PhD Students

           
photo

Henry Chang Henry Chang received his B.S. in Civil Engineering (minor in Mechanical Engineering) from National Cheng Kung University in 2017, and his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California San Diego in 2020. Prior to his Ph.D. study, he worked for 1.5 years at Industrial Technology Research Institution (ITRI) as an autonomous driving engineer. He started his Ph.D. in 2022 with research interests in multi-agent robotics, data-driven control, and decision-making.
 
 
photo

Mohamed Safwat received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2022, where he worked on landing a quadcopter on a moving ATV for his senior capstone project. He then started his Ph.D. with a research focus on multi-agent systems and confined space robots.
 
 
photo

Wade Marquette received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (2019) and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering (2021) from the University of Washington. He then started his Ph.D. with a research focus in precision control of confined space robotics.
 
 
photo

Kyle Schultz received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington in 2019 with a mechatronics focus. He then started his Ph.D in 2019. His research interests include robot learning from demonstration, shared control, and confined space manufacturing.
 
 
photo

Leon Yan obtained his bachelor's degree in engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China in 2018. After that, he got admitted to the mechanical engineering department at the University of Washington and started his Ph.D. in Sep. 2019. His research interests include data-based dynamics modeling and precision control.
 
 
photo

Yudong Lin received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology. Prior to his graduate education, he worked for 1 year as an engineering intern at BMW China. ltd. Yudong started his master's program in 2017 at UW and transferred to the Ph.D. program in Autumn 2019. His current research interest includes the decision-making process of autonomous vehicles. He is working jointly with Prof. Brian Fabien.
 
 
photo

Yoshua Gombo received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Oregon Institute of Technology in 2015, where he worked on developing an automated water purifier device for the senior capstone project. Prior to graduate study, he worked for 3 years in industry as a product engineer in structural design and thermal analysis area. Yoshua started in 2018 as a Master’s student and transitioned to Ph.D. program in Autumn 2019. His current research interest is in multi-robotic systems.
 
 
photo

Anuj Tiwari received a Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India in 2017. There he worked on vibration-based condition monitoring of structural systems. His current research interests include co-ordination and control of networked systems. He started his PhD in 2017.
 
 
photo

Lance McCann has two degrees from the University of Washington, receiving his BSME in 2000, and completing his Masters in Applied Physics in 2008. As part of his Masters program, Lance developed technology for Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy. Lance worked five years as an applications engineer for Pacific Machine Automation, where he developed automated equipment for a wide variety of industrial applications. Since 2006, he has worked for the Boeing Company developing automated technology for the fabrication and assembly of composite structures. He started his PhD in 2015 and is working jointly with Prof. Joe Garbini.
 
 

 

PhD Alumni from Lab

photo

Ben Tereshchuk joined Boeing, Inc in 2020. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington in 2015 with a focus in mechatronics, and then got his Master's of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 2016. His research interests are in human-machine collaboration and multi-robot scheduling. He worked jointly with Prof. Ashis Banerjee.
 
 
photo

Rose Hendrix joined Vulcan, Inc in 2020. She received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the California Maritime Academy in 2015 with a focus in controls and system analysis, along with her unlimited horsepower 3rd Assistant Engineer's license for steam, motor, and gas turbine vessels. She worked jointly with Prof. Joe Garbini. Her reearch was conducted at the Boeing Advanced Research Center (BARC) at the University of Washington, where she developed industrial applications in augmented reality and other advanced visualization techniques. Her specific focus was on systematic selection of gestures for maximum separability.
 
 
photo

Parker Owan joined Amazon Robotics in 2019. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Arizona in 2013, with an emphasis on controls and digital signal processing. He worked in industry for 2 years at Raytheon in Tucson prior to starting his Ph.D. program in 2014. He recieved his PhD in 2019. He worked jointly with Prof. Joe Garbini. on learning from humans for manufacturing applicaitons under the Boeing Advanced Research Center (BARC) at the University of Washington. His research interests include controls, mechatronics, and system identification.
 
 
photo

Rahul B Warrier joined Amazon Robotics in 2018. He received a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. After that, he worked as a Manufacturing Engineer (Process Planner) for Bosch India Ltd for two years in their Manufacturing plant in Bangalore, India. He obtained the Ph.D. degree at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 2018. His current research interests include machine learning, user intent prediction and their applications in the control of systems. .
 
 
photo

Brandon Smith joined Tethers Unlimited. He received a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington in 2008. He then received a Masters of Science from the University of Washington in 2009. His focus was in systems dynamics and control systems, and his research was in mixing with microfluidics. After that, he worked on hard disk drives for Western Digital Corporation for three years in their servo pattern write group. There he made contributions in spindle control and advanced servo write techniques with two patents pending. He obtained the Ph.D. degree at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 2017, working jointly with Prof. Mark Tuttle. His research interests are in identification and control of heat transfer in composite materials.
 
 
photo

Jonathan Realmuto joined the faculty at UC Riverside. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2010. There he conducted research on PV solar tracking and monitoring. He obtained the Ph.D. degree at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 2017, working jointly with Prof. Glenn Klute from the VA Center of Excellence for Limb Loss Prevention and Prosthetic Engineering. Jonathan's research is focused on the development of powered ankle prosthetics.
 
 
photo

Nathan Banka joined Amazon Robotics in 2017. He received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis in December 2009 with a minor in Computer Science. He obtained the Ph.D. degree at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 2017. His research interests are the area of control systems and robotics.
 
 
photo

Arom Boekfah. Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University, Thailand. He received a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Mahidol University, Thailand. He obtained a Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Kasetsart University, Thailand, and a Master of Science in Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He obtained the Ph.D. degree at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 2016, under the support of the Royal Thai Government and the US National Science Foundation. His research interests include inversion-based and iterative-based control of dynamical systems with application to positioning systems.
 
 

photo

Mahdi Ashrafi joined Boeing BR&T. He was a Commercialization Post-Doctoral Fellow at the UW Center for Commercialization (CoMotion). He received his BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Mazandaran University, Iran with emphasis on solid design. He then obtained his Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University. He obtained the Ph.D. degree at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 2016, working jointly with Prof. Mark Tuttle. His research interests are experimental mechanics, adhesively bonded joints, composite materials, and application of digital image correlation (DIC) in measuring strains and embedded heating in composite repair systems.

 
 
photo

Scott Wilcox He joined Amazon Prime Air in 2015.
He received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington in 2009 with an emphasis on mechatronics. He obtained his Master's of Science in Mechanical Engineering in June of 2011 and his Ph.D. program in 2015. His research interests are on control theory, distributed systems, and micro/nano scale dynamics with application to positioning systems.
 
 
photo

Jeff Yoo He is currently working at Boeing, WA.
He received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Washington in 2005 with an emphasis in Mechatronics, and in 2007 obtained a Masters of Science and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington with an emphasis in control theory. He obtained the Ph.D. degree at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 2014. He research is in the area of Air Traffic Management.
 
 
photo

Jiradech Kongthon Assistant Professor, Chairperson, Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Assumption University, Thailand. He received a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from the King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand. He earned a Master of Science in Engineering Management from the California State University, Northridge and a Master of Science in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He obtained the Ph.D. degree at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 2011. His research is in the area of iterative control, fluid-structure interactions and controls of bio-mimetic cilia.
 
 
photo

Garrett Clayton Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, Villanova University. He received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Seattle University in 2001 and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington in 2003. He obtained the Ph.D. degree at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 2007. His research is in the area of image-based control of scanning probe microscopes specifically with a focus on scanning tunneling microscopes.
 
 
photo

Szu-Chi Tien Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan. He received the B.S. degree in naval architecture from the National Taiwan University (NTU), Taiwan, and the M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from NCKU, Taiwan. He obtained the Ph.D. degree at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 2007. His PhD research focussed on the compensation for coupling effect in piezo-actuator with inversion-based iterative control, and imaging bio-samples with AFM.
 
 
photo

Dhanakorn Iamratanakul Joined Western Digital Inc as Senior Firmware Engineer in Fall 2007 He received the B.Eng. (1st Hon.) in Aerospace Engineering from Kasetsart University, Thailand, in 1999, and M.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2000. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department at the University of Washington in 2007. His research interests include inversion-based control theory, output-transition control, optimal control theory, and the control of complex distributed systems such as Air Traffic Management. His experimental work includes the control of large flexible structures and control of dual-stage actuators for use in disk drives.
 
 
photo

Kam K. Leang Associate Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1997, and 1999, respectively. He obtained the Ph.D. degree at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington in 2004. His research interests include mechatronics, design, automation, robotics and control for intelligent autonomous systems.
 
 
photo

Qingze Zou, Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Rutgers, New Jersey Qingze Zou received his B.S. in Automatic Control from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China, in 1994, the M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 1997, and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Washington in 2003. His research interests include inversion-based control theory, precision positioning of piezoactuators for nanotechnology and biomedical applications.
 
 
photo

Hector Perez He is a Research Professor in the Electronic Engineering Department, at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Bucaramanga, Colombia, since June 2002. He obtained the Ph.D. degree at the U. of Utah in 2002. His current research interests include inversion-based control theory, high-precision positioning systems, optimal control theory, image processing applied to control systems, and the application of the control technology in the Colombian industry.
 
 
Marshall Mattingly Ph. D., December 1998, U. of Utah, Mechanical Engineering "Modeling and Control: Theoretical Development with Application to Hyperthermia Cancer Therapy." R. Roemer was Co-Chair Joined Raytheon Systems Company, Tucson (AZ) in 1999
 
 
Donald E. Croft Ph. D., December 2003, U. of Utah, Mech. Eng "High-Speed High-Precision Piezoactuators with Applications to Scanning Probe Microscopy." Joined Raytheon Systems Company, Tucson (AZ) in 1999
 
 

Research Group: Lunches, Receptions

           
photo
Lunch in November 2022 Left to right: Santosh Devasia, Wade Marquette, Yudong Lin (just got his first paper accepted), Anuj Tiwari (Just defended his PhD, mulling faculty positions), Kyle Schultz, Yoshua Gombo (in front, mulling over time-varying Lyapunov functions), and Henry Chang (trying to finish his waffle cone at Molly Moon's)



photo
Lunch in May 2019 Clockwise starting from bottom left: Jeffery Lee, Parker Owan (an old hand at Amazon), Leon Yan, Kaiyu Shi, Scott Wilcox (Amazon expert), Jeff Yoo (also UAVs in Boeing), Rose Hendrix (ready for her Internship at Vulcan), Sushrut Surve (IIT Gandhinagar), Tony Piaskowy (ready for the final exam), Sujay Kadam (IIT Gandhinagar), Bharg Mehta (also from IIT Gandhinagar), Veniamin (Ben) Tereshchuk (ready for his intership at Boeing), Santosh Devasia, Rahul Warrier (twice more time at Amazon than Parker), Anuj Tiwari (in charge of herding the lab), Karli Berger (Graduating with BS this year), Ting-Yang Chen (ready to start his new job), Yoshua Gombo (prepring to start his PhD effort), Khrisna Kamargo, and Kyle Schultz (out of the camera range).



photo
Lunch in June 2018 Back row (left to right): Shashi Mohan Singh (visiting from IIT Ghandinagar); Stefan Zelenovic, Nishita Anandan, Behnoosh Parsa, Brandon Smith (joys of having a new baby and working with full pay); Anuj Tiwari (starting a PhD); Scott Wilcox (an old hand at Amazon by now); Ting-Yang Chen.
Front row (left to right): Rahul Warrier (ready to take on Amazon); Tushar Pareek (visiting from IIT Ghandinagar); Santosh Devasia; Mihir Salot (to Nonlinear or not); Parker Owan (ready to blaze new trails); Rose Hendrix; Nathan Banka (almost a year at Amazon now).




photo
AIM Conference Reception
almost the last group to leave the beer garden after they closed with Georg Schitter (Professor at TU Wein), Garrett Clayton (Associate Prof. at Villanova), Kam Leang (Associate Prof. at U. of Utah), Chenyi Lee, and students at the Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics Conference in Munich, 2017.


photo

Mahdi and Arom
at the UW graduation ceremony, 2016.
 
photo
Research Lunch Meeting 2016
with Garrett Clayton (Associate Prof. at Villanova), Kam Leang (Associate Prof. at U. of Utah), Qingze Zou (Professor at Rutgers University) and students at the American Control Conference in Boston, 2016.


photo

Research Lunch 2014
Back row (left to right): Arom Boekfah (mulling graduation), Chenyi Lee, Mizuho Ogawa, Parker Owan (started this year), Scott Wilcox (joining Amazon), Jonathan Realmuto (passed Quals), Nishita Anandan, Rahul Warrier (success at Quals, and recently engaged), Michael Ng (graduate school?), Brandon Smith (passed Quals), Nathan Banka (codes working!)
Front row (left to right): Siriphan Manocheewa, Tomoki Ogawa, Mahdi Ashrafi (industry or academia?), Reika Ogawa, Prof. Takehiko Ogawa (visiting from Tokyo), Santosh Devasia, Bill Macdonald, Cheryl Tan (BSME this year), Kaitlin McCarthy
 
 
photo

Research Group Lunch in Summer 2007, a lot of transitions
Left to Right: Beren Mckay, Dhanakorn Iamratanakul (to join Western Digital), Szu-Chi Tien (to join faculty position at NCKU), Garrett Clayton (graduating at the end of summer), and Jeff Yoo (just joined our group).
 
 
photo

Research Group Lunch in 2005
Clockwise from top left: Garrett Clayton, Benjamin Jordon, Szu-Chi Tien, Dhanakorn Iamratanakul, Kam Leang (joined VCU as Prof in Fall 2005), Santosh Devasia.
 
 
photo

Research Group Lunch in 2004
From Left to Right: Szu-Chi Tien, Kam Leang, Santosh Devasia, Garrett Clayton, Qingze Zou (Joined Iowa State as Prof in 2004), Dhanakorn Iamratanakul, Benjamin Jordon.
 
 

Contact Santosh Devasia: devasia@u.washington.edu

Other Lab Photos

photo
Jonathan Realmuto
working on the right iteration gains for learning repetitive human hip motions
photo
Szu-Chi Tien
kneeling to get hooded
photo
Graduation Day
Left to Right: Szu-Chi Tien, Chen-Yi Lee, Santosh Devasia, Dhanakorn Iamratanakul
photo
Garrett Clayton
testing optimal, elephant-feeding strategies in Thailand
photo
Dhanakorn Iamratanakul
investigating stability of two-legged locomotion in the Bahamas
photo
Nini Hong and Jesse Hernandez
planning to get the robots moving.
photo
Cheryl Tan
exploring the Northwest for optimal walking patterns to use in the nanostepper she is designing.
photo
Scott Wilcox
demonstrating his 3-legged piezo-actuator to visiting students, teachers and family during the 2012 Engineering Discovery Days.
photo
Kurt J. Stalsberg
demonstrating the gaitpatterns of his Lego robot during the 2012 Engineering Discovery Days.
photo
Brandon Brown
explaining the many stops in the research route
photo
Garrett Clayton
with the Scanning Tunneling Microscope used to image nano-scale surface features
photo
Ben Jordan
with Dual-Stage Disk Drive Servo Experiment
photo
Dhanakorn Iamratanakul (Left) and Kam Leang
with the Flexible-Structure Experiment System with Nonminimum-phase dynamics
photo
Szu-Chi Tien
being presented the Best-Student-Paper Finalist Award at the Conference on Control Applications, Taipei, Taiwan, 2004
photo
Garrett Clayton
pondering graduation