Autonomous Systems Initiative
Autonomous Systems Initiative
Florida Atlantic University has been a leader internationally in research, development, and applications of undersea, sea surface and ground autonomous systems for more than two decades.
As we now see the dawn of the autonomous systems industrial revolution that will fuse the physical, digital, and biological worlds, the Autonomous Systems University Initiative calls upon all faculty across six colleges (Engineering, Sciences, Business, Medicine, Arts, Education) and three research institutess (Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network Systems Engineering, FAU Brain Institute, FAU Harbor Branch) to come together and address the urgent need for:
- basic research and innovation for the burgeoning autonomous systems industry, and
- education and training for the future autonomous systems workforce.
The initiative places FAU at the international forefront of autonomous systems research and education and highlights the ongoing groundbreaking collaborative work in air, ground, underground, sea surface, and undersea cyber-physical and bio-cyber-physical autonomous systems, standalone or interconnected.
The autonomous systems revolution has direct national economic growth and security implications. The initiative addresses both to move toward efficient and effective reconciliation of autonomy and security in (bio)-cyber-physical platforms that operate in diverse environments.
Dimitris A. Pados, I-SENSE Fellow, Professor, College of Engineering and Computer Science
Autonomous Systems Research Lead
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Warner A. Miller, Associate Dean for Research, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Autonomous Systems Education Lead
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Projects
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Dimitris Pados (PI/PD), George Sklivanitis (Co-PI)
- Duration: Apr. 2020-Mar. 2023
Overview: (i) Blind evaluation/screening of incoming sensed data of autonomous platforms and (ii) data quality assessment in training sets.
Learn More about Air Force Office of Scientific Research projects- National Science Foundation
- Dimitris Pados (FAU PI/PD), George Sklivanitis (FAU Senior Personnel)
- Duration: Aug. 2020-Jul. 2021
Overview: A planning grant for the Spectrum Innovation Initiative: National Center for Wireless Spectrum Research (SII-Center).
Learn More about National Science Foundation projects- National Science Foundation
- Dimitris Pados (FAU PI/PD), George Sklivanitis (FAU Co-PI)
- Duration: Sep. 2020-Aug. 2023
Overview: Research in novel low-cost hardware-reduced and multi-parameter reconfigurable ultra-wideband transceivers that optimize passive-active spectrum sharing across a broad frequency range.
Learn More about National Science Foundation projects- National Science Foundation
- Dimitris Pados (PI/PD), Nancy Romance(Co-PI), Stella Batalama (Co-PI), Xingquan Zhu (Co-PI), Javad Hashemi (Co-PI)
- Duration: Sep. 2020-Aug. 2024
Overview: This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at Florida Atlantic University, a Hispanic Serving Institution.
Learn More about National Science Foundation projects- Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) - Naval Engineering Education Consortium (NEEC)
- Zhen Ni (FAU PI/PD)
- Duration: Jun. 2020-May 2023
Overview: The project is to expand the Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) capabilities through artificial intelligence to static undersea sensors and/or dynamic undersea groups. The proposed research is to improve the autonomous perception and data fusion in an effort to generate world models from individual sensing, while localizing the sensors and UUV swarm within the model. This project is in collaboration with South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and NUWC Keyport Division.
Learn More about Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) - Naval Engineering Education Consortium (NEEC) projects- NATO Center for Maritime Research
- George Sklivanitis (PI/PD), Dimitris Pados (Co-PI)
- Duration: Jul. 2020-Oct. 2020
Overview: Analysis of physical layer security algorithms for underwater acoustic networks.
Learn More about NATO Center for Maritime Research projects- FAU I-SENSE & FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science
- Dimitris Pados (PI/PD), George Sklivanitis (Co-PI), Abhijit Pandya (Co-PI), Zvi Roth (Co-PI)
- Seed Funding Recipient 2020
- FAU I-SENSE & FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science
- Siddhartha Verma (PI/PD), Dimitris Pados (PI/PD), Oscar Curet (Co-PI), George Sklivanitis (Co-PI), Yufei Tang (Co-PI)
- Seed Funding Recipient 2019
- FAU I-SENSE & FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science
- Aditya Nayak (PI/PD) , George Sklivanitis (Co-PI), Dimitris Pados (PI/PD)
- Seed Funding Recipient 2019
- National Science Foundation
- Xiangnan Zhong (PI/PD)
- Duration: Aug. 2019-Jul. 2022
Overview: An innovative reinforcement learning approach for decision making in complex environments.
Learn More about National Science Foundation projects- National Science Foundation
- Xiangnan Zhong (PI/PD)
- Duration: Jul. 2019-Feb. 2021
Overview: Learning in a connected multi-agent environment - a new self-learning intelligent control framework.
Learn More about National Science Foundation projects- National Science Foundation
- Dimitris Pados (PI/PD), Stella Batalama (Co-PI)
- Duration: Oct. 2017-Sept. 2020
Overview: The researchers aim at advancing significantly (five-fold in precision) the state of the art in 3D passive undersea acoustic localization by providing novel algorithmic solutions to the problem of estimating the angle of arrival of undersea propagating signals in the presence of potentially faulty measurements. The project pursues a paradigm shift in how signal Direction-of-Arrival (DoA) estimation is carried out over undersea acoustic links by deviating from the familiar L2-norm-subspace decomposition theory and its variants and considering for the first time L1-norm signal subspace decomposition. The algorithms will be embedded in in-house developed programmable underwater acoustic modems to form an experimental four-node network for evaluation and demonstration.
Learn More about National Science Foundation projects- National Science Foundation
- Stella Batalama (Co-PI), Dimitris Pados (PI/PD), George Sklivanitis (Co-PI)
- Duration: Sep. 2020-Aug. 2021
Overview: Research in robust massive MIMO localization using the POWDER-RENEW NSF Platform for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR).
Learn More about National Science Foundation projects
Autonomous Systems People

Madasamy Arockiasamy
Professor
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics Engineering

Reza Azarderakhsh
Professor and I-SENSE Fellow
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Boca Raton Campus | FL 33431-0991

Pierre-Philippe Beaujean, Ph.D.
Chair, Professor
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering

Steve Burton, M.S.
Director, Research Programs/Services
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

Laurent Cherubin
Research Professor, HBOI | Affiliate Professor, OME
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering

Manhar R. Dhanak
Professor
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering

Barbara Ganson, Ph.D.
Professor
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters
History

Shihong Huang, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs
College of Engineering and Computer Science

Mingshun Jiang, Ph.D.
Associate Research Professor
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

Dr. Oge Marques, Ph.D.
Legacy Member, FAU STEM Research Group for Digital Laboratory Learning | Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science | Professor of Biomedical Science (Secondary), Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine | Professor of Information Technology (by courtesy), College of Business
College of Engineering and Computer Science

Malcolm McFarland
Assistant Research Professor
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

Warner A. Miller, Dr
Professor of Physics
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Physics

Meredith Mountford, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
College of Education
Educational Leadership and Research Methodology

Sudhagar Nagarajan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Associate Chair
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics Engineering

Aditya Nayak
Associate Professor
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering

Zhen Ni, Ph.D,
Associate Professor
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Mehrdad Nojoumian, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Boca Raton Campus | EE 429

Bing Ouyang
Associate Research Professor, HBOI | Affiliate Professor, OME
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering

Dimitris Pados, Ph.D, Diploma
Director, Center for Connected Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence | Professor and I-SENSE Fellow | I-SENSE Fellow, Charles E. Schmidt Eminent Scholar in Engineering
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Maria Larrondo Petrie, Ph.D.
Professor
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Shirley Pomponi, Ph.D.
Research Professor, Sponge Biotechnology Systematics, Cell & Molecular Biology
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

Marianne E. Porter, Ph.D
Professor
Charles E. Schmidt College of Science
Biological Sciences

Lianfen Qian, Ph.D.
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science; Professor; Advisor
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters
Mathematical Sciences

Nancy Romance, Ed.D.
STEM Educator, Grant Administrator, and Co-PI
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Zvi Roth, Ph.D.
Professor and Graduate Advisor
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | Department of Biomedical Engineering

Annina Ruest, MFA
Associate Professor of Art
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Art

Betsy Seiffert, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering

George Sklivanitis, Ph.D, Diploma
Schmidt Research Associate Professor & I-SENSE Fellow
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Boca Raton Campus | FL 33431-0991

Hongbo Su, Ph.D
Associate Professor
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics Engineering

Jim Sullivan, M.Sc.
Research Professor
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

James H. VanZwieten Jr., Ph.D
Associate Professor
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering

Paul Wills, Ph.D.
Associate Director for Research, Research Professor
Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

Xiangnan Zhong, Ph.D
Associate Professor
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science