Michael (Mick) West joined ECE from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) in 2022. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Hawaii (UH) in 2006 and has over 28 years of professional experience with over 40 refereed journals and conference papers. 

West specializes in the development unmanned systems in extreme environments (under-ice, planetary, deep ocean, polar). He has been an invited speaker for United States Congressional leaders and their staff and top military personnel in the development of roadmaps for advancing current robotics research. He has served as PI on several Unmanned Systems programs developing novel enabling technologies including advanced control and power systems on underwater, ground, air and space platforms. West developed the first-of-its-kind under-ice vehicle, Icefin, in order to gather information about the changing polar ice and provide insight into areas of climate science, as well as biology and planetary science. The vehicle has been deployed over five seasons through the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica and provided never before seen images and scientific data of the Antarctic seafloor.