Chris Leshikar ’20, a graduate research assistant in the Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory (VSCL), has been awarded the PhD Graduate Excellence Fellowship for Spring/Summer 2021. This competitive fellowship awards $20,000 over the span of 8 months , in addition to covering tuition and fees. All graduate research assistants within the department of aerospace engineering pursuing a PhD starting in Spring 2021 were considered for this Fellowship.
Leshikar has been an active member of VSCL since Spring 2017, focusing on system identification and nonlinear multiple-time-scale control theory. He graduated with a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering with Engineering Honors in December 2020. As a graduate research assistant in VSCL, Leshikar will be focusing his research on control of uncertain nonlinear multiple-time-scale systems and near real-time online system identification. Dr. John Valasek will serve as his research Advisor and Chair of dissertation committee.