Two doctoral students were lauded for developing a novel method to track space debris with a Best Paper Award from the fifth annual Dynamic Data Driven Application Systems Conference.
Mechanical engineering student Hunter Quebedeaux ’21 ‘23MS and aerospace engineering student Pugazhenthi Sivasankar took home the award for their work, “Application of a State Based Neural Network Model for Uncertainty Propagation in Dynamical Systems.”
Both students are members of the Astrodynamics, Space and Robotics Laboratory directed by their advisor, Associate Professor Tarek Elgohary.
Quebedeaux and Sivasankar used machine learning (ML) to develop a data-driven method that can be used to predict the location of a moving object.
“We focus a lot on space applications and this work has potential applications in the tracking and avoidance of space debris,” Quebedeaux says.
He adds that the creative idea emanated from one of the many conversations he and Sivasankar shared as lab members.
“Pugal and I have a lot of discussions about AI and ML and their potential applications, weird properties, and how they ‘think,’” Quebedeaux says. “This paper was born from one of those discussions.”
Sivasankar says though they were successful in their research, they’re not through with their work yet.
“A lot of work needs to be done before it can be used in real-world applications,” he says. “One possible application of this work could be to assist in the tracking of non-cooperative space assets.”
Sivasankar chose UCF to pursue doctoral degree thanks to a serendipitous meeting. While attending a research program in Sweden, he met with a graduate Knight who shared that Elgohary was recruiting a Ph.D. student. Elgohary hired him for his lab, and became his advisor as well.
“Despite my very delayed arrival due to COVID, my advisor has been a tremendous support in my journey at UCF,” Sivasankar says. “As someone with autism, I immensely benefitted from the Student Accessibility Services, and this made me advocate for the empowerment of students with disabilities. The administrative, teaching and student community of UCF have been a solid support in my endeavors at UCF.”
Quebedeaux had the opportunity to be near his family by attending UCF, and was awarded generous financial incentives that helped him earn his undergraduate degree.
“My advisor Dr. Elgohary was very supportive academically during my undergrad and during my transition to graduate school,” he says.
Following UCF’s motto, both students will reaching for the stars when they complete their doctorates.
“I know I want to work in the space industry with a special focus on machine learning applications, but deciding between academia or industry is the tough part; the answer changes day by day,” Quebedeaux says.
Sivasankar has his sights set on longtime UCF partner Lockheed Martin for a career in aerospace.
“Being in the final year of my Ph.D., I look forward to working in the space industry after graduation,” Sivasankar says. “Much of my doctoral research has been sponsored by Lockheed Martin, and so I hope to work for Lockheed Martin after graduation.”
- Written by Bel Huston
- Jan. 21, 2025