We solve complex research, engineering, and analytical problems that present critical challenges to our nation. APL—the nation’s largest university affiliated research center—provides U.S. government agencies with deep expertise in specialized fields to support national priorities and technology development programs. We also serve as independent trusted technical agents to the government, providing continuity for highly complex, multigenerational technology development systems.
Our purpose is to make critical contributions to critical challenges. At APL, we feel it is our responsibility to try to solve these national challenges with the full measure of our dedication and expertise.
The Lab’s core values are unquestionable integrity, trusted service to the nation, world-class expertise, and game-changing impact—all in an environment that is collaborative, fulfilling (and even fun!).
APL’s purpose and core values guide our future, and it is no less than to create defining innovations that ensure our nation’s preeminence in the 21st century.
November 16, 2018
Engineers at APL and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory have developed software that enables autonomous bomb-defusing robots to turn themselves back over, right side up, if they ever get flipped the wrong way.
November 8, 2018
APL staff members earned first place overall and Election Forecaster honors in the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity Geopolitical Forecasting Challenge.
November 2, 2018
APL’s Society of Women Engineers chapter (SWE@APL) has been honored with the society’s Mission and Best Practices awards.
October 30, 2018
Parker Solar Probe, designed, built and operated by APL, is now the fastest human-made object in the solar system, and the closest-ever spacecraft to the Sun.
October 26, 2018
APL engineers, in cooperation with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy sailors aboard the U.S.S. John Finn (DDG-113), played a key role in the successful live-fire intercept using the new Standard Missile-3 Block IIA guided missile during an October 26, 2018, flight test off the west coast of Hawaii.
October 25, 2018
APL researchers have developed a mixed reality system that improves the ability to detect social signals and emotional displays in real time.
October 15, 2018
After 13 years and a very successful exploration of Saturn, NASA’s Cassini mission dared to venture where no spacecraft had gone before. The results of this so-called “Grand Finale” have yielded a trove of discoveries, described by many APL scientists in the journals Science and Geophysical Review Letters.
October 12, 2018
A new publication from the National Academy of Medicine, led in part by APL researchers, shows how our health care system’s lack of interoperability — the ability to seamlessly and automatically deliver data across time and space from and to multiple devices and organizations — results in waste, inefficiency and clinician burnout, which can contribute to patient safety risk.
October 1, 2018
A new study by APL and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine will explore similarities in how the mind and robot swarms plan navigation, and drive advances in the study of both subjects.
September 27, 2018
APL engineers traveled on the USS Carl Vinson this summer to demonstrate light fidelity (Li-Fi), a next-generation secure mobile networking technology for wireless communication between devices using light to transmit data and position.
September 4, 2018
A new paper from APL Senior Fellow Dr. Paul Stockton examines how power companies can partner with the Department of Energy to defeat attacks on the U.S. electric system.
August 30, 2018
The first-ever mission to demonstrate an asteroid deflection technique for planetary defense has moved into the final design and assembly phase.
August 29, 2018
The APL-built spacecraft makes its first detection of the Kuiper Belt object it will fly past on New Year’s Day 2019.
August 22, 2018
A team in APL’s Force Projection Sector is tackling a challenge that is critical to hypersonics: accurately predicting the state of the boundary layer, or the thin layer of air near the surface of these incredibly fast-moving vehicles.
August 16, 2018
Recently, three midshipmen interns got a unique opportunity to share their work with the Laboratory’s Navy Cyber Forum, a collection of senior subject matter experts from across APL who coordinate and collaborate on cyber issues.
August 12, 2018
Parker Solar Probe — designed, built and managed for NASA by APL — launched from Florida on Sunday, Aug. 12, to begin its journey to the Sun, where it will undertake a landmark mission to investigate our star.
August 2, 2018
Health systems engineers at APL are working with the Navy to expand the role of Navy hospital corpsmen stateside and improve access to medical care for military members through a pilot program called Connected Corpsmen in the Community (CCC).
