval Postgraduate School (MS)
University of Virginia (PhD)
Academic work
InstitutionsPennsylvania State University
Virginia Tech
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Washington
Senior Advisor to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for Safety
Assumed office
October 2021
PresidentJoe Biden
Military service
Branch/service United States Navy
Years of service1988–1999

Mary Louise "Missy" Cummings[1] (born 1966) is an American academic who is a professor at Duke University and director of Duke's Humans and Autonomy Laboratory.[2] She was one of the United States Navy's first female fighter pilots.[3][4] In November 2021, Dr. Cummings joined the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Education

Cummings received her Bachelor of Science in mathematics from the United States Naval Academy in 1988, a Master of Science in space systems engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1994, and a PhD in systems engineering from the University of Virginia in 2004. Her doctoral thesis was Designing Decision Support Systems for Revolutionary Command and Control Domains.[1]

Career

Michael Toscano, Missy Cummings and Shane Harris at #FTdrones panel

Cummings spent eleven years (1988–1999) as a naval officer and military pilot, earning the rank of lieutenant, and was one of the United States Navy's first female fighter pilots, flying an F/A-18 Hornet.[5] She became a fighter pilot shortly after the Combat Exclusion Policy was repealed in 1993, and her book Hornet's Nest[6] recounts her experience with discrimination and hostility as one of the first women in the fighter pilot community. Her first call sign was Medusa[7] and her second was Shrew.[8]

For her last tour in the Navy, Cummings was an NROTC instructor at Pennsylvania State University. After the Navy, she became an assistant professor at Virginia Tech in the school's Engineering Fundamentals Division. After obtaining her PhD at the University of Virginia, she achieved the rank of associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She became a full professor at Duke University in 2016.[9] Cummings served on the Board of Directors for the automotive technology company Veoneer, Inc. from 2018 to 2021. She resigned and sold all of her shares in October 2021 prior to starting at the NHTSA.[10][11][12]

As of 2021, Cummings is the director of George Mason University's Autonomy and Robotics Center and a professor at the university.[13] She is an affiliate professor with the University of Washington’s Aeronautics and Astronautics Department and an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Fellow.[14]

NHTSA appointment and responses

In October 2021, the NHTSA named Cummings as a new senior advisor for safety at the NHTSA on a "temporary assignment" through the Intergovernmental Personnel Act.[15] Her appointment to the NHTSA was met with criticism from Tesla's CEO Elon Musk[16] and personal harassment and death threats from Tesla advocates[17][18] in response to her previous statements critical of Tesla.[19][20] U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg defended Cummings' appointment, and the NHTSA said that it was "look[ing] forward to leveraging her experience and leadership in safety and autonomous technologies."[21] National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy surmised the Tesla advocates' responses to be a "calculated attempt to distract from the real safety issues".[18] In January 2022, Cummings was required by NHTSA to recuse herself from any matters related to Tesla.[22]

Focus and views

Cummings's research interests include human supervisory control, artificial intelligence, human-autonomous system collaboration and human-robot interaction, human-systems engineering, and the socio-ethical impact of technology.[2] Cummings has written on the brittleness of machine learning[23] and future applications for drones.[24] In addition, she has spoken critically of the safety of Tesla's Full Self-Driving Capability surrounding its reliance on computer vision.[25][26]

References

  1. 1 2 One Hundred and Seventy-Fifth Final Exercises (PDF). University of Virginia. May 16, 2004. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  2. 1 2 Duke Humans and Autonomy Laboratory
  3. ↑ "Mary (Missy) Cummings". MIT Engineering Systems Division. Retrieved October 13, 2013.
  4. ↑ "MIT Sloan CIO Symposium: Missy Cummings". MIT Sloan CIO Symposium. 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  5. ↑ Fadulu, Lola (2018-04-26). "'I Don't Know How Professors Teach Without Fighter-Pilot Experience'". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
  6. ↑ Cummings, M. L., 1999. Hornet's Nest, entire book is under the sample chapter icon
  7. ↑ Cummings, M. L., 1999. Hornet's Nest, iUniverse.com
  8. ↑ The Daily Show - Missy Cummings Extended Interview
  9. ↑ "From fighter pilot to robotics pioneer: An interview with Missy Cummings | McKinsey". www.mckinsey.com. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
  10. ↑ "Board of Directors". Veoneer. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  11. ↑ "Resignation of Mary Louise Cummings from the Board of Directors – Becomes Senior Advisor At NHTSA". News Powered by Cision. Retrieved 2021-10-25.
  12. ↑ "EDGAR Filing Documents for 0001733186-21-000107". www.sec.gov. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  13. ↑ Ross, Philip E. (May 13, 2023). "A Former Pilot On Why Autonomous Vehicles Are So Risky - IEEE Spectrum". spectrum.ieee.org. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  14. ↑ "Momentum Member Spotlight – February 2016; AIAA Congratulates Mary Cummings". www.aiaa.org. Feb 12, 2016. Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  15. ↑ "Biden to tap No. 2 official to head U.S. auto safety agency". Reuters. 2021-10-19. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
  16. ↑ Shepardson, David (2021-10-21). "U.S. transport chief defends auto safety agency after Musk criticism". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-10-21.
  17. ↑ Zipper, David (2021-10-22). "The Anger of Tesla Fans Is Becoming a Problem". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
  18. 1 2 Matt McFarland (28 October 2021). "Tesla fan attacks on government's new safety advisor are 'calculated,' says head of safety agency". CNN. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  19. ↑ Ruffo, Gustavo Henrique (2021-10-20). "Tesla Bulls Panic After Missy Cummings Is Named Senior Adviser for Safety at NHTSA". autoevolution. Retrieved 2021-10-22.
  20. ↑ Walker, Alissa (2021-10-22). "A Federal Transportation Official Deleted Twitter to Avoid Elon Musk's Fans". Curbed. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
  21. ↑ "Tesla Fans, Musk Lash Out at NHTSA Safety Adviser as Biased". Bloomberg.com. 2021-10-20. Retrieved 2021-10-21.
  22. ↑ FitzGerald, Rebecca Elliott, Justin Scheck and Drew (2022-01-15). "Elon Musk's Tesla Asked Law Firm to Fire Associate Hired From SEC". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2022-05-13. Retrieved 2022-06-15.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. ↑ Cummings, Missy. "The Surprising Brittleness of AI" (PDF). Retrieved Oct 19, 2021.
  24. ↑ "Former fighter pilot Missy Cummings discusses drones | NYU School of Law". www.law.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
  25. ↑ Fedor, Lauren; Waters, Richard (2021-08-16). "US opens formal probe into Tesla's Autopilot technology". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 17 Aug 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
  26. ↑ Vassallo, Steve. "Missionary Misfits: Meet A Former Fighter Pilot, Current Autonomous Vehicles Road Warrior". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
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