People

Artur Wolek is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science Department at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a resident faculty member of the NC Battery Complexity, Autonomous Vehicle and Electrification Research Center (BATT CAVE). Wolek earned the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2010 and 2015. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Acoustics Division at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (2015-2018), an Adjunct Lecturer in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at Catholic University (2017-2018), and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Maryland (2018-2020). Wolek joined UNC Charlotte in 2021 and founded the Autonomous Robots and Systems Laboratory (ARSL). In 2023, Wolek was a faculty fellow in the AFOSR Summer Faculty Fellowship Program collaborating with the Control Science Center at Wright Patterson AFB. Wolek has authored more than 45 journal articles and conference proceedings. His research interests are in the area of dynamics, guidance, estimation, control, and autonomy for flight vehicles and marine vehicles. Wolek’s research group also specializes in path planning, automated/autonomous data collection, and multi-vehicle control and coordination. Wolek teaches undergraduate engineering dynamics and graduate-level courses in robotics and estimation. Wolek’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the Army STTR Program, Defensewerx, and the Coastal Studies Institute. Wolek is a Senior Member of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), an affiliate member of the International Federation for Automatic Control (IFAC), and a member of the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI).

Collin received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University (NCSU) in 2019 and the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from UNC Charlotte in 2023. He has experience in data analytics and machine learning through undergraduate research at NCSU, several internships (Syntelli Solutions, NASA Langley), and through an industry position as a Full Stack Software Developer at Pratt and Miller Engineering. Collin completed a robotics-related internship at Sandia National Laboratories in 2023. He has served as both a teaching assistant and instructor of several laboratory courses at UNC Charlotte and mentored numerous undergraduate research students. In the ARSL, Collin is working on automated data collection with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) considering sensing performance and constraints.

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Nicholas received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from UNC Charlotte in 2020 and the M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from UNC Charlotte in 2023. He has previous experience working with American Airlines as a A320 Fleet Engineer and with US Army Special Operations Command Unmanned Aerial Systems. For his senior design project, Nicholas helped develop a model of a flexure system from first principles using Lagrangian mechanics. He has served as both a teaching assistant and instructor of several laboratory courses at UNC Charlotte and mentored numerous undergraduate research students. In the ARSL, Nicholas is working on designing algorithms to enable wind field estimation and wind-aware path planning and control for autonomous quadrotors operating in urban environments. 

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Andrew received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from UNC Charlotte in 2024. As a senior, he was a member of the highly successful 49er Rocketry Team that competed in the 2024 NASA Student Rocket Launch Competition in Huntsville, AL. His role on the team was Recovery Officer where he was responsible for all recovery-related tasks and assisted with manufacturing of a high-powered rocket. In the ARSL, Andrew is working on developing a behavior for an uncrewed underwater vehicle (UUV) to safely surface while avoiding collision risk from surface ships .

Matt is an early-entry M.S. student in Mechanical Engineering student at UNC Charlotte minoring in Mathematics and Computer Science. His past experience includes internship with FANUC America Corporation as a Robotics Engineer and with Crosstown Heating and Cooling working on HVAC systems. He previously participated in the STEM TANK competition to design an autonomous, contactless food distribution system using Arduino sensors and 3D printed components. As an undergraduate, Matt participated in the OUR Scholar Program and completed a project to create a terrain-aware path planner for a Clearpath Robotics Jackal unmanned ground vehicle.

Alex received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Mathematics from UNC Charlotte in 2023. As a senior, he worked on a NAVAIR-sponsored senior capstone project to redesign a landing sensor for the WQ-8C Fire Scout autonomous air vehicle. In the ARSL, Alex is working towards evaluating the capabilities of a sonar-equipped unmanned marine craft to efficiently survey bathymetry in inland water bodies that impact transportation infrastructure. Alex has also mentored undergraduate students on related topics. 

Jordane received the B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from UNC Charlotte in 2024. During his four years as an undergraduate he was awarded UNC Charlotte’s most prestigious merit-based scholarship, the Levine Scholarship, As a senior, his capstone project was a semi-automated machine to aid in the disassembly of defective manufactured parts for Schaeffler Group. He has also participated in a recurring internship with DNP Imagingcomm America Corporation, where he completed various projects involving CAD design, 3D printing, and simulation/programming of a UR10e Universal Robot manipulator. In the ARSL, Jordane is working on control and estimation for wave energy converter (WEC) arrays.