People

Principal Investigator

Chuangchuang Sun

Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Villanova University

Office: Drosdick Hall

Email: chuangchuang.sun@villanova.edu

Employment

Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering Villanova University, 08/2025-present
Assistant Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering Mississippi State University, 08/2021-08/2025
Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 08/2019-07/2021

Advisors: Prof. Jonathan How

Postdoctoral Associate, Division of Systems Engineering Boston University, 09/2018-07/2019

Advisors: Prof. Christos G. Cassandras and Prof. Calin Belta

Education

Ph.D., Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering The Ohio State University, 08/2018

Advisor: Prof. Ran Dai

Dissertation: Rank-Constrained Optimization: Algorithms and Applications

B.S., School of Astronautics Beihang University, China, 06/2013

Links

PhD students

Alaa Eddine Chriat

Mr. Alaa Eddine Chriat is an Aerospace Engineering PhD student. In 2019, he earned his bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering with a focus in aircraft design and flight controls from the International University of Rabat in Morocco, and earned his Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering from Mississippi State University in 2020.

Mr. Chriat is mainly interested in autonomous systems and optimal control, reinforcement learning, and systen design and optimization.

In his free time, he enjoys flying drones, making engineering crafts and practicing martial arts.

Email: aec652@msstate.edu

Sungwook Yang

Mr. Sungwook Yang is a Ph.D. student of Aerospace Engineering. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Korea Aerospace University in South Korea. Before joining MSU, he worked as a researcher for various projects related to the aerospace and aviation field such as control laws development for the aerospace platform, satellite actuator for attitude control, aviation standards development, etc.

His research interests are optimal and adaptive control of aerospace systems, decision-making, and machine learning.

Email: sy449@msstate.edu

Andres Arias-Londono

Mr. Arias earned a Bachelor, master's and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira (Colombia), in 2010, 2012 and 2018 respectively. He’s currently pursuing a PhD in Aerospace Engineering at Mississippi State University. His areas of research involve optimization algorithms for applications in control of aerial robotics.

Email: aa2935@msstate.edu

Undergrad Students

Victoria Rutledge

Victoria Rutledge is currently a Junior at Mississippi State University studying Aerospace Engineering with a concentration in Astronautics. While studying in her undergraduate years, she wants to be involved with researchers to learn more about programming and hopes to aid in innovations in technology. In the future, she plans to pursue a career in research aimed toward space technologies.

Email: vlr108@msstate.edu

Neil Sanipara

Neil Sanipara is an undergraduate aerospace engineering major with a concentration in astronautics. His research interests include reinforcement learning, optimal-control and learning-based control. In addition to his research interests, he serves as a member of the Space Cowboys rocketry team. While being a part of undergraduate research, he hopes to get hands-on experience in autonomous systems and develop scalable/safe control algorithms.

In his free time, Neil enjoys going to the gym, flying drones, and playing video games.

Email: ns1295@msstate.edu

Minjae Cho

Minjae is Senior student in Mechanical Engineering joined our lab at the start of 2023 summer. While he has previous research experience in Machine Learning in internal combustion engine and numerical mathematics, he is, now, engaged in a safe and robust Reinforcement Learning algorithm with Dr. Sun. He enjoys singing and playing musical instruments outside of research.

Email: mc3216@msstate.edu