The laboratory traces its beginnings to the [[MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory]], where work on guidance systems and early computation was done during [[World War II]].
Known as ''LIDS'', the laboratory has hosted several luminaries over the years, including [[Claude Shannon]] and [[Dave Forney|David Forney]]. {{As of|20142023|0710}}, the current acting director is Prof. [[Alan S.Sertac Willsky]]Karaman.<ref>[https://lidskaraman.mit.edu/people/facultypi/alan-willsky ''Alan S.Sertac WillskyKaraman,'' Edwin Sibley Webster Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (retired) at M.I.T.]</ref><ref>[http://ssg.mit.edu/~willsky/ ''Alan S. Willsky,'' Edwin Sibley Webster Retired Professor of Electrical Engineering at M.I.T.]</ref><ref>[http://ssg.mit.edu/~willsky/bio_short.htm Biography of Alan S. Willsky.]</ref><ref name="NAE3">[http://www.nae.edu/MembersSection/MemberDirectory/31139.aspx ''Alan S. Willsky'' was elected in 2010] as a member of [[National Academy of Engineering]] in Electronics, Communication & Information Systems Engineering for contributions to model-based [[signal processing]] and [[statistical inference]].</ref>
