Derek Paley

Derek A. Paley is director of the Maryland Robotics Center and Willis H. Young Jr. Professor of Aerospace Engineering Education in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research at Maryland. He is founding director of the UMD Collective Dynamics and Control Laboratory and the UMD Autonomous Micro Air Vehicle Team.

Paley is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a member of the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center, the Maryland Robotics Center, the Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, the Burgers Program for Fluid Dynamics, the Applied Mathematics & Statistics, and Scientific Computation Program, the Brain and Behavior Initiative, and the Maryland Transportation Institute. Paley received a B.S. in Applied Physics from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University.

Paley’s research interests are dynamics and control, including cooperative control of autonomous vehicles, adaptive sampling with mobile networks, spatial modeling of biological groups, and bioinspired robotics. His research is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Office, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research.

His honors include the Yale University Henry Prentiss Becton Prize for Excellence in Engineering and Applied Science, the National Science Foundation CAREER award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. He authored more than 140 peer-reviewed publications including the textbook: "Engineering Dynamics" (Princeton University Press, 2011).