University of Colorado Boulder, Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences
People
Professor Nisar Ahmed
Dr. Ahmed is an Associate Professor in the Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department at CU Boulder. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY in January 2012, focusing on Dynamics, Systems and Controls with minors in ECE and Applied Math. From 2012-2013, he was a postdoctoral research associate in the Cornell Autonomous Systems Lab (ASL) with Professor Mark Campbell. He obtained his B.S. in Engineering in 2006 from The Cooper Union in his hometown of New York City. He joined the CU Boulder as an Assistant Professor in 2014 and was named a Smead Faculty Fellow for 2021-2023.
Hunter Ray (Ph.D. Candidate, Aerospace Engineering Sciences)
Originally from Portland, Oregon, Hunter earned is B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from Brown University. As an undergraduate he led the effort on a 1U CubeSat’s integration and testing before it was launched to the ISS in 2018. Upon graduation, he worked at Draper evaluating spacecraft systems for civil and defense projects, including Human Lander Systems. His research involves improving human-autonomy teaming in aerospace systems, including geostationary satellite constellations and uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) for public safety. In his free time, Hunter is a first responder and UAS division leader with the Boulder Emergency Squad, a local rescue team involved in search & rescue, firefighting, water rescue, and SWAT operations.
Ryan Draves (Ph.D. Student, Aerospace Engineering Sciences)
Ryan Draves is currently a PhD student in the Aerospace department. He received a B.S. in CS at the University of Michigan while working on autonomous boats and a cubesat project. Prior to coming to CU Boulder, Ryan worked on all facets of software building and testing MicroGEOcommunications satellites. At CU, his research investigates distributed data fusion for multi-target tracking across a satellite constellation, aiming to improve estimation capabilities in scaled space environments. In his free time, Ryan enjoys tennis and wishing he was playing tennis.
Jiho Lee (Ph.D. Student, Aerospace Engineering Sciences)
Jiho is a Draper Scholar in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences department. He previously earned dual degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with the highest honors with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Computer Science and Mathematics (minor). Before beginning graduate studies, Jiho worked as a software engineer at Amazon Web Services. His research focuses on the intersection of machine learning and Bayesian estimation for autonomous aerospace systems.
Kelvin is a PhD student in Aerospace Engineering Department at CU Boulder. He holds a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (Nigeria), and previously worked at Halliburton as an assistant surface well testing engineer before coming to CU to pursue his interest. His research focuses on simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) and autonomy for navigation and search in unknown environments. When he’s not in the lab, you’ll find him playing soccer, watching anime, or traveling.
Born and raised in Boulder, Colorado, Aidan is an accelerated Master’s student in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he also earned his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Computer Science. As an undergraduate, he developed an autonomous multirotor system that used computer vision to identify, track, and localize ground vehicles with sub-meter accuracy, earning the Aerospace Gold Medal for advanced modeling and a graduate-level deliverable. His research has included distributed data fusion for satellite constellations and cooperative autonomy for medical triage in mass-casualty scenarios. Most recently, he has been working on integrating autonomous decision-making to enable aerial vehicles to navigate toward informative locations for standoff sensing. Outside the lab, Aidan enjoys weightlifting, basketball, and attending sporting events.
Current Undergraduate Students
Jake Tucker (B.S. Student, Computer Science, Class of 2026)
From Loveland, Colorado, Jake joined the lab in 2023 while earning his Bachelor’s in Computer Science, with minors in Data Science and Computer Engineering. He is currently working on algorithms related to the labs robotic Competency Self-Assessment projects. Jake is also the Software Lead for Colorado RoboSub.
Lab Alumni
Dr. Aastha Acharya (Ph.D, Aerospace Engineering Sciences, 2024)
Dissertation title: “Deep Generative Models for Competency Awareness and Uncertainty Quantification”
Post-grad position: AI/ML researcher, NASA Ames Research Center
Dr. Ofer Dagan (Ph.D. 2024, Aerospace Engineering Sciences)
Dissertation title: “Scalable Heterogeneous Decentralized Data Fusion for Autonomous Multi-Robot Systems”
Post-grad position: Post-Doc, CU Boulder
Dr. Anne Theurkauf (Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering Sciences, 2025)
Dissertation title: “Uncertainty Aware Motion Planning for Robots: From Sensor Networks to Cooperative Teams”
Post-grad position: AI/ML researcher
Dr. Nicholas Conlon (Ph.D., Computer Science, 2024)
Dissertation title: “Robot Competency Self-Assessments to Improve Human Decision-Making in Uncertain Environments”
Dr. Stephen McGuire (Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering Sciences, 2019)
Dissertation title: “Autonomous Online Learning of Assistant Selection Policies for Fault Recovery” (funded by NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship)
Post-grad position: Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California Santa Cruz.
Dr. Brett Israelsen (Ph.D., Computer Science, 2019)
Dissertation title: “Algorithmic Assurances and Self-Assessment of Competency Boundaries in Autonomous Systems”
Post-grad position: Senior Research Engineer, United Technologies Research Center (East Hartford, CT)
M.S. Thesis (co-advised with Prof. Morteza Lahijanian, Aero): “Resource-Aware Planning Framework for Autonomous Systems in Communication-limited Environments”
Jonathan Manni (M.S., Aerospace Engineering Sciences, 2020)
M.S. Thesis (co-advised with Prof. Jay McMahon, Aero): “Template Matching for Terrain Relative Navigation Under Varying Lighting Conditions”
Benjamin Mellinkoff (M.S. 2019, B.S. 2017, Aerospace Engineering Sciences)
M.S. thesis (advised with Prof. Jack Burns, Dept. of Astrophysics): “Model-based Reinforcement Learning with Feedback from Machine Self-confidence”
Jeremy Muesing (M.S. 2020, B.S. 2017, Aerospace Engineering Sciences)
M.S. Thesis: “Fully Bayesian Human-Machine Data Fusion for Robust Dynamic Target Surveillance and Characterization”
Post-grad position: Research Engineer, San Diego Padres (Major League Baseball)
Ian Loefgren (M.S. 2020, B.S. 2018, Aerospace Engineering Sciences)
M.S. Thesis: “Scalable Navigation-Integrated Decentralized Data Fusion in Communication-Limited Environments”
The Cooperative Human-Robot Intelligence Lab 
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