Scholar in residence April – May 2026; September 2026
Nina Mahmoudian is a Professor and B.F.S. Schafer Scholar of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, Director of the Nonlinear and Autonomous Systems (NAS) Laboratory, and a leading researcher in Maritime Autonomous and Intelligent Systems. As a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, her research focuses on persistent autonomy for maritime and cross-domain robotic systems operating in dynamic and uncertain environments.
Her work integrates artificial intelligence, adaptive control, mission planning, and collaborative autonomy for autonomous underwater, surface, and aerial robotic systems. She develops deployable distributed autonomous systems capable of performing long-duration missions with minimal human intervention while adapting to challenging environmental conditions.
Mahmoudian has led numerous federally funded and industry-sponsored research programs supported by NSF, DARPA, ONR, SAAB, and other partners. Her projects have advanced resilient and energy-aware autonomous operations through intelligent coordination, autonomous docking and recovery, and adaptive decision-making. Her work has contributed to reducing operational costs, improving mission efficiency, and increasing the endurance of autonomous systems for continuous monitoring and exploration of oceans, lakes, rivers, and other marine environments.
The visit aims to strengthen the collaboration between Purdue University and KTH in the areas of AI-enabled maritime autonomy, cyber-physical systems, and distributed multi-domain robotic systems. Planned activities will focus on advancing intelligent coordination, mission planning, and control architectures for heterogeneous autonomous systems operating across underwater, surface, and aerial domains. The collaboration will further explore resilient autonomy, AI-driven decision-making, autonomous deployment and recovery systems, and persistent maritime operations for next-generation robotic systems.
Contact: ninam@purdue.edu
