 MIT 's involvement in military research surged during World War II . In 1941 , Vannevar Bush was appointed head of the federal Office of Scientific Research and Development and directed funding to only a select group of universities , including MIT . Engineers and scientists from across the country gathered at MIT 's Radiation Laboratory , established in 1940 to assist the British military in developing microwave radar . The work done there significantly affected both the war and subsequent research in the area . Other defense projects included gyroscope @-@ based and other complex control systems for gunsight , bombsight , and inertial navigation under Charles Stark Draper 's Instrumentation Laboratory ; the development of a digital computer for flight simulations under Project Whirlwind ; and high @-@ speed and high @-@ altitude photography under Harold Edgerton . By the end of the war , MIT became the nation 's largest wartime R & D contractor ( attracting some criticism of Bush ) , employing nearly 4000 in the Radiation Laboratory alone and receiving in excess of $ 100 million ( $ 1 @.@ 2 billion in 2015 dollars ) before 1946 . Work on defense projects continued even after then . Post @-@ war government @-@ sponsored research at MIT included SAGE and guidance systems for ballistic missiles and Project Apollo . 
