Alumni

Corey graduated with a Ph.D. in Aerospace engineering in Summer 2024. He graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Ohio State University and in 2020 with a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from UT Austin. His research focus centers on guidance, navigation, and control of spacecraft with an emphasis on machine vision, descent and landing, and hardware in the loop testing. Corey is the recipient of a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity fellowship. Upon graduation, Corey joined Blue Origin in Kent, Washington.

Arjun graduated with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in May 2023. He graduated in 2016 from BITS Pilani, India, with a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and in 2019 from UT Austin with a Masters in Aerospace Engineering. His research focuses on heterogeneous robot coordination and planning, with interests in control and navigation of quadrotors. Arjun completed the Graduate Portfolio Program in Robotics Portfolio. His Ph.D. dissertation is titled: “Onboard Control, Tracking, and Navigation for Autonomous Systems”. After leaving the group, Arjun joined Apple Maps in Cupertino, California.

Sehyun graduated with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in May 2021. From June 2021 until April 2022 he continued his work in the group as a PostDoc. He graduated from Handong Global University, South Korea, with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical and Control Engineering in 2012 and from Seoul National University with a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering in 2014. His Ph.D. dissertation is titled: “Sequential Monte Carlo Filtering with Gaussian Mixture Models for Highly Nonlinear Systems“. For his paper titled: “Kernel-Based Ensemble Gaussian Mixture Filtering for Orbit Determination with Sparse Data” Sehyun received the John V. Breakwell Student Travel Award at the 2021 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference. His research focuses on integrated navigation systems with particular interest in image processing and Bayesian filtering. After leaving the group, Sehyun joined Hyundai autonomous driving group in Seul, South Korea.

Rahul graduated with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in May 2021. His dissertation is titled: “Adaptive Algorithms for Identification of Symmetric and Positive Definite Matrices“. He joined the research group in Summer 2017, prior to that he graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India, with a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering in 2015 and from The University of Texas at Austin in 2017 with a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering. His field of interest lies in using control theory and blending different fields in robotics with real world applications. Together with his Ph.D., Rahul completed the Graduate Portfolio Program in Robotics Portfolio. Upon graduation, Rahul joined Amazon‘s Scout robot team in Seattle, WA.

Simone graduated with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in May 2021. His dissertation is titled: “New Developments In Nonlinear Filtering Using Differential Algebra“. He joined the research group in Summer 2018. He graduated from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, with a Bachelor degree in Aerospace Engineering in 2015 and with a Master degree in Space Engineering in 2017. His research focuses on nonlinear filtering for GN&C applications, with particular focus on relative pose estimation between satellites. At UT, Simone worked on the development of nonlinear filters using polynomial approximations. For his paper titled: “Estimation of the Conditional State and Covariance with Taylor Polynomials”, Simone received the John V. Breakwell Student Travel Award at the 2021 AAS/AIAA Space-Flight Mechanics Meeting. Upon graduation, Simone joined MIT’s ARCLab as a Post-Doc followed by a tenure-track faculty position at Iowa State University.

Kirsten graduated with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in August 2020, her dissertation is titled: Model Selection for Gaussian Mixture Model Filtering and Sensor Scheduling. She graduated from Auburn University in 2014 with undergraduate degrees in Aerospace Engineering and in Applied Mathematics and from The University of Texas at Austin in 2016 with a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering. Together with her Ph.D., Kirsten completed the Graduate Portfolio Program in Applied Statistical Modeling. Her research focuses on spacecraft navigation with interests in estimation theory, Bayesian statistical inference, information theory, and prediction. Upon graduation, Kirsten joined Draper in Cambridge, MA.

Andrey was a NEAR postdoc from Fall 2022 until Summer 2024, he joined the University of Hawaii at Manoa as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science in August 2024. Andrey obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech (VT), and his B.S. in Mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). During the course of his Ph.D., Andrey has worked on ensemble filtering techniques including work with multifidelity data assimilation and with covariance shrinkage. He has also worked on extending and applying non-linear dimensionality reduction techniques to constructing efficient reduced order models for use in scientific applications. Andrey’s other interests include data-driven science, knowledge-guided machine learning, and time integration. For his paper titled “Are Non-Gaussian Kernels Suitable for Ensemble Mixture Model Filtering” Andrey received the Jean-Pierre Le Cadre best paper award at the 2024 FUSION conference.

Bryan completed a Masters of Science in Engineering in August 2020, his Master Thesis is titled: “Spacecraft Terrain Relative Navigation with Synthetic Aperture Radar”. He joined the research group in Fall 2018. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 2018. His research interest is in guidance, navigation, and control with a focus on terrain relative navigation. Upon graduation, Bryan joined Northrop Grumman in Dulles, VA.

James completed a Masters of Science in Engineering in May 2019, his Master Report is titled: “Estimation for Spacecraft Docking with a Known Target”. James joined the research group in Summer 2017, his main research interest is GN&C for spacecraft proximity operations, with other interests in quadrotors and computer vision. Upon graduation, James joined Tau Technologies in Albuquerque, NM.