Long history; new horizons

For years colleges have had great relationships with the Air Force, beginning between 1920 and 1923 when the first Air Force Reserve Officer Training Course units were established. In recent years the relationship between the Air Force and MIT has strengthened even more with the creation of the Department of the Air Force-MIT Artificial Intelligence Accelerator. The program is a collaboration between the Air Force and MIT to create new technology that will help the Air Force better complete their mission.

With the demands of this new program came the need for interns and the first place they looked was Detachment 365 which is based out of MIT, but also serves Harvard University, Tufts University, and Wellesley College. "I think it was the January or February timeframe of 2020 that Dr. Jeremy Kepner from Lincoln Laboratory came to us and said 'We have ROTC cadets with these resumes who would like to continue to work on these projects,'" said Capt. Victor Lopez, DAF-MIT AIA project lead for reconnaissance. "I think all of us thought about it and said this is a really great opportunity. We’re already at this university."