I am an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) and Mathematics and the Khoury College of Computer Sciences (by courtesy) at Northeastern University, where I lead the Robust Autonomy Lab.
I am broadly interested in the mathematical and algorithmic foundations of trustworthy autonomy. My research applies analytical and computational tools from nonlinear optimization, differential geometry and topology, abstract algebra, and probability and statistics to design principled, computationally efficient, and provably robust algorithms for machine learning, perception, and control.
A major focus of my research is the design of practical estimation and control algorithms for nonlinear systems that provide explicit performance guarantees in real-world operation. To that end, much of my recent work has explored the use of convex relaxation as a general strategy for recovering provably-good approximate solutions to hard computational problems in artificial intelligence. Check out our recent survey article if you’d like to know more!
My research group has multiple openings for fully-funded PhD positions! Please see our announcement of opportunity for more information.
ScD Computer Science, 2016
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MA Mathematics, 2010
University of Texas at Austin
BS Mathematics, 2008
California Institute of Technology
[22-Feb-2023] I visited MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Space Systems and Technology Group to share some of our team’s recent work on building high-reliability autonomous systems. Many thanks to Justin Chen for the invitation to speak and for hosting my visit; I really enjoyed the opportunity to hear about all of the outstanding work being done at the Lab, and how NEURAL’s research can be applied to enable safe and resilient space operations :-)!
[16-Feb-2023] I delivered a lightning talk on NEURAL’s research at Northeastern’s Institute for Experiential Robotics Seminar Series. Thanks to Salah Bazzi for the invitation to speak!
[21-Dec-2022] Starting Jan 2023 I will be an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR) in the area of “Localization and Mapping”. I look forward to reviewing some of the very best work being done in robotics :-)!
[13-Dec-2022] My research group has a new website! Check it out for all the latest and greatest news on trustworthy autonomy :-).
[7-Dec-2022] My research group has been awarded a new grant from Toyota Research Institute to develop novel perception and learning methods for high-agility autonomous driving!