I am happy to announce that for the first time my group is participating in the MIT-UF-NEU 2026 Joint Summer Research Camp. Applications are open until April 17. More info in thread and here: www.wucathy.com/prospective/
Cathy Wu
@cathywu.bsky.social
AI & Transportation | MIT Associate Professor Interests: AI for good, sociotechnical systems, machine learning, optimization, reinforcement learning, public policy, gov tech, open science. Science is messy and beautiful. http://www.wucathy.com
If pure AI or pure search isn't working for you, consider learning-guided optimization! This approach combines the best of both worlds; our most recent work demonstrates this for coordinating agents in warehouse robotics.
MIT prof @cathywu.bsky.social suspected that nav apps inaccurately calculate “time to arrive,” esp re: parking. In a new paper, she and colleagues built a model to direct urban drivers to garages that best balance proximity and likelihood of an open spot. Result: Drivers could save up to 35 min.
Parking-aware navigation system could prevent frustration and emissions
By minimizing the need to drive around looking for a parking spot, this technique can save drivers up to 35 minutes — and give them a realistic estimate of total travel time.
news.mit.edu
What's an energy-efficient way to shovel snow? Introducing eco-shoveling*, a two-stage technique to handle snow accumulation, while conserving energy in preparation for more shoveling later... Built to withstand three winter storms.
Did something happen to the “my bangers” feed of your top bluesky posts? Is there an alternative?
New research from @cathywu.bsky.social et al. confirms something I've long suspected: Navigation apps could save their users a lot of time — and tilt travel decisions toward transit and biking — if they showed users how long it takes to find parking.
Parking-aware navigation system could prevent frustration and emissions
By minimizing the need to drive around looking for a parking spot, this technique can save drivers up to 35 minutes — and give them a realistic estimate of total travel time.
news.mit.edu
Have you noticed how navigation apps include walking & waiting for public transit, but excludes parking & walking for driving? After being late a few times 😅, we finally did. We got curious: what if these apps account for parking?
📣 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗱𝗼𝗰 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗽! I’m looking to hire 𝟭–𝟮 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗱𝗼𝗰𝘀 to work with us across the group’s research areas, including: 🤖 Deep reinforcement learning 🚦 Traffic modeling & control 🧠 Neural combinatorial optimization
Prospective Members
Faster, evidence-based decisions for sociotechnical systems
cathywu.github.io
I'm gearing up for next week's Hype Studies conference in Barcelona, so I'm thinking about this stuff a lot. @davekarpf.bsky.social makes some great points here, but there's a 'Yes and...'
Tesla's Roadmap to Nowhere
I'll give him this: Elon Musk has a solid grasp of futurity-as-PR.
davekarpf.substack.com
We should be asking ourselves more what research should be done vs what research can be done
Jay Patel@infotainment.bsky.social · 12mo ago"Can Large Language Models" returns 8k+ hits on Google Scholar. "Should Large Language Models" returns 73 hits. Before asking can...?, ask should...? and you'll save yourself a year's worth of research in some cases.
🔥 New workshop at @neuripsconf.bsky.social! DiffCoALG bridges the gap between classic algorithms & differentiable learning. Think: LLM reasoning, routing, SAT, MIP — neurally optimized. 📌 Submit by Aug 22! 🤖🧠 🔗 sites.google.com/view/diffcoa... #NeurIPS2025
DiffCoALG@NeurIPS 2025
About this Workshop Combinatorial algorithms are fundamental across a wide range of domains, owing to their ability to model optimization and decision-making tasks under complex constraints. These alg...
sites.google.com
This project was 4 years in the making and it's finally out! We found that controlling vehicle speeds to mitigate traffic across a city can cut carbon emissions between 11 and 22 percent. To do this, we used deep reinforcement learning to optimize one million eco-driving scenarios. 🚗🤖🧠
A new study led by Prof. Cathy Wu and colleagues reveals that eco-driving measures, such as dynamically adjusting vehicle speeds to reduce stopping and excessive acceleration, can cut carbon emissions between 11 and 22 percent. news.mit.edu/2025/eco-dri...
Eco-driving measures could significantly reduce vehicle emissions
Implementing co-driving techniques, like the use of intelligent speed controls to mitigate congestion at traffic lights, can significantly reduce intersection carbon dioxide emissions without…
news.mit.edu
We’ve got an awesome workshop tomorrow at RLC on real-world RL! Also, I’m moderating the panel, so let me know if you have questions about applying RL. 🤖🧠🤖
RL for Real Systems @RLC2025@rl4rsworkshop.bsky.social · last yr.📍 The RL4RS Workshop is happening tomorrow at University of Alberta, as part of @rl-conference.bsky.social. Join us for a focused day on real-world applications of Reinforcement Learning. 🗓️ Full Schedule: rl4rs.github.io/RL4RS/schedu... We hope to see you there.
Propose some socials for RLC! Research topics, affinity groups, niche interests, whatever comes to mind! rl-conference.cc/call_for_soc...
RLC Call for Workshops
rl-conference.cc
Trying to make Ai2 so effective that people start seriously referring to us as "American DeepSeek" 🙏 lots of hard work to do.
Hiring a postdoc to scale up and deploy RL-based planning onto some self-driving cars! We'll be building on arxiv.org/abs/2502.03349 and learn what the limits and challenges of RL planning are. Shoot me a message if interested and help spread the word please! Full posting to come in a bit.
Robust Autonomy Emerges from Self-Play
Self-play has powered breakthroughs in two-player and multi-player games. Here we show that self-play is a surprisingly effective strategy in another domain. We show that robust and naturalistic drivi...
arxiv.org
This is soooooo fun and so blazingly fast.
Obsidian@obsidian.md · last yr.Obsidian 1.9.2 (early access) is available with improvements for Bases: - Formula syntax is more expressive and powerful. - Added number of results in the current view. - Table cells with long text expand to show the entire content when selected. - Operator dropdown for filters is now searchable.
![The new formula syntax is more flexible, easier to use, and better suited to extensibility. For those familiar with Javascript, the new syntax should feel familiar. New functions and types are described in our docs.
Some highlights include:
Functions are now object-oriented. Instead of contains(file.name, "Books"), the formula would be file.name.contains("Books").
Functions can now be chained. e.g. property.split(' ').sort()[0].lower()
Property names are no longer wrapped in backticks (`). Instead, to reference properties with spaces or special characters, the syntax is note["Property Name"]
There is a new type system which provides greater control when writing formulas.
New functions, such as link, date and list for converting a value to a different type.
New file properties: file.path, file.links (a list of all internal links in this file), and file.tags (a list of all tags in this file, including frontmatter).
Some functions have been replaced by comparison operators. For example, dateBefore(date1, date2) is now date1 < date2.
Date modifications are now much simpler. Instead of dateModify(date, string), you can use date + string, for example, date("01/01/2025") + "1 year"
For help migrating existing Bases to the new syntax, take a look at the migration guide.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:u5cgub464m4dfjyjgx5f24y3/bafkreigaalc6p2sx4dlwa4iqejvs7i4c7cmm24cb44co3lmulqsu4xy5oa)
Feeling like a fish learning about water. Insightful thread
D. Hicks@danhicks.bsky.social · last yr.Because science typically has practical aims, the standards of good science need to go *beyond* truth. Just exemplifying those epistemic values at the top of the thread isn't good enough. Science should be "fit-for-purpose." 6/ link.springer.com/10.1007/s131...
I’m incredibly happy to have found metascience bluesky. Science is messy and beautiful, and there is a group of people thinking hard about how and why.
I’m pretty shocked. I was just appointed to a serve on a standing committee in April. TRB has definitely helped me find my footing in the field.
Alex Karner@alexkarner.bsky.social · last yr.TRB is dissolving all committees. This wasn't unexpected, but they're couching it in a technocratic need to "get back to basics" and ease administrative burden when in fact it's a great big shit sandwich that we're all expected to eat and not make a fuss about.
Organizations and conferences that have the potential to partially fill the void left by TRB (a thread):
Science is a journey not a destination.
Berna Devezer@devezer.bsky.social · last yr.Lastly to round up the 🧵: Science works doesn't mean every scientific study produces a fact ready for public consumption. Scientific work is incremental, iterative, nonlinear, slow, imperfect, relentless. Continuous improvement upon what was. Science works not despite but because of many failures.
This is the way to cross a freeway. 😍 Breathtaking walkway across SR-520 in Redmond, WA at Microsoft Campus🚶♀️🚲🛣️
Great advice in here. “Aim to have such a high growth rate that you cringe looking back at yourself a year ago.”
Jesper Dr.amsch @jesper.drams.ch · last yr.Want to get ahead in your early career? 👩💼🚀 Check out Celine Halioua's advice for early career professionals! 🌟📈
As citizens concerned about the future #STEM #workforce, we want to hear stories and impacts of #federal #funding cuts on early career #scientists. Take the surveys by June 6! @scienceforgood.bsky.social @jpflores.rbind.io Impacts survey: bit.ly/3Z1aFPj Stories survey: bit.ly/3Sghx7R #savescience
📣 I will be giving two talks this week at the TRB DATA conference in Seattle, which explores the intersection of transportation, artificial Intelligence, and data analysis. I love these practitioner + researcher conferences. 🤖🧠👇
📣 #RERITE 's first conference presentation will take place tomorrow at the Transportation Research Symposium at Rotterdam in The Netherlands! 🚂🛣️ We use Large Language Models (LLMs) to measure the state of data & code availability in transportation research. Join to learn: 👇
