- Date: January 12, 2026
Where: Orlando, FL
MERL Contact: Purnanand Elango
Research Areas: Control, Optimization
Brief - MERL research scientist Purnanand Elango received the Atmospheric Flight Mechanics (AFM) Best Paper Award at the AIAA SciTech Forum 2026 in January for the paper, “Auto-tuned Primal-dual Successive Convexification for Hypersonic Reentry Guidance.”, that he co-authored during his PhD research at the University of Washington, before joining MERL.
The paper presents a trajectory optimization method that reduces parameter-tuning effort for nonconvex optimization algorithms, such as sequential convex programming, in solving a challenging real-world optimal control problems.
The AIAA SciTech Forum is the flagship conference (more than 6000 attendees from 48 countries) of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the world's largest professional technical society dedicated to aerospace.
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- Date: January 12, 2026 - January 16, 2026
Where: Orlando, Florida
MERL Contacts: Stefano Di Cairano; Purnanand Elango; Kento Tomita; Abraham P. Vinod; Avishai Weiss
Research Areas: Control, Dynamical Systems, Optimization
Brief - MERL researchers presented 3 papers at the recently concluded AIAA SciTech Forum 2026 in Orlando, Florida. The AIAA SciTech Forum is the flagship conference (more than 6,000 from 48 countries) of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the world's largest professional technical society dedicated to aerospace.
The papers presented by MERL researchers covered 1) a powered descent decision making approach to maximize the probability of safe landing, 2) a set-based robust, optimal, and resilient control architecture for autonomous precision landing, and 3) a continuous-time safe control policy for passively-safe spacecraft rendezvous on a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit using successive convexification.
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- Date: July 8, 2025 - July 10, 2025
Where: Denver, USA
MERL Contacts: Vedang M. Deshpande; Stefano Di Cairano; Purnanand Elango; Jordan Leung; Saviz Mowlavi; Diego Romeres; Abraham P. Vinod; Yebin Wang; Avishai Weiss
Research Areas: Control, Dynamical Systems, Electric Systems, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, Robotics
Brief - MERL researchers presented 13 papers at the recently concluded American Control Conference (ACC) 2025 in Denver, USA. The papers covered a wide range of topics including Bayesian optimization for personalized medicine, machine learning for battery performance in eVTOLs, model predictive control for space and building systems, process systems engineering for sustainability, GNSS-RTK optimization, convex set manipulation, PDE control, servo system modeling, battery fault diagnosis, truck fleet coordination, interactive motion planning, and satellite station keeping. Additionally, MERL researchers (Vedang Deshpande and Ankush Chakrabarty) organized an invited session on design and optimization of energy systems.
As a sponsor of the conference, MERL maintained a booth for open discussions with researchers and students, and hosted a special session to discuss highlights of MERL research and work philosophy.
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