Zach Noonan

Zach Noonan, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab & Center for Transportation and Logistics.

Dr. Noonan’s research is focused on understanding driver behavior with and without the use of automation and advanced driver assist systems. Much of his work at the MIT AgeLab is in the domain of naturistic driving and the adoption of automated features, comparisons of human and automated maneuvers, and changes in behavior associated with automated driving. Dr. Noonan’s research seeks to inform the design of safer, smarter, and more efficient automated driving features.

Before joining the MIT AgeLab, Dr. Noonan received his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Iowa where he studied driver safety and human factors with Dr. Dan McGehee at the National Advanced Driving Simulator and Applied Cognitive Engineering Lab. As a graduate student, he worked on modeling social interactions between human and automated driving agents. Prior to that, Dr. Noonan studied medical human factors and decision-making in the University of Iowa Cognitive and Information Systems Laboratory. Dr. Noonan also has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree in Biomedical Engineering.