Employment History
- 2018 – Present: Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.
- 2014 – 2018: Research Aerospace Engineer, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA.
- 2011 – 2014: NASA Space Technology Research Fellow, Boulder, CO and Hampton, VA.
- 2010 – 2011: Graduate Research Assistant, Boulder, CO.
- 2007 – 2010: Engineer, FAAC Incorporated, Ann Arbor, MI.
Education
- 2014: Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder.
- 2012: M.S. in Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder.
- 2007: B.S.E. in Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan.
Career Highlights
- Advised 4 students to Ph.D. degrees and 2 students to M.S. thesis-option degrees.
- FASER Lab alumni went on to work at (among other places) 3 NASA centers, 1 research lab, and 1 space startup.
- 20 peer-reviewed publications (9 journal articles) and 26 additional publications at conferences, workshops, and popular science venues.
- 22 external sponsorships totaling $2.6M to FASER Lab.
- One patent: US Patent 11,989,009.
- Designed 5 graduate courses and heavily modified 2 undergraduate courses.
- Advisor to a student who was awarded a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Fellowship (2021-2025).
- NASA Space Technology Research Fellow (2011-2014).
- NASA Early Career Achievement Medal (2019).
Roles and Service
- Secretary/Treasurer (2019-2021) and Chair (2021-2023) of the AIAA Space Automation and Robotics Technical Committee.
- NSTGRO review panelist.
- NASA Early Career Faculty review panelist.
- Reviewer for IEEE Robotics Automation – Letters, Mechatronics, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robotic Systems, International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering.
- Organizer for the 2019 Space Robotics Workshop at Robotics: Science and Systems.
- Program committee for the 2018 International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotics Systems and the 2017 Robot Communication in the Wild Workshop at Robotics: Science and Systems.
- Within Virginia Tech:
- Senior Design Project Expo Judge, 2026.
- Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering undergraduate scholarship review committee, 2025 to present.
- Robotics, Autonomous and Dynamical Systems Distinguished Speaker selection committee, 2023.
- Worked with Virginia Tech’s Center for Engineering Excellence and Discovery (CEED) to give talk to visiting students in the TechGirls program, 2023.
- Author of two Qualifying Exams for Mechanical Engineering, 2019 – 2020.
- Faculty advisor to the Virginia Tech team for the NASA RASC-AL Moon to Mars Ice & Prospecting Challenge competition, 2019.
- Worked with organizers with the National Society of Black Engineers’ (NSBE) Pre-College Initiative Program to host a hands-on robotic demonstration session with a group of high school students from all over Virginia, 2018.
- Locally:
- Gave talk to first graders at Falling Branch Elementary School about planets and moons, 2025.
- Give tour and distributed 3D-printed lunar rocks to fifth graders from Kipps Elementary School, 2025 to present.
Talks
- Field and Space Experimental Robotics Laboratory Research Update. Brief (5 – 10 minute) overview presentations given to AIAA Space Automation and Robotics Technical Committee, each of April 2020, November 2020, April 2021, November 2021, May 2022, November 2023.
- Error Detection and Handling in Autonomous OSAM. On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing Workshop, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, October 2021.
- Robustness for Autonomous Multi-Agent Manipulation and Assembly Under Uncertainty. Space Robotics Workshop at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Virtual, June 2020.
- Autonomous In-Space Assembly and Servicing: Recent Research and the Path to Practice. University of Washington Seminar Series, December 2019.
- Planning for In-Space Assembly, from Design to Servicing. AIAA Spacecraft Structures Workshop, Caltech, July 2019.
- Autonomous In-Space Assembly: Recent Advances and Future Applications. University of Michigan Seminar Series, November 2018.