Payton Clem is a second-year Master of Science student in Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, working in the Vehicle Stability and Controls Laboratory (VSCL). She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, with minors in Mathematics and Astrophysics, in Fall 2023.
During her undergraduate studies in Dr. Daniel Selva’s SEAKERS lab, she contributed to a NASA SBIR project on systems engineering and led a capstone team designing a satellite constellation for L3Harris. Her interest in artificial intelligence applications in aerospace engineering led her to join VSCL.
At VSCL, her research primarily involves developing a reinforcement learning controller for a target tracking problem involving a hostile target, with environmental factors like wind and sun incorporated for concealment (Robust Threat Detection, sponsored by the Army Research Laboratory). She is also contributing to the Cycle of Learning project, also sponsored by ARL, which investigates leveraging human modalities in AI training.
Through these projects and her broader work in the lab, she has gained extensive experience in conducting and managing flight tests to validate her research. Her primary interests lie in autonomous, nonlinear guidance, navigation, and control for aerial systems, as well as flight testing.