Prof. Ella Atkins

Professor
Aerospace Engineering

3056 FXB – [email protected]

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About Prof. Atkins

Dr. Atkins is a Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan and Director of the Autonomous Aerospace Systems (A2Sys) Lab. Dr. Atkins holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan. She previously served on the Aerospace Engineering faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park.  Prof. Atkins is an AIAA Fellow, IEEE Senior Member, and a Private and Part 107 pilot. She served on the National Academy’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) (2011-2015 term), was a member of the Institute for Defense Analysis Defense Science Studies (DSSG) Group (2012-2013), and has served on several National Academy study committees, most recently an Advanced Aerial Mobility or Urban Air Mobility (UAM) committee. Dr Atkins also holds a courtesy faculty position in the EECS Department and is Associate Director for the University of Michigan Robotics Institute.

Education

Ph.D. ’99 – University of Michigan, Computer Science & Engineering

M.S. ’95 – University of Michigan, Computer Science & Engineering

M.S. ’90 – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aeronautics & Astronautics

B.S. ’88 – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aeronautics & Astronautics

Research Interests

Aerospace Autonomy, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Flight Planning, Guidance, Navigation, Multi-vehicle Planning and Control, Cloud-based Data Fusion, Airspace Geofencing, Cyber-physical Systems, Experimental UAS and Robotics

Teaching Interests

  • AERO 552 Aerospace Information Systems
  • AERO 450 Flight Software Systems 
  • AERO 201 Introduction to Aerospace Engineering  
  • AERO 552 Aerospace Information Systems 
  • AERO 740 / ROB 599:  Experimental UAS
  • ENGR 151 Accelerated Intro. to Computers & Programming
  • ENGR 101 Intro. to Computers & Programming
  • ROB 550 Robotics Systems Laboratory
  • ROB 590 / AERO 590  Independent Study