Advisor
Raghvendra V. Cowlagi is an Associate Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department at WPI. Previously, he obtained a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2011; worked as a postdoctoral researcher at MIT; and worked as a researcher at Aurora Flight Sciences Corp., Cambridge, MA. He is a recipient of several honors including an AFOSR Young Investigator Program award and an AFRL Summer Faculty Fellowship. He serves as Associate Editor on the IEEE Control Systems Society Conference Editorial Board and is a member of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation, & Control Technical Committee.
He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and Senior Member of the AIAA.
He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and Senior Member of the AIAA.
Current Graduate Students
Prakash Poudel is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in the Aerospace Engineering Department at WPI. Prior to joining ACE Lab in 2022, he obtained an M.Tech. degree in Mechanical and Materials Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, India and a B.E. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel, Nepal. His research interests include optimal sensor placement, motion planning, estimation, and control systems.
Nachiket Bapat is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in the Aerospace Engineering Department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Prior to joining ACE Lab in 2022, he obtained an M.S degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a B. tech degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from National Institute of technology, Nagpur, India. His research interests include deep generative networks, physics informed machine learning, mathematics and control theory.
Keval Shah is pursuing an M.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering. He graduated with an M.S. in Robotics Engineering from WPI and joined the ACE Lab in May 2023. His research interests are planning and controls for autonomous vehicles.
Jeffrey DesRoches, Maj, USAF is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in the Aerospace Engineering Department at WPI. Prior to joining ACE Lab in 2023, he obtained an M.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, OH and a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Air Force Academy, CO. His research interests include optimal sensor placement, optimal path planning, estimation, system identification and control systems.
Alex Ballentine is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering. She obtained a B. S. degree in AE from WPI, with a minor in Mathematics, in May '24 and expects to complete an M. S. degree in December '24. She joined ACE Lab in Fall '23 for her undergraduate capstone design project. Her research interests are in autonomy, controls, and reinforcement learning.
Maria Wojciechowski is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering. Prior to joining ACE Lab in the fall of 2024, she completed a B.S. and an M.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from WPI. Her research interests include path planning, optimal sensor placement, and control systems.
Marina Nelson is a research engineer at ACE Lab. She obtained B.S. and M.S. degrees in Aersopace Engineering from WPI in May '24. She joined ACE Lab in Fall '23 for her undergraduate capstone design project. Her research interests are in autonomy and robotics.
Alumni
- Anathalakshmy Krishna Moorthy: Postdoctoral scholar, 2022-23, now at WPI
- Chase St. Laurent: Ph.D., 2022, now at EpiSci
- Jie Fang: Ph.D., 2020, now at MathWorks, Inc.
- Ruixiang Du: M.S., 2020, now at Weston Robots
- Benjamin Cooper: Ph.D., 2019, now at BAE Systems
- Zetian Zhang: Ph.D., 2019, now at Waymo
