Team

Ph.D. Students:

Shiyu Liu

I received her M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois Chicago with a 4.0/4.0 GPA and a B.Eng. in Automation from Northeastern University. I joined the PiNG lab in Fall 2025. My internships and projects span multimodal signal processing, beamforming-based speech enhancement, real-time robotic perception, and deep learning for industrial quality inspection. My current research focuses on railroad defect inspection using RGB-D video data.

Graduate Students:

Jacob Lee

I am a student at Marshall University pursuing a M.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering. I earned my BS degree in Computer Sciences and Electrical Engineering from Marshall University in Spring 2025.

Neil Loftus

I am a student at Marshall University pursuing a M.S. degree in computer sciences. I earned my BS degree in Computer Sciences and Electrical Engineering from Marshall University in Spring 2025.

Ellis Alagah

I am a student at Marshall University pursuing a M.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering....

Undergraduate Students:

Dylan Lester

I am an graduate student in the Department of Computer Sciences and Electrical Engineering at Marshall University. ...

Samuel Sutphin

I plan on going to graduate school after getting my bachelor’s in electrical and computer engineering at Marshall University. In my free time, I like to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race and make small Arduino projects.

Past Members and Thesis

Graduate students:

Xu (James) Gao: M.S. in Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE), Fall 2023 - Summer 2025.
- Thesis: Very-Large Scale Robotics Path Planning with Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation.
- Next Position: Ph.D. student at the University of North Texas.
Peter Estephan: M.S. in Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE), Fall 2020 - Spring 2023.
- Thesis: A Path Planning Framework For Multi-Agent Robotic Systems Based On Multivariate Skew-Normal Distributions.
- Next Position: Power, Controls & Information System Engineer at P&G.

Undergraduate students:

Ben Taylor: B.S. in Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE), Fall 2021 - Spring 2025.
- Grants & Awards:
  - NASA WVSGC Undergraduate Fellowship, "Advancements in Autonomous Drone Operations: A Research Project on Obstacle Avoidance Techniques," Role: PI and Mentor, Student: Ben Taylor, Amount: $5,000, Period: April 10th, 2024- April 9th, 2025.
- Next Position: M.S. student at Marshall University.
Jacob Lee: B.S. in Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE), Fall 2021 - Spring 2025.
- Grants & Awards:
  - NASA WVSGC Undergraduate Fellowship, "Comparison of Penalty Terms of Obstacle Avoidance for Very-Large-Scale Robotic Systems," Role: PI and Mentor, Student: Jacob Lee, Amount: $5,000, Period: April 10th, 2024- April 9th, 2025.
- Next Position: M.S. student at Marshall University.
Mathew Allen: B.S. in Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE), Fall 2021 - Spring 2025.
- Grants & Awards:
  - NASA WVSGC Undergraduate Fellowship, "Human Interaction in Drone Operations," Role: PI and Mentor, Student: Mathew Allen, Amount: $5,000, Period: April 10th, 2024- April 9th, 2025.
- Next Position: Manufacturing Engineer at Vertiv
Preston Henson: B.S. in Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE), Fall 2021 - Spring 2025.
- Grants & Awards:
  - NASA WVSGC Undergraduate Fellowship, "Advancements in Autonomous Drone Operations: Emergency Response and Recognition," Role: PI and Mentor, Student: Preston Sellards, Amount: $5,000, Period: April 10th, 2024- April 9th, 2025.
- Next Position: Nuclear Engineer I at Duke Energy Corporation

Capstone Project: Heavy Lift Delivery Drone with OpenCV Object Avoidance Fall 20 - Spring 21

- Thomas M. Williams, Research Assistant, EE Capstone project mentee in 2021
- Caleb Jonson, EE Capstone project mentee in 2021
- Bailey Protzman, EE Capstone project mentee in 2021
- Peter J. Mills, EE Capstone project mentee in 2021

Awards:

2nd Place Award in Computer Science Symposium on Emerging Technologies (CSSET) 2021 at Marshall University
Winer of Research Scholars Award at Marshall University at https://www.marshall.edu/faculty-senate/research-scholars-award/, grant: $250

Collaborators

- Prof. Jose C. Principe, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), University of Florida
- Prof. Silvia Ferrari, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), Cornell University
- Prof. Fumin Zhang, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), Georgia Tech
- Prof. Alexander Vladimirsky, Department of Mathematics, Cornell University
- Prof. John Albertson, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University
- Prof. Richard Linares, Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics, MIT
- Prof. Chang Liu, Department of Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics, College of Engineering, Peking University, China
- Prof. Keith LeGrand, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University

Openings

Ph.D. Student :

One Ph.D. student position is open in our lab. The Ph.D. students will participate in the project for automatic detection from images and videos. Tuition and salary will be provided. The following backgrounds are preferred (There are not all requirements, but the more satisfied the better):

B.S. or M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related majors.
Solid math, probability, and statistics background.
Strong programming skills and experience (e.g., C, C++, Python, and MATLAB).
Experience with writing software or working with real-world testbeds/platforms.
Research publications in signal processing, image processing, artificial intelligence, neural networks, control theory, and information theory.

M.S. Research Assistant Students :

Several M.S. Research Assistant positions are open in our lab for two projects, including Proj-A) Automatic detection from images and videos, and Proj-B) Signal detection, classification, and analysis. The salary/ stipend will be provided (a tuition waiver is also possible). The following backgrounds are preferred (There are not all requirements, but the more satisfied the better):

B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related majors.
Solid math, probability, and statistics background.
Strong programming skills and experience (e.g., C, C++, Python, and MATLAB).
Experience with writing software or working with real-world testbeds/platforms.
Research publications in signal processing, image processing, artificial intelligence, neural networks, control theory, and information theory.

Undergraduate Research Assistant Students :

Undergraduate Research Assistant: Several undergraduate Research Assistant positions are open in our lab for two projects, including Proj-A) Automatic detection from images and videos, and Proj-B) Signal detection, classification, and analysis. The salary/stipend will be provided (a tuition waiver is also possible).

The following backgrounds are preferred (There are not all requirements, but the more satisfied the better):
B.S. major in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related majors.
Strong programming skills and experience (e.g., C, C++, Python, and MATLAB).
Solid math and major background knowledge, such as signal and systems, image processing, and control systems.
U.S. citizen

Prospective students who are interested in the position are welcome to contact Dr. Pingping Zhu (zhup@marshall.edu). With your email, please include complete C.V., all publications (if any), and a copy of B.S. and/or M.S. transcripts (all in PDF).

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