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Ella Atkins

Fred D. Durham Chair in Engineering and Department Head
  • Ph.D., 1999, University of Michigan, Computer Science & Engineering
  • M.S., 1995, University of Michigan, Computer Science & Engineering
  • M.S., 1990, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Aeronautics & Astronautics
  • B.S., 1988, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Aeronautics & Astronautics
Ella Atkins
Virginia Tech Swing Space, Room 241D
Virginia Tech (MC0203)
1600 Innovation Drive
Blacksburg, VA 24061
ematkins@vt.edu
540-231-5940

BIO:  Dr. Ella Atkins is Fred D. Durham Professor and Head of the Kevin T. Crofton Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Department at Virginia Tech.  She was previously a Professor in the University of Michigan’s Aerospace Engineering and Robotics Departments.  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 is an AIAA Fellow and private pilot. She has authored over 250 refereed journal and conference papers. Dr. Atkins pursues research in AI-enabled autonomy and control to support resilience and contingency management in manned and unmanned Aerospace applications with focus on Advanced Air Mobility and Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS).  She is Editor-in-Chief of the AIAA Journal of Aerospace Information Systems (JAIS).

Aerospace information systems
Unmanned aerial vehicles
Robotics

  • Editor-in-Chief, AIAA Journal of Aerospace Information Systems (2018-present)
  • Executive Steering Committee, AIAA Aviation Conference (2020 & 2021 conferences)
  • Member, Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) Advisory Committee on Autonomous and Remotely Piloted Aviation (2020-present)
  • Member, AIAA Higher Education Committee (2020-present)
  • Guest Editor, “Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management Special Issue,” IEEE Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems (2021).
  • Study committee member, “Advancing Aerial Mobility: A National Blueprint", National Academy of Science (NAS) for NASA Aeronautics (2019-2020).
  • Lead organizer, NSF National Robotics Initiative (NRI) PI Meeting, Feb. 27-28, 2020 
  • Program Committee, Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI) Conference (2019-2020)
  • Proposal Reviewer, NASA Earth Science AI Systems Technologies (AIST) Program, 2017, 2020.
  • Proposal Reviewer, NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (NSTRF) Program, 2017-2020.
  • Proposal Review Panelist, Cyber-Physical Systems, Robotics, SBIR, NSF, (ongoing).
  • Reviewer, “In-Time Aviation Safety Management: Challenges and Research for an Evolving Aviation System,” National Academies Press, 2018.
  • Program Committee, The 9th NASA Formal Methods (NFM) Symposium, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, (May 2017).
  • Proposal Review Panelist, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Program, NSF, Nov 2017, July 2017, July 2016 (and previous years).
  • Peer Review Board, Crew Systems and Aviation Operations Branch, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (Jan. 2015)
  • Reviewer, “A 21st Century Cyber-Physical Systems Education,” National Academies Press, 2016.
  • Autonomy Breakout Session Chair (and Intelligent Systems Roadmap co-author), “Intelligent Systems Workshop,” AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical. Committee, Dayton, OH, 2014.
  • Volume Editor, Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering (Wiley) (2013-2016)
  • Study Committee Member (Report Co-Author), “Autonomy Research for Civil Aviation: Toward a New Era of Flight,” National Research Council (2013-2014)
  • Member, Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) Defense Science Study Group (DSSG) (2012-2013)
  • Study Member, “Engineering Resilient Space Systems,” Keck Institute for Space Studies, CalTech/JPL (2012-2013)
  • Member, Aeronautics Roundtable Member, Aeronautics & Space Engineering Board (ASEB), National Academy / National Research Council (2011-2015)
  • National Research Council (2011-2014)
  • Program committee, International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems (ICCPS), IEEE (2011-2014)
  • Member, University of Michigan Senate Assembly (2011-2013)
  • Member, AIAA Software Technical Committee (2011-present)
  • Committee Member (Report Editor), “NASA Aviation Safety Program Review,” National Research Council (2009-2010)
  • Section Editor, Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering (Wiley) (2008-2014)
  • Chair, AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee (2007-2009)
  • Program Committee, Intelligent Systems Track, AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting (2007-2011)
  • Program Committee, 5th International Workshop on Planning and Scheduling for Space, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD (2006)
  • Technical Program Chair, AIAA Infotech@Aerospace Conference (2005-2007)
  • Study Committee Member (Report Author), “Panel E: Intelligent and Autonomous Systems, Operations, and Decision Making, Human Integrated Systems, Communication and Networking,” Decadal Survey of Civil Aeronautics, National Research Council (2005-2006)
  • Review Panelist for NASA Jet Propulsion Lab’s Advanced Multi-Mission Operational Systems (AMMOS) Program, 2005 – 2011 (panel chair 2010-2011).
  • Associate Editor, AIAA Journal of Aerospace Computing, Information, & Communication (JACIC) (2004-2013) 
  • Invited Session Organizer, Session Chair, Program Committee, AIAA Intelligent Systems Conference, Chicago (2004)
  • Local Program Chair, Session Chair, IEEE Intl. Conference on Robotics & Automation (ICRA) (2002)
  • Program committee, AAAI Spring Symposium on Safe Learning Agents, Stanford University (2002)
  • Member, AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee (2001-2020)
  • Member, AIAA Software Technical Committee (2013-present)
  • Co-chair, AAAI Spring Symposium on Robust Autonomy, Stanford University (2001)
  • Member, AIAA Space Automation and Robotics Technical Committee (2000-2003)
  • Paper Reviewer, AIAA and IEEE journals and conferences (2000 - present)
  • Proposal Reviewer, NSF, NASA (2001 - present)
  • Fred D. Durham Chair in Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2022 - present 
  • Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA), 2019
  • AIAA Intelligent Systems Award, 2022
  • University of Michigan Robotics Leadership Award, 2020
  • First place team (with three PhD students), Swarm and Search AI Challenge: 2019 Fire Hack, Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), 2019
  • Inaugural President’s Award for National and State Leadership, University of Michigan, 2017
  • Trudy Huebner Service Excellence Award, University of Michigan, 2013
  • Aerospace Engineering Department Award, 2009 and 2020
  • NSF CAREER Award, 2004-2009
  • Aerospace Engineering Dept. Faculty Mentor Award, Univ. of Maryland, 2004
  • Sloan Foundation Pre-Tenure Leave Fellowship, 2002-2003
  • GE Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan, 1997-1998
  • Orenstein Fellowship, EECS Department, University of Michigan, 1993-1994
  • Sigma Gamma Tau Aerospace Engineering Honor Society, inducted 1987
  • Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, inducted 1986
  • Department Head, Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, 2022 - present
  • Professor, University of Michigan, Aerospace Engineering Department, 2016 - 2022
  • Associate Director, University of Michigan Robotics Institute, 2016 - 2020
  • Associate Professor, University of Michigan, Aerospace Engineering Department, 2006 - 2016
  • Courtesy Appointment, University of Michigan, Computer Science and Engineering, 2007 - present
  • Graduate Student Fellow and Research Assistant, University of Michigan, 1993 - 1999
  • Technical Fellow, Collins Aerospace / RTX, Mission Systems (2020 - 2022)
  • Assistant Professor, Aerospace Engineering Department, University of Maryland, 1999 – 2006 (awarded tenure in 2006)
  • Project Engineer, Structural Dynamics Research Corporation, 1990 – 1993
  • Graduate Student Research Assistant, MIT, 1988 –1990
  • Engineering Intern, Aerospace Corporation, Summers 1986 & 1987