CV

PhD Student (Robotics)

Graduate Research Assistant, University of Texas at Austin

Doctoral research focused on locomotion and multi-contact planning for humanoid robots navigating confined spaces.

• Developed and benchmarked fast, collision-free multi-contact planning algorithms for humanoids.
• Configured, tested, and integrated COTS servo controllers (EtherCAT) into existing hardware.
• Developed approach for online optimal horizon selection in Model Predictive Control (MPC).
• Designed and prototyped mechanical structure of person-carrying omniwheel mobile robot.
• Developed and open-sourced low-level code for EtherCAT devices with ROS integration.

Research Associate (Legged Robot Controls Engineer)

Institute for Human & Machine Cognition

Contributed to software development for legged platforms: Atlas, Quix, and Nadia.

• Designed and implemented (in Java) push recovery and balance strategies on Atlas humanoid.
• Improved force sensing and control capabilities of exoskeleton Quix.
• Wrote software integration for motor control via CAN for exoskeleton Eva and humanoid Nadia.

Research Fellow (Quadruped Controls)

Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

Implemented and validated dynamic balance and motion control strategies on the torque-controlled HyQ quadruped robot.

• Simulated a novel balance control strategy enabling HyQ to balance on two point feet in Gazebo.
• Implemented the controller on the real HyQ robot, achieving balance on a support line.
• Incorporated motion controller to achieve line walking in simulation.
• Submitted and presented main simulations and experimental results in IROS.

Balance Stability of Legged Systems

Research Assistant, New York University

Conducted sensitivity analysis on the balance-stability of legged systems to quantify design and control trade-offs.

• Designed a computational approach combining numerical optimization and motion planning to establish balance-stability.
• Derived quasi-analytical solutions to quantify changes in balance-stability based on design constraints (e.g., torque limits).

M.S. Student (Hybrid Systems)

Research Assistant, University of New Mexico

Research focused on hybrid system identification methods for prognosis of Parkinson’s Disease.

• Implemented and compared several state-of-the-art methods in hybrid system identification.
• Derived an alternate identification approach using optimization methods, achieving more accurate and precise detection of submovements.

B.S. Student (Control of MEMS microgripper)

Research Student, University of New Mexico

Conducted initial control research for a smart microelectromechanical material used as a microgripper.

• Designed and presented a research proposal plan to academic advisor.
• Designed and performed experiments to validate the proposed approach.

Volunteer

Latinitas

Assisted in open house event for non-profit providing educational programs for Latinas.

Volunteer

Hospital for Special Surgery

Processed experimental data using Cortex for a study on energy expenditure in human walking.

Volunteer

Multi-Agent, Robotic, Hybrid, and Embedded Systems Lab (UNM)

Contributed to robotics research by designing, building, and programming hardware.

• Designed and built mechanical parts for quadrotors used for research.
• Worked with a 7 DoF robotic arm using MATLAB and its Robotic Toolbox by Peter Corke.

Ph.D.

University of Texas, Austin

Aerospace Engineering

M.S.

University of New Mexico

Electrical and Computer Engineering (Systems and Control)

B.S.

University of New Mexico

Mechanical Engineering

RPC: A modular framework for robot planning, control, and deployment

IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII), 2025.

Variable inertia model predictive control for fast bipedal maneuvers

IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2024.

Guiding Collision-Free Humanoid Multi-Contact Locomotion using Convex Kinematic Relaxations and Dynamic Optimization

IEEE-RAS 23rd International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), 2024.

Design of a Person-Carrying Robot for Contact Compliant Navigation

Proceedings of the ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference, 2023.

Learning Adaptive Horizon Maps Based on Error Forecast for Model Predictive Control

IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2023.

Deep imitation learning for humanoid loco-manipulation through human teleoperation

IEEE-RAS 22nd International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), 2023.

Control and evaluation of a humanoid robot with rolling contact joints on its lower body

Frontiers in Robotics and AI, vol. 10, 2023.

Data-Driven Safety Verification and Explainability for Whole-Body Manipulation and Locomotion

IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, 2022.

Team IHMC at the 2020 Cybathlon: a user-centered approach towards personal mobility exoskeletons

Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, vol. 19, no. 103, 2022.

Line walking and balancing for legged robots with point feet

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2020.

Sensitivity of balancing in legged systems under torque constraint variations

Proceedings of the ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference, 2018, pp. 1–9.

Contact-Dependent Balance Stability of Biped Robots

Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, vol. 10, no. 2, p. 021009, 2018.

Contact-Dependent Balance Stability of Walking Robots

ASME 2017 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, 2017, pp. 1–7.

Detection of manual tracking submovements in Parkinson’s disease through hybrid optimization

IFAC-PapersOnLine, vol. 48, no. 27, pp. 291–297, 2015.

An IPMC microgripper with integrated actuator and sensing for constant finger-tip displacement

Smart Materials and Structures, vol. 24, no. 5, p. 55011, 2015.