Beckett Zhou

Portrait of Beckett Zhou
beckett.zhou@gatech.edu

Beckett Y. Zhou is an Assistant Professor at the Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research team focuses on developing efficient aerodynamic and aeroacoustics simulation and optimization frameworks, supported by multi-fidelity methodologies and data-driven methods. 

Zhou received his master's degree from MIT in 2012 and his Ph.D. from the RWTH Aachen University in 2018 with a thesis entitled ‘Numerical Optimization for Airframe Noise Reduction. He subsequently performed post-doctoral research with NASA Langley Research Center (hosted by the National Institute of Aerospace) on the topic of adjoint-based broadband noise reduction via stochastic noise generation. He was a Lecturer in Aeroacoustics at the University of Bristol between March 2021 and October 2024, leading the computational aeroacoustics research in the Department of Aerospace Engineering.

Assistant Professor
Office
Guggenheim 341
IRI and Role
Energy > Research Community
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
Research Areas
Energy
  • Aerospace

Glen Chou

Glen Chou
chou@gatech.edu

Glen Chou joined Georgia Tech as an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the School of Cybersecurity & Privacy and the School of Aerospace Engineering in November 2024. He directs the Trustworthy Robotics Lab, which designs principled algorithms that can enable general-purpose robots and autonomous systems to operate capably, safely, and securely, while remaining resilient to real-world failures and uncertainty. To achieve this, his research leverages control theory and machine learning, while connecting to optimization, computer vision, formal methods, planning, human-robot interaction, and statistics. Glen is interested in broad applications of autonomy, including robotic manipulation, vision-based navigation, aerospace, and large-scale cyber-physical systems more generally.

Glen is from Northern California. He holds dual B.S. degrees in EECS and ME from UC Berkeley, as well as an M.S. and Ph.D. in ECE from the University of Michigan. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Glen was a postdoc at MIT CSAIL.

Assistant Professor
Office
CODA E0962B
Additional Research
  • Control theory 
  • Formal methods
  • Human Robot Interaction
  • Machine learning
  • Optimization
  • Perception-based control
IRI and Role
Robotics > Core
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Computing > School of Cybersecurity and Privacy
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
Research Areas
Robotics
  • Safe, Secure, and Resilient Autonomy
  • Human-Centered Robotics
  • Manipulation and Locomotion

Sarah H.Q. Li

Sarah H.Q. Li - Assistant Professor; Aerospace Engineering
sarahli@gatech.edu

Sarah Li will join the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering in January 2025. Her research advances multi-agent models and algorithms to overcome challenges facing future air and space mobility systems. Her research lies at the intersection of game theory, stochastic control, and optimization to enable optimal and safe decision-making of autonomous systems in interactive settings. Sarah earned her Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Washington and her B.A.Sc. in Engineering Physics from the University of British Columbia. She is currently a postdoctoral scholar at ETH Zurich in Information Technology and Electrical Engineering. She was a 2020 Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellow and a 2022 University of Washington Condit Graduate Fellow. During her Ph.D., she interned with Microsoft Research to develop supply chain games and Loon to develop multi-disciplinary design optimization for stratospheric balloons.

Assistant Professor
Additional Research
  • Cyber-physical Systems
  • Game theory
  • Multi-agent Interactions
IRI and Role
Robotics > Core Faculty
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
Research Areas
Robotics
  • Safe, Secure, and Resilient Autonomy
  • Foundations of Robotics

Koki Ho

Koki Ho
kokiho@gatech.edu

Dr. Koki Ho is the Dutton-Ducoffe Professor, an Associate Professor, and the director of the Space Systems Optimization Group in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech. His research focuses on developing modeling and optimization methods for rigorous space mission analysis and design. Some of his specific research interests include (1) network modeling for campaign-level space mission design; (2) optimization and probabilistic modeling for in-space logistics infrastructure design and operations; (3) design, deployment, and maintenance of mega-scale satellite constellations; and (4) sensor management for space domain awareness. His unique research connecting logistics-based modeling, optimization, systems engineering, and space applications has provided a substantial impact on modern and future space missions that involve multiple missions, multiple vehicles, and reusable infrastructure elements. Dr. Ho earned his Ph.D. at MIT and his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Tokyo. He is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (2020), the NASA Early Career Faculty Award (2019), the DARPA Young Faculty Award (2019), and the Luigi Napolitano Award (2015), and he is a co-author of one of the most downloaded Acta Astronautica articles. Dr. Ho served as the Chair of the AIAA Space Logistics Technical Committee in 2017-2024 and currently serves on the Steering Committee for the NASA-funded Consortium for Space Mobility and In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing Capabilities (COSMIC).

Dutton-Ducoffe Professor
Associate Professor
Phone
404.894.3078
Office
CODA E1052B
Additional Research
  • Space Logistics 
  • Space Systems
  • Systems Design & Optimization
IRI and Role
Robotics > Affiliated Faculty
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
Research Areas
Robotics
  • Field and Service Robotics

Vigor Yang

Vigor Yang
vigor.yang@aerospace.gatech.edu

Vigor Yang earned his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1984. After serving for one year as a research fellow in Jet Propulsion at Caltech, he joined the Pennsylvania State University in August 1985, becoming the John L. and Genevieve H. McCain Chair in Engineering in 2006. In 2009, he began his tenure as the William R.T. Oakes Professor Chair at the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Tech. He retired from the chair position and returned to teaching and research in August of 2018

Yang’s research encompasses a wide spectrum of topics, including (1) data-enabled design and data science; (2) combustion dynamics in propulsion and power-generation systems;(3) multi-fidelity modeling and simulations of fluid flows and combustion; (4) combustion of energetic materials; (5) high-pressure transport phenomena, thermodynamics and combustion, and (6) nano technologies for propulsion and energetic applications. He has established, as the principal or co-principal investigator, more than 70 research projects, including nine (9) DoD-MURI projects. He has published 10 comprehensive volumes and numerous technical papers on combustion, propulsion, energetics, and data science. He was the recipient of  the Air-Breathing Propulsion Award (2005), the Pendray Aerospace Literature Award (2008), the Propellants and Combustion Award (2009), and the von Karman Lectureship in Astronautics Award (2016) from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA); the Worcester Reed Warner Medal (2014) from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME); and the Lifetime Achievement Award (2014) from the Joint Army, Navy, NASA, and Air Force (JANNAF) Interagency Propulsion Committee.

Yang was the editor-in-chief of the AIAA Journal of Propulsion and Power (2001-2009) and the JANNAF Journal of Propulsion and Energetics (2009-2012). He is currently a co-editor of the Aerospace Book Series of the Cambridge University Press (2010-).  He serves, or has served, on a large number of steering committees and review/advisory boards for government agencies and universities in the U.S. and abroad. A member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and an academician of Academia Sinica, Dr. Yang is a fellow of the AIAA, ASME, and Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS).

Regents Professor
Additional Research
Hydrogen Production, Hydrogen Utilization, data-enabled design, data science, combustion dynamics in propulsion and power-generation systems, multi-fidelity modeling and simulations of fluid flows and combustion, combustion of energetic materials, high-pressure transport phenomena, thermodynamics and combustion, nanotechnologies for propulsion and energetic applications
IRI and Role
Data Engineering and Science > Faculty
Energy > Hydrogen Group
Data Engineering and Science
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering

Mitchell Walker II

Mitchell Walker II
mitchell.walker@ae.gatech.edu

Dr. Walker's primary research interests lie in electric propulsion, plasma physics, and hypersonic aerodynamics/plasma interaction. He has extensive design and testing experience with Hall thrusters and ion engines. Dr. Walker has performed seminal work in Hall thruster clustering, vacuum chamber facility effects, plasma-material interactions, and electron emission from carbon nanotubes. His current research activities involve both theoretical and experimental work in advanced spacecraft propulsion systems, diagnostics (including THz time-domain spectroscopy and Thomson scattering), plasma physics, helicon plasma sources, magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters, and pulsed inductive thrusters. Dr. Walker also teaches the undergraduate Jet & Rocket Propulsion course, as well as the graduate level Rocket Propulsion, Electric Propulsion, and Gasdynamics courses.

Professor
Associate Chair for Graduate Studies
Phone
404-385-2757
Office
Tech Tower 307
Additional Research
Energy Harvesting; Thermal Systems
IRI and Role
Energy > Faculty Council
Energy > Research Community
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering

Kyriakos Vamvoudakis

Kyriakos Vamvoudakis
kyriakos@gatech.edu

Kyriakos G. Vamvoudakis was born in Athens, Greece. He received the Diploma (a 5 year degree, equivalent to a Master of Science) in Electronic and Computer Engineering from Technical University of Crete, Greece in 2006 with highest honors. After moving to the United States of America, he studied at The University of Texas at Arlington with Frank L. Lewis as his advisor and he received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2008 and 2011 respectively. From May 2011 to January 2012, he was working as an Adjunct Professor and Faculty Research Associate at the University of Texas at Arlington and at the Automation and Robotics Research Institute. During the period from 2012 to 2016 he was a project research scientist at the Center for Control, Dynamical Systems and Computation at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was an assistant professor at the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech until 2018. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor at The School of Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech. His research interests include approxIMaTe dynamic programming, game theory, and optimal control. Recently, his research has focused on cyber-physical security, networked control, smart grid and multi-agent optimization. Dr. Vamvoudakis is the recipient of a 2019 ARO YIP award, a 2018 NSF CAREER award, and of several international awards including the 2016 International Neural Network Society Young Investigator (INNS) Award, the Best Paper Award for Autonomous/Unmanned Vehicles at the 27th Army Science Conference in 2010, the Best Presentation Award at the World Congress of Computational Intelligence in 2010, and the Best Researcher Award from the Automation and Robotics Research Institute in 2011. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu and Golden Key honor societies and is listed in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in Science and Engineering, and Who's Who in America. He has also served on various international program committees and has organized special sessions for several international conferences. He currently is a member of the Technical Committee on Intelligent Control of the IEEE Control Systems Society (TCIC), a member of the Technical Committee on Adaptive Dynamic Programming and Reinforcement Learning of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (ADPRLTC), an Associate Editor of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine, an Associate Editor of the Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, an Editor in Chief of the Communications in Control Science and Engineering, a registered Electrical/Computer engineer (PE) and a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece. He is a Senior Member of IEEE.

Assistant Professor; School of Aerospace Engineering
Phone
404.385.3342
Office
Montgomery Knight 415B
Additional Research

Control Theory; Reinforcement Learning; Cyber-Physical Systems; Defense/National Security

IRI and Role
Robotics > Core Faculty
Robotics
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering

Panagiotis Tsiotras

Panagiotis  Tsiotras
tsiotras@gatech.edu

Dr. Tsiotras holds the David & Andrew Lewis Endowed Chair in the School of Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech. He is also associate director at the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines. His current research interests include nonlinear and optimal control and their connections with AI, planning, and decision-making, emphasizing autonomous ground, aerial, and space vehicles applications. He has published more than 350 journal and conference articles in these areas. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgia Tech, Dr. Tsiotras was an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Virginia. He has also held visiting appointments with the MIT, JPL, INRIA, Rocquencourt, the Laboratoire de Automatique de Grenoble, and the Ecole des Mines de Paris (Mines ParisTech). Dr. Tsiotras is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, the IEEE Technical Excellence Award in Aerospace Controls, the Outstanding Aerospace Engineer Award from Purdue, the Sigma Xi President and Visitor's Award for Excellence in Research, as well as numerous other fellowships and scholarships. He is currently the chief editor of the Frontiers in Robotics & AI, in the area of space robotics, and an associate editor for the Dynamic Games and Applications journal. In the past, he has served as an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, the IEEE Control Systems Magazine, and the Journal of Dynamical and Control Systems. He is a Fellow of the AIAA, IEEE, and AAS.

Professor & David and Andrew Lewis Chair; School of Aerospace Engineering
Associate Director, Institute for Robotics & Intelligent Machines
Phone
404.894.9526
Office
Knight 415C
Additional Research

controls; robotics; artificial intelligence; flying robots; spacecraft

IRI and Role
Robotics > Core Faculty
Artificial Intelligence > ITAB
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering

Evangelos Theodorou

Evangelos Theodorou
etheodorou3@mail.gatech.edu

Evangelos Theodorou earned his Diploma in Electronic and Computer Engineering from the Technical University of Crete (TUC), Greece in 2001. He has also received a MSc in Production Engineering from TUC in 2003, a MSc in Computer Science and Engineering from University of Minnesota in spring of 2007 and a MSc in Electrical Engineering on dynamics and controls from the University of Southern California(USC) in Spring 2010. In May of 2011 he graduated with his Ph.D., in Computer Science at USC. After his Ph.D., he became a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle. In July 2013 he joined the faculty of the school of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology as Assistant Professor. His theoretical research spans the areas of control theory, machine learning, information theory and statistical physics. Applications involve autonomous planning and control in robotics and aerospace systems, bio-inspired control and design.

Associate Professor; School of Aerospace Engineering
Phone
404.894.8197
Office
Guggenheim 448A
Additional Research

Nonlinear Stochastic Optimal Control; Machine Learning and Reinforcement Learning; Statistical Mechanics; Information Theory and Connections to Control Theory; Nonlinear State Estimation and Signal Processing; Adaptive; Nonlinear and Model Predictive Control.

IRI and Role
Robotics > Core Faculty
Robotics
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering

Wenting Sun

Wenting  Sun
wenting.sun@aerospace.gatech.edu
Assistant Professor
Phone
(404) 894-0524
Additional Research
Combustion
IRI and Role
Energy > Research Community
Energy
University, College, and School/Department
Georgia Institute of Technology > College of Engineering > Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering