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|2021|7}}, the current acting director is Prof. Sertac Karaman.<ref>[{{Cite web |title=Sertac Karaman's personal website |url=https://karaman.mit.edu/ ''Sertac|access-date=2023-12-21 Karaman,'' Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at M|website=karaman.I.Tmit.]edu}}</ref><ref>[http://ssg.mit.edu/~willsky/ ''Alan S. Willsky,'' Edwin Sibley Webster Retired Professor of Electrical Engineering at M.I.T.] {{Archive url|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010710015115/http://ssg.mit.edu/~willsky/|date=2001-07-10}}</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>
