Principal Investigator
Magnus Egerstedt
Professor and Stacey Nicholas Dean of Engineering
Dr. Magnus Egerstedt is the Dean of Engineering and a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine. Prior to joining UCI, Egerstedt was on the faculty at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received the M.S. degree in Engineering Physics and the Ph.D. degree in Applied Mathematics from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, the B.A. degree in Philosophy from Stockholm University, and was a Postdoctoral Scholar at Harvard University. Dr. Egerstedt conducts research in the areas of control theory and robotics, with particular focus on control and coordination of multi-robot systems. Magnus Egerstedt is a Fellow of IEEE and IFAC, and is a Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science. He has received a number of teaching and research awards, including the Ragazzini Award, the O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award, the Outstanding Doctoral Advisor Award and the HKN Outstanding Teacher Award from Georgia Tech, and the Alumni of the Year Award from the Royal Institute of Technology.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Efrain Mendez-Flores
Postdoctoral Researcher, Member since Fall 2023
Dr. Efrain Mendez-Flores is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Robot Ecology Lab at the University of California, Irvine, under the supervision of Dr. Magnus Egerstedt and Dr. Brett Sanders. He received in 2016 a B.S. degree in Mechatronics Engineering with a Robotics concentration from the Tecnologico de Monterrey. After the B.S. degree, he oversaw electronics software and hardware R&D designs between 2017 and 2019, as part of a startup team dedicated to the design of power inverters and Embedded systems for the control of three-phase induction motors. Efrain received in 2021 the Ph.D. degree in Engineering Sciences from Tec de Monterrey, specialized in power electronics especially dealing with the development of MPPT and DC-DC converter’s optimized through metaheuristic algorithms. Efrain is passionate about the creation and development of prototypes and products, and in general for bringing ideas to life.
Brooks Butler
Postdoctoral Researcher, Member since Fall 2024
Dr. Brooks Butler is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Irvine, under the advisement of Professor Magnus Egerstedt, the Stacey Nicholas Dean of the Samueli School of Engineering. He is a participant in the Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program administered by Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) through an interagency agreement between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), focusing on applications for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). I graduated from Purdue University in 2024, earning my Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, where I worked with Professor Philip E. Paré to study safety guarantees for dynamic networked systems. When not performing research, I enjoy spending time with my wife and two kids, playing and composing music on the piano and guitar, singing, and playing games with friends.
Graduate Student Researchers
Ruoyu Lin
PhD Candidate, Member since Winter 2022
Ruoyu Lin is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine, advised by Professor Magnus Egerstedt. His research interests include differential geometry, nonsmooth analysis, and abstract algebra. Outside the lab, he enjoys swimming, skating, playing basketball and video games, and has a passion for visual arts such as drawing, origami, matte painting, and key animation.
Alex Nguyen
PhD Candidate, Member since Fall 2022
Alex Nguyen is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, under the joint supervision of Prof. Magnus Egerstedt and Prof. Faryar Jabbari. He received a B.S. degree with Honors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an M.S. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, Irvine. His research interests include control theory, optimization, and state estimation for heterogenous multi-robot system applications.
Saketh Karumuri
PhD Student, Member since Fall 2023
Undergraduate Student, Member from Winter 2022 to Spring 2023
Saketh Karumuri is a Mechanical Engineering PhD student in the Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. He graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UCI in 2023. His current research interests include reinforcement learning and collaboration.
Riwa Karam
PhD Student, Member since Fall 2023
Riwa Karam is a Computer Engineering PhD student at the Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. She graduated with a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Balamand, Lebanon in June of 2023. She has a background in mechatronics and machine learning through internships and previous experiences. Her research interests lie in networked control systems, collaboration in heterogenous systems, and graph neural networks.
Diana Morales
PhD Student, Member since Fall 2024
Diana Morales is a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering at the Samueli School of Engineering, University of California, Irvine. She earned her B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Applied Mathematics from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in December 2023. Her research interests include control theory, sensor fusion, and the collaboration of heterogeneous systems for the exploration of unknown environments using machine learning.
Emmanuel Adjei
PhD Student, Member since Spring 2025
Emmanuel Adjei is a PhD student in civil and environmental engineering specializing in transportation systems engineering at the Samueli School of Engineering, University of California, Irvine (UCI). He completed all coursework toward an MS in Statistics at UCI in June 2024, focusing on machine learning, causal inference, and Bayesian statistics. Emmanuel also holds an MSc in Mathematical Sciences from the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, University of Ghana, in June 2022, and a BSc in Statistics from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana, in August 2020. His research interests include transportation systems analysis, travel demand modeling, and environmental transport modeling. He has extensive teaching and mentoring experience and is passionate about integrating advanced mathematical and statistical techniques into transportation research to address real-world challenges.
Undergraduate Student Researchers
Agaton Pourshahidi
Undergraduate Student, Member since Winter 2023
Agaton Pourshahidi is an undergraduate student majoring in Computer Science with a specialization in Intelligent Systems at UCI. With a keen interest in machine learning and its implications in robotics, Agaton actively engages in research projects exploring the intersection of these fields. As a member of the Robot Ecology Lab, Agaton contributes to advancing our understanding of artificial intelligence and its applications in real-world scenarios. Beyond academia, Agaton is also a dedicated member of the men’s soccer team at UCI.
Edison Ta
Undergraduate Student, Member since Fall 2024
Edison Ta is an undergraduate student majoring in Mechanical Engineering at the Samueli School of Engineering, University of California, Irvine. He is passionate about mechanical design, prototyping, and robotics, with research interests that include, but are not limited to, autonomous systems, robotic control systems, and coverage mechanisms for heterogeneous multi-robot applications. Outside of the lab, he serves as a committee member for UCI ASME.
Ervin Grimaldi
Undergraduate Student, Member since Fall 2024
Ervin Grimaldi is an undergraduate student in Computer Science and Engineering in the Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. He has gained experience in Embedded Systems and Deep Learning through industry internships. His research interests include autonomous systems, distributed robotic systems, machine learning in robotics, and split computing. Outside the lab, Ervin is passionate about soccer, volleyball, quantum physics, and cinematography.
Justin Quan
Undergraduate Student, Member since Fall 2024
Justin is an undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering at the Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests lie in bio-inspired robotics, autonomous systems, and machine learning. Outside of research, he loves rock climbing, volleyball, and going to concerts.
Elizabeth Yang
Undergraduate Student, Member since Spring 2025
Elizabeth is an undergraduate Electrical Engineering student at the Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. She is currently the Assistant Project Chair for ESW (Engineers for a Sustainable World) and a member of IEEE. Her research interests include robotics, autonomous systems, computer imaging and recognition, and machine learning. Outside of research, she loves drawing, playing guitar, listening to music, and hanging out with friends.
Felix Jing
Undergraduate Student, Member since Spring 2025
Felix is an undergraduate Mechanical Engineering student at the Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. With over nine years of robotics experience, Felix specializes in designing and competing with 250-pound combat robots, ranking among the top 8 globally in BattleBots competitions in both 2021 and 2022. His research interests include innovative mechanical designs, humanoid robotics, and autonomous robots for daily human interaction. Outside of research, Felix enjoys mechanical design competitions, hands-on prototyping, and going to the gym. He currently works on autogyro systems with UCI CanSat, rehabilitation robotics at the Biorobotics Lab, and autonomous drones with UAV Forge.