Lincoln Laboratory
MIT Lincoln Laboratory, also known as Lincoln Lab, is a federally funded research and development center managed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and funded by the United States Department of Defense. Lincoln Lab is located at Hanscom Field in the town of Lexington, Massachusetts, and was founded in 1951.
In 1950, MIT undertook a summer study, named Project Charles, to explore the feasibility of establishing a major laboratory focused on air defense. The summer study recommended the establishment of a laboratory, named Project Lincoln, (later renamed Lincoln Laboratory) to be operated by MIT for the Army, Navy and Air Force. In the early years, the most important developments to come out of Lincoln Lab were SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment), a nationwide network of radar and anti-aircraft weapons linked to digital computers conceived by professor George E. Valley, and the DEW Line (Distant Early Warning Line), a radar surveillance system placed along the polar gateway to the United States.
