Current Members
Faculty
Zachary Sunberg
Faculty Member
zachary.sunberg@colorado.edu
Detailed Bio
I’m an Assistant Professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department. I earned Bachelors and Masters degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University and a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University in the Stanford Intelligent Systems Lab. Before joining the University of Colorado faculty, I was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley in the Hybrid Systems Lab. My research is focused on decision making under uncertainty to enable safe and efficient autonomous vehicle operation. My recent research has focused on developing online algorithms for approximately solving partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) and games with continuous or hybrid state, action, and observation spaces. In my free time, I enjoy skiing, trail running (really more like trail slogging), volunteering at my church, and following long Wikipedia rabbit trails.
Postdocs
Ofer Dagan
Postdoctoral Associate
ofer.dagan@colorado.edu
Detailed Bio
I am a new postdoc at ADCL, starting January 2024. I hold a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering sciences from CU Boulder. Prior to coming to CU Boulder, I worked in an R&D aerospace industry for about 10 years as a research engineer and team leader. I hold a B.S. degree in aerospace engineering (2010, summa cum laude), and an M.S. degree in mechanical engineering (2015, cum laude), from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. My research interests include theory and algorithms for decentralized Bayesian reasoning and decision making under uncertainty in heterogeneous autonomous systems.
PhD Students
Ben Kraske
PhD Student
benjamin.kraske@colorado.edu
Detailed Bio
Hi, I’m Ben. I’m currently pursuing my interest in flight as a PhD student in aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. I completed my bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at George Fox University, outside Portland, Oregon. My current research interests center around explainable decision making under uncertainty and the development of autonomous systems for safety onboard manned and unmanned aircraft. When I’m not studying or working on research, I like to get outside and bike, rock climb, or play some soccer.
Himanshu Gupta
PhD Student
Himanshu.Gupta@colorado.edu
Detailed Bio
Hey! I’m Himanshu. I am a Ph.D student in the Aerospace Department at CU Boulder. Currently, my research interests include - sequential decision making in partially observable environments that have arbitrary uncertainties, autonomous navigation for vehicles and manipulators among dynamic obstacles, and designing continuous action space online POMDP solvers. Prior to this, I finished my Masters degree in Computer Science from CU Boulder and my bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar. In my free time I like to explore the beautiful city of Boulder and its neighboring towns on my bike, play basketball, cook delicious Indian curries, read mystery novels, or just watch animes and TV shows!
Qi Heng Ho
PhD Student
qi.ho@colorado.edu
Detailed Bio
Hey there! I’m Qi Heng, a PhD student at CU Boulder. My research interests include sequential decision making under uncertainty, formal synthesis for robotics, and the intersection of these fields. I am especially interested in understanding how we can develop time and safety-critical autonomous systems that perform reliably with behavioral guarantees in partially observable and unstructured environments. Previously, I was a research engineer at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Centre, where I worked on developing algorithms for self-driving vehicles. I grew up in Singapore, and completed my undergraduate degree at the National University of Singapore.
Tyler Becker
PhD Student
Tyler.Becker-1@colorado.edu
Detailed Bio
I’m a PhD student at CU Boulder and received my bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering at Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Jersey. My research interests lie at the intersection of decision making under uncertainty and game theory. I began my research by investigating POMDP solution methods for finding cost-effective coronavirus testing strategies. Since then, I’ve moved to applying counterfactual regret methods to custody maintenance of adversarial satellites in the space domain awareness field. I’m currently looking into bridging the gap between the deterministic/continuous strategies offered by solutions to differential games and the stochastic/sequential strategies offered by solutions to imperfect information extensive form games.
Zakariya Laouar
PhD Student
Zakariya.Laouar@colorado.edu
Detailed Bio
Hi, I’m Zaki. I am a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. I received a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering also at CU Boulder. My current research revolves around planning and control under uncertainty. I have worked on contingency management of UAS under component failures using MPC and POMDP methods. I am currently working on adaptive and transparent human-in-the-loop planning for search and rescue. In my free time, I enjoy playing soccer and shredding the gnar.
Jackson Wagner
PhD Student
jackson.wagner-1@colorado.edu
Detailed Bio
Hey! My name is Jackson and I’m a Master’s student in the Electrical Engineering department at CU Boulder studying dynamics and controls. I recieved my bachelor’s in Electrical engineering from Washington State University. My current research involves using reinforcement learning to find causes of failure in systems, a method called Adaptive Stress Testing. In my free time I enjoy playing games such as chess and Magic: The Gathering.
Lisa Ventura
PhD Student
lisa.ventura@colorado.edu
Detailed Bio
Hi, I’m Lisa. I am a PhD student in the Aerospace Engineering Department at CU Boulder. Currently, my research interests include human-autonomy teaming, risk management in partially observable environments with uncertainty, autonomous navigation to minimize risk, and optimizing human trust of collaborative autonomous systems. Prior to this, I earned a masters degree in Computer Science from Georgia Tech. I’m co-advised by Allie Hayman in the Bioastronautics focus area and work on trust modeling and prediction.
Mark Boyer
PhD Student
mark.boyer@colorado.edu
Detailed Bio
Hi I’m Mark! I’m currently a PhD student in aerospace engineering at CU Boulder. I received my Bachelors in Aeronautical Engineering from the US Air Force Academy and my Master’s in the same from MIT. My research will hopefully focus upon better understanding the critical attributes and consequences of explainability in human-autonomy teaming in high-criticality environments. I am a test pilot in the Air Force with experience mostly in the F-35 and T-38, but have been lucky enough to fly over 20 different types of aircraft over 10 years of flying. Outside of work, I love getting outdoors hiking, camping, mountain biking, skiing, or playing golf.
Master’s Students
Visiting Scholars
Alumni
John Tucker
MS Student
Position after ADCL:
PhD Student at Stanford University
Juyeop Han
Visiting Scholar
Position after ADCL:
PhD Student at MIT
Michael H. Lim
PhD Student
Position after ADCL:
AI Scientist at C3.ai
Sujeong Park
Visiting Scholar
Position after ADCL:
PhD Student at KAIST
William Pope
MS Student
Position after ADCL:
United States Space Force Officer