John Valasek

About John Valasek

People, Innovation, Excellence”John\'s strategic research goal is to ESTABLISH TRUST IN AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS so that they interact with humans and their environment safely, reliably, and predictably to mutually accomplish desired missions and tasks. His approach is human-in-the-loop Reinforcement Learning so that humans can transfer skills to machines, and how learning algorithms can be exploited to leverage the learned behavior. John has been actively conducting flight mechanics and controls research of Manned and Unmanned Air Vehicles in both Industry and Academia for 33 years. John has been with Texas A&M University since 1997, and was previously a Flight Control Engineer for the Northrop Corporation, Aircraft Division where he worked in the Flight Controls Research Group, and on the AGM-137 Tri-Services Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM) program. John has conducted 350+ UAS flights at Texas A&M University since for fixed-wing, rotorcraft, and powered parafoil vehicles. He holds a patent for autonomous air refueling of UAS and a patent for the design of a UAS.

Experience

1. Professor and Director, Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory

   Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory Vscl

   Aug 1997 — Present · College Station, TX, US

Education

• California State Polytechnic University-Pomona

  BS, Aerospace Engineering

  1983 — 1986

• The University of Kansas

  Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering

  1990 — 1995

• The University of Kansas

  MS, Aerospace Engineering

  1988 — 1990

Skills

• Motion Video Tracking
• Nonlinear Control
• Signal Processing
• Mathematica
• Simulink
• Fluid Mechanics
• Robotics
• Space Systems
• Aerospace
• Aircraft Design
• Fortran
• Unmanned Air Systems
• Feedback Linearization
• Numerical Analysis
• Systems Engineering
• Composites
• Algorithms
• Latex
• Fault Tolerant Adaptive Control
• Spacecraft
• Cyber-Physical Systems
• Dynamics
• Cockpit Systems & Displays
• Vehicle Management Systems
• Mathematical Modeling
• Matlab
• Nonlinear
• Cfd
• Flight Mechanics
• Aerospace Engineering
• Flight Control Systems
• Machine Learning
• Aerodynamics
• Morphing Air Vehicles
• Digital Flight Control
• Intelligent Systems
• Simulations
• Fluid Dynamics
• Reinforcement Learning
• Sensors