Faculty Mentors

Dr. Kevin Butler

  • Title: Professor and Director of the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research (FICS)
  • Department: Computer and Information Science and Engineering
  • Research Areas: Security and privacy of computing devices, networks, and systems, with a focus on embedded, mobile, and cyber-physical systems security.  
  • Email: butler@ufl.edu
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Dr. Warren Dixon

  • Title: Interim Dean and Distinguished Professor
  • Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering    
  • Research Areas: Development and application of Lyapunov-based control techniques for uncertain nonlinear systems, robotics, adaptive control, and human-machine interactions.
  • Email: wdixon@ufl.edu
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Dr. Eric Du

  • Title: Steve and Wendy Blum Professor and UF Research Foundation Professor
  • Department: Civil and Coastal Engineering
  • Research Areas: Human-robot collaboration for complex industrial operations, mixed reality, and the use of haptic stimulation to enhance teleoperation.
  • Email: eric.du@essie.ufl.edu
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Dr. Norman Fitz-Coy

  • Title: Associate Professor    
  • Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering    
  • Research Areas: Dynamics and control of multibody systems, spacecraft flight mechanics, multi-robot cooperation, and satellite formations.  
  • Email: nfc@ufl.edu 
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Dr. Jie Fu

  • Title: Associate Professor    
  • Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering    
  • Research Areas: Integration of control theory, formal methods, and game theory to construct robust and provably correct autonomous robots and cyber-physical systems.   
  • Email: fujie@ufl.edu
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Dr. Christopher “Chrispy” Petersen

  • Title: Assistant Professor    
  • Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering    
  • Research Areas: Spacecraft guidance, navigation, control, and autonomy (GNCA), with a focus on real-time implementable Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking (RPOD).  
  • Email: c.petersen1@ufl.edu 
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Dr. Ivan Ruchkin

  • Title: Assistant Professor    
  • Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering    
  • Research Areas: Safety and robustness for autonomy and AI; generative AI for autonomous systems; formal methods for robotics; autonomous racing.
  • Email: iruchkin@ece.ufl.edu
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Dr. John M. Shea

  • Title: Professor and Associate Chair for Faculty Affairs    
  • Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering    
  • Research Areas: Wireless communications; reinforcement learning for sensing, communications, and control; networked autonomous vehicles, and software-defined radio.
  • Email: jshea@ece.ufl.edu
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Dr. Jane Shin

  • Title: Assistant Professor    
  • Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering    
  • Research Areas: Sensor path planning algorithms for underwater multi-target classification using information theory and machine learning applied to acoustic imagery.   
  • Email: jane.shin@ufl.edu
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Dr. Yu Wang

  • Title: Assistant Professor    
  • Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering    
  • Research Areas: AI/ML-driven methods for autonomous control and decision-making in complex environments, integrating formal methods and mathematical control theory for reliable intelligent systems.   
  • Email: yuwang1@ufl.edu
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Tan Wong

  • Title: Professor and Graduate Coordinator    
  • Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering    
  • Research Areas: Wireless communications, federated learning, information theory, and software-defined radio.  
  • Email: twong@ece.ufl.edu 
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Tuba Yavuz

  • Title: Associate Professor    
  • Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering    
  • Research Areas: Specification and automated verification of concurrent software systems, model checking, static analysis, and software security. 
  • Email: tuba@ece.ufl.edu  
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