People

Director

Prof. Grace X. Gao

Associate Professor
James and Anna Marie Spilker Faculty Fellow
Stanford University
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Department of Electrical Engineering (by courtesy)
Director, Navigation and Autonomous Vehicles Laboratory (Stanford NAV Lab)
Co-lead, Robotics and Autonomous Systems Area, Stanford SystemX Alliance
Co-director, Stanford Center for AI Safety
​Member, Center for Automotive Research at Stanford
Member, Stanford Robotics Center

Ph.D. Students

Guillem Casadesus Vila

Lunar positioning, navigation, and timing

• Ph.D. candidate, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University
• M.S. Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, 2024
• B.S. Aerospace Engineering, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, 2022 
• B.S. Telecommunications Engineering, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, 2022

Kaila Coimbra

Lunar positioning, navigation, and timing

• Ph.D. candidate, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University
• B.S. Mechanical Engineering with minor in Aerospace Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 2023

Sri Aditya Deevi

Machine learning, robotics, computer vision

• Ph.D. student, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University
• M.S. Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 2023
• B.Tech. Electronics & Communication Engineering, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, 2022

Lyla Dong

Sustainable wildfire retardants and decision-making for safer prescribed burns (Co-advised with Eric A. Appel)

• Ph.D. candidate, Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University
• M.S. Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, 2024
• B.S. Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Rice University, 2022

Sitan Huang

Lunar surface navigation

• Ph.D. Student, Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
• B.E. Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, 2025 

Daniel Neamati

Digital twins of wildland and urban areas for sustainability and localization

• Ph.D. candidate, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University
• M.S. Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, 2024
• B.S. Mechanical Engineering, minor in Planetary Science, California Institute of Technology, 2021

Hosei O

Spacecraft GNC and autonomy, learning-based 3D perception and relative navigation in multi-satellite systems

• Ph.D. student, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University
• M.S. Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, The University of Tokyo, 2026
• B.S. Physics, The University of Tokyo, 2024

Mira Partha

3D (NeRF/GS) environment mapping and vision-/language-based localization

• Ph.D. candidate, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
• M.Eng. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020
• S.B. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019

Elena Wittemyer

Lunar surface navigation and mapping

• B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Yale University, 2025

Asta Wu

GNSS-based relative localization for tandem drifting cars

• Ph.D. candidate, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University
• M.S. Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, 2022
• B.S. Mechanical Engineering; Minor Computer Science, California Institute of Technology, 2020      

MS Students

Henry Demarest

Lunar surface navigation, mapping, and control

• B.S. Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, Yale University, 2025

Grace Hendricks 

Autocalibration of Camera Extrinsics for Airplanes

• M.S. Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University
• B.S. Aeronautical Engineering, United States Air Force Academy, 2025

Sukeerth Ramkumar

Multi-agent uncertainty planning

• M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
• B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology

Ashlynn Sweet

Aircraft navigation and autonomy

• M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
• B.S. Mechanical Engineering, United States Air Force Academy, 2025

Undergraduate Students

Dev Jayram

3D reconstruction methods for generating Bird's Eye View maps from street-level imagery

• B.S. Candidate, Mathematics & Computer Science, Stanford University

Rudraksh Mohapatra

3D Reconstruction for Sustainability

• B.S. Candidate, Electrical Engineering, Minor in Mathematics, Stanford University

Jenny Zhang

Lunar surface rover navigation

• B.S. Candidate, Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology

Administrative Staff

David Luna       

• Everyone's favorite go-to person to keep the lab running

Non-Human Members

Navi-chu

• A cheerful expert who enjoys joining NAV Lab’s thrilling activities (including rollercoaster rides) and spreading smiles.