UfukTopcu

About

Ufuk Topcu is a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at The University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Judson S. Swearingen Regents Chair in Engineering #1. He is a core faculty member at the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences and Texas Robotics and the director of the Autonomous Systems Group.

Topcu obtained his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2008. Before joining UT Austin, he was with the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Topcu’s research focuses on the theoretical and algorithmic aspects of the design and verification of autonomous systems, typically at the intersection of formal methods, reinforcement learning, and control theory. He takes a relatively broad view on autonomy and tends to tackle abstract problems motivated by challenges cutting across multiple applications of autonomy.

Topcu leads several large-scale, multi-institution projects, including an Air Force MURI project, a NASA ULI project, and an NSF CPS Frontier project. His research contributions have been recognized by the NSF CAREER Award, the Air Force Young Investigator Award, the IEEE CSS Antonio Ruberti Young Researcher Prize, and the Oden Institute Distinguished Researcher Award. He was a member of the Computing Community Consortium Council.

Educational Qualifications

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley

Select Awards & Honors

• Named Fellow of IEEE, 2024
• Oden Institute Distinguished Research Award, 2021
• IEEE Control Systems Society Antonio Ruberti Young Researcher Prize, 2020
• NSF CAREER Award, 2017

Related Websites

• Center for Autonomy Website

Select Publications