Dr. Masahiro (Hiro) Ono is an Associate Professor at the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech and Director of the Planetary Robotics Lab (PRL). Prior to joining Georgia Tech, he spent 13 years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he developed autonomous navigation algorithms for the Perseverance Mars rover, led the development of EELS (Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor)—a snake-like robot designed to explore the potentially habitable subsurface ocean of Enceladus—and led multiple research initiatives in physical AI and robotics. He also served as Supervisor of JPL’s Robotic Surface Mobility Group and as a rover operator for Perseverance. Before JPL, he was on the faculty at Keio University in Japan. Dr. Ono is also the author of three books for young readers, and a father of a rebellious princess and a mischievous munchkin.