Our People

Dr. Alan Wagner’s research focuses on human-robot interaction, ethics, and aerial vehicle control and teaming. He is particularly interested in methods for understanding how, when, and why people trust UAVs and developing UAVs which decide how, when and why to trust people. Application areas for these interests range from military to search and rescue. His research has won several awards including being selected for by the Air Force Young Investigator Program and being described as the 13th most important invention of 2010 by Time Magazine. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology. He also holds a master’s degree in computer science from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Northwestern University.

Vidullan Surendran is a doctoral student in Aerospace Engineering studying the causal effects of actions performed by autonomous agents. His areas of interest include aerial vehicles, Human-Robot Interaction, and machine learning with a focus on robotic systems that are able to operate in the real world. His alma mater is the University of Southampton, UK where he graduated with an MEng in aerospace engineering working on the design of an autonomous Lunar vehicle that could complete the Google Lunar XPRIZE. Currently he is the President of the Penn State Autonomous Robotics Competition Club which participates in aerial vehicle competitions held all over the World.

Mollik Nayyar is a doctoral level graduate student at The Pennsylvania State University. He graduated in December 2016 with an MS in Aerospace Engineering from Penn State focusing on spacecraft trajectory optimization and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering focusing on robotics under Dr. Alan Wagner. His areas of interest include Robotics, Human-Robot Interaction, Artificial Intelligence, Astrodynamics, Dynamics & Controls and Trajectory Optimization.

Ali Ayub is a graduate student pursuing PhD in Electrical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. He graduated with an MS degree in Electrical Engineering from Penn State Harrisburg in August 2017 and completed his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan in June 2015. He is currently working under the supervision of Dr. Alan Wagner in the area of Curiosity-driven Few-Shot Incremental Learning. His research interests are in Computer Vision, Robot Perception, Lifelong Learning, Robot Deception and HRI. He is also interested in the applications of AI and Mathematics in HRI and Signal Processing.

Kasra Mokhtari is a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. He graduated in June 2014 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Shiraz University, Iran focusing on design and manufacturing of a Cable Robot. He is currently pursuing a PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering working on autonomous vehicle localization under Dr. Alan Wagner. His areas of interest include Robotics, Autonomous Vehicle- Pedestrians Interaction, Artificial Intelligence, Dynamics & Controls.

Himavath is a 4th year Integrated Undergraduate-Graduate (IUG) student through the Schreyer Honors College at the Pennsylvania State University. Working under the supervision of Dr. Alan Wagner, Himavath conducts research work in human-robot interaction (HRI), specifically regarding the ethical implications of punishment administration between humans and autonomous systems. He hopes to use his experimental knowledge to improve cockpit-resource management in commercial aviation. His interests include human and robot-controlled punishment, commercial aviation safety technology, aircraft efficiency and aerodynamics.

Sagar Lakhmani is a graduate student pursuing Masters in Electrical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from UPTU, India. He has worked in Business Intelligence & Data Visualization for 2.5 years at Accenture, India. He is currently working under Dr. Alan Wagner and is being co-advised by Dr. Minghui Zhu and Dr. Jack Langelaan. His areas of interest include Control Systems Design, Path Planning and Collision avoidance for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. His research area also includes applications of Machine learning and AI for Human-Robot Interactions.

Sachin Hagaribommanahalli is a graduate student pursuing Master’s in Aerospace Engineering at Penn State. He holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India. Working on applications of aerial robots in the field of construction along with computer vision concepts to detect bricks and build predefined structures under Dr. Alan Wagner. His research interests are in the fields of computer vision and machine learning with aerial robots.

Arthur Melo Cruz is a senior undergraduate student in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Information Science and Technology at The Pennsylvania State University. His areas of interest include human-robot interaction, control systems for aerial vehicles, robotic space missions and UAVs. Arthur is currently pursuing research in privacy implications for human-drone interactions under Dr. Alan Wagner.