Research Team
Principal Investigator
Siavash Farzan (sfarzan@)
Assistant Professor , Cal Poly
I lead a group of graduate and undergraduate students to develop safety-critical and robust planning and control algorithms for autonomous cyber-physical systems such as autonomous vahicles, aerial drones, and robot manipulators.
I'm consistently seeking ambitious graduate and undergraduate students interested in cyber-physical systems and robotics. If you're motivated by addressing fundamental challenges for autonomous systems and are considering theoretical/experimental research collaborations with me at Cal Poly or WPI, feel free to contact me at sfarzan@calpoly.edu.
Vishrut Bohara (vbohara@)
Graduate Student , WPI, 2023 - Present
Research interests: safety-critical control, autonomous vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles
Varun Gampa (vgampa@)
Graduate Student , WPI, 2023 - Present
Research interests: learning-based control, model predective control
Chinmayee Prabhakar (cprabhakar@)
Graduate Student , WPI, 2023 - Present
Research interests: learning-based coordinated control, unmanned aerial vehicles
Sumeet Shanbhag (sshanbhag1@)
Graduate Student , WPI, 2023 - Present
Research interests: motion planning, autonomous vehicles, sim2real transfer
Chaitanya Gaddipati (cgaddipati@)
Graduate Student , WPI, 2023 - Present
Research interests: control of PDE systems, robust/adaptive control
Harshal Bhat (hbhat@)
Graduate Student , WPI, 2023 - Present
Research interests: safety-critical adaptive control, autonomous vehicles
Shivam Sharma (ssharma4@)
Graduate Student , WPI, 2023 - Present
Research interests: simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), agricultural robotics
Past Students
Shiva Tekumatla (stekumatla@)
  Graduate Student , WPI, 2021-22   (now at Honeywell)
Research interests: underactuated robotics, controls, learning-based control
Ghokulji Selvaraj (gselvaraj@)
  Graduate Student , WPI, 2021-22
Research interests: robotic vision, deep learning, agricultural robotics
Wael Mohammed (wmohammed@)
  Graduate Student , WPI, 2022   (now at Berkshire Grey)
Research interests: vision-based robotic manipulation
Yichen Guo (yguo2@)
  Undergraduate Student , WPI, 2022   (now at Cornell)
Research interests: robust control, ROS-based mobile robots
Tian Yu (Annie) Fan (tfan@)
  Graduate Student , WPI, 2022   (now at MathWorks)
Research interests: robot manipulation and control
Khizar Amjed Mohamed (kamjedmohamed@)
  Graduate Student , WPI, 2022   (now at Boardwalk Robotics)
Research interests: learning-based control, underactuated robots
Jidnyesha Patil (jpatil@)
 
Graduate Student , WPI, 2022   (now at Smartapp)
Research interests: motion planning and control, autonomous vehicles
Aditya Patil (apatil@)
 
Graduate Student , WPI, 2022   (now at ArcBest)
Research interests: robust adaptive control, quadrotor aerial vehicles
Rohith Venkataramanan (rvenkataramanan@)
 
Graduate Student , WPI, 2022-23
Thesis title: Perception-Driven Robotic Manipulation and Motion Planning for Packaging of Dynamic Compressible Objects
Harin Vashi (hvashi@)
 
Graduate Student , WPI, 2022-23   (now at Outrider)
Research interests: motion planning, multi-agent systems
Senior Capstone Design Teams
Drone Swarms for Search and Rescue Missions
Anderson MacMillan, Wyatt Colburn, Rushabh Shah, Chris Short
Undergraduate Students , Cal Poly, Fall 2023 - Spring 2024
Areas: localization, control, embedded systems
Autonomous Apple Harvesting Robot
Jack Cline, Tyus Green, Devon Woolston
Undergraduate Students , Cal Poly, Fall 2023 - Spring 2024
Areas: manipulation, grasping, navigation
Cal Poly Gen 2 Battle Bot
Kelvin Villago
Undergraduate Student , Cal Poly, Fall 2023 - Spring 2024
Areas: embedded systems, PCB design
Stair-Capable Robot Vacuum
Benjamin Draper and Sawyer Wofford (co-advised with Jing Xiao)
Undergraduate Students , WPI, Fall 2021 - Spring 2022
Areas: novel robotic mechanism design, feedback control, embedded systems
"Winner of the 2022 Provost's MQP Award for Robotics Engineering"
A Hopping Two-Wheeled Segway Robot
Christian Defranco, Brian Desousa, and Samuel Mwangi
Undergraduate Students , WPI, Fall 2021 - Spring 2022
Areas: novel robotic mechanism design, feedback control, ROS-enabled embedded systems
Small-Size Soccer Robots
Spencer Belleville, Conner Christinsen, Ashley Espeland, David Lapointe, Noah Page, Logan Rinaldi, Nathan Rogers, Benjamin Schwantes, Evan Vadeboncoeur, Yifei Zhao
Undergraduate Students , WPI, Fall 2022 - Spring 2023
Areas: multi-agent systems, motion planning, embeeded systems, mechatronics
Robotic CNC Tending Work Cell with Remote Access
Brian Francis, Mayank Govilla, Nikolas Neathery
Undergraduate Students , WPI, Fall 2022 - Spring 2023
Areas: robotic manipulation, system integration, motion planning