Alumni

Dr. Sangwoo Moon, postdoctoral researcher in VSCL, has accepted a position as a Postdoctoral Fellow with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Moon will be working with the JPL Robotics Group, Robotic Aerial Mobility. His work at JPL will be mainly focused on communication-aware decision making and perception approaches for multi-robot systems. The work will include software development/integration for data fusion and multi-level planning/control, simulation verification/validation to assess the developed approaches, and hardware demonstration and evaluation with heterogeneous multi-robot systems with harsh communication environments.

Dr. Moon has worked with VSCL since March 2021. As a research engineer, he was involved in the hardware/software implementation for large hexacopter platforms. He particularly developed specialized hardware and software components for the vehicles consisting of a battery monitoring system, onboard computer set up for planning and guidance, and terrain-following algorithms. He worked with VSCL flight crews to evaluate the vehicles, in which his team including himself took flight tests of over 200 sorties and 60 hours of flight time. He contributed to the successful demonstration of a cooperative zone recon mission with four large hexarotors for searching unknown ground moving targets.

Dr. Dipanjan Saha, a December 2018 Ph.D. graduate of VSCL, has started a new position as a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University, effective 01 July 2020. Dipanjan has been selected to be part of Northeastern’s newly launched Experiential Artificial Intelligence (EAI) postdoc program. This program is meant to prepare the postdoctoral fellows towards a future career in Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) through courses and research. Dipanjan is mentored by Prof. Taskin Padir, and his research will develop novel AI techniques targeted at specific applications including robotics and healthcare. His Ph.D. dissertation investigated novel theories of control design for nonlinear, nonstandard multiple-time-scale systems with uncertainties and output feedback. Prior to his current position, he has pursued postdoctoral research at Texas A&M University on tensegrity systems and uncertainty quantification. He has also been the instructor of record for AERO 321 (Dynamics of Aerospace Vehicles) for three semesters, and a member of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Technical Committee.

Tiffany Williamson ‘07, a former member of the Texas A&M Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory and currently Senior Engineering Manager of Advanced Flightdeck Research and Concept Development at Collins Aerospace, is the 2019 Emerging Technology Leader of the Year from the Technology Association of Iowa.  The most prestigious recognition for Iowa’s technology industry, The Prometheus Awards presented by LWBJ brings together leaders from technology, business, education and government to celebrate the year’s most momentous innovations. The awards acknowledge individuals and companies impacting Iowa’s $11 billion technology industry, which accounts for 8.8 percent of the state’s GDP and employs over 88,400 workers. Finalists and award winners epitomize the great talent, companies and communities solidifying Iowa’s reputation as a technology state.  Finalists were selected based on their contributions to Iowa’s technology community through innovation, development of creative solutions, and demonstration of industry leadership.  Congratulations Tiffany, VSCL is very proud of you and your accomplishments!

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