I am an assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with cross-appointments (0%) to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Coordinated Science Laboratory, and an affiliate position at the Discovery Partners Institute in Chicago.

My loyalties broadly lie with control and autonomy; my students, postdocs, and I compose the LEADCAT (LEArning, Decision, Control, AuTonomy) research group. I am most interested in the intersection of control and data in complex environments. The broad question that I am exploring is: How to ensure safe and performant behavior of systems operating in scenarios where only limited knowledge of the system and the environment is available? Please visit my Research page to learn more about our work.

Apart from research, I take enormous joy in teaching, and I am excited to think about how to best succeed at our important educational mission. Along with communicating technical material, I believe a primary job of an instructor is to support the students’ creativity, individuality, and well-being. Consequently, I am immensely proud to be a Faculty Mental Health Ambassador.

I am honored to be organizing a Workshop Series on Autonomous and Resilient Transportation Systems, supported by a grant from BRIDGE: the BiRmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, EnGagement, and Education. The second workshop in the series will take place in Urbana-Champaign in 2025, and we expect to organize virtual engagement activities throughout the year. Please let me know if you are at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign or University of Birmingham and interested in participating.

Students and Postdocs

I am always interested in advising incoming graduate students or postdocs in systems control, autonomy, and learning. While financial capabilities might depend on the moment and opportunity, please contact me if you wish to discuss further.