Derya Aksaray
Derya Akasaray

Derya Aksaray

Assistant Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics

Contact

612-624-0529
daksaray@umn.edu
Akerman Hall
Room 226
110 Union Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Education

Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014

M.S., Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011

B.S.,  Aerospace Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, 2008

Research Lab | Research Overview

Professional Background

2018 - present: Assistant Professor, Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics, University of Minnesota

2016 - 2017: Postdoctoral Associate, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2014 - 2016: Postdoctoral Researcher, Boston University

2008 - 2014: Graduate Research Assistant, Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology

Scientific & Professional Societies

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Research Interests

UMN Experts Page

Professor Aksaray's research mainly focuses on design and control of verifiable autonomous systems for resilient operation in partially known and unstructured environments. In particular, she is interested in developing reactive planning strategies for resilient operation of robots in the face of disturbances, synthesizing provably-correct controllers to guarantee desired behaviors, and designing models and algorithms that enable autonomous systems to effectively team with humans and other robots. Overall, her research interests primarily lie in the areas of control theory, formal methods, and machine learning, with applications to aerospace systems and robotics. 

Teaching Subjects
AEM 2011 -- Statics
AEM 2301 -- Mechanics of Flight
AEM 4602W -- Aeromechanics Laboratory
Currently Teaching Courses
AEM 8495 - Advanced Topics Aerospace Systems

Honors and Awards

2013: AIAA Infotech@Aerospace Conference, Travel Grant awarded by poster competition

2013: American Control Conference, Best Presentation in Session award

2008: AHA Helicopter Design Competition, Member/Coordinator of Best New Entrant Team

2007: EUROAVIA Design Workshop (1 of 25 participants across Europe)

Selected Publications

R. Peterson, A. T. Buyukkocak, D. Aksaray, and Y. Yazicioglu, “Safe Reactive Motion Planning Using Time Window Temporal Logic Specifications”, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 2021.

A.T. Buyukkocak, D. Aksaray, and Y. Yazicioglu, "Planning of Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Systems under Signal Temporal Logic Specifications with Integral Predicates", IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), vol 6, no 2, 1375-1382, 2021.

C.I. Vasile, D. Aksaray, and C. Belta, “Time Window Temporal Logic”, Theoretical Computer Science Journal, 691, 27-54, 2017.

D. Aksaray, A. Jones, Z. Kong, M. Schwager, and C. Belta, “Q-Learning for Robust Satisfaction of Signal Temporal Logic Specifications”, IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Las Vegas, NV, 2016.

D. Aksaray, A.Y. Yazicioglu, E. Feron, and D. Mavris, “Message Passing Strategy for Decentralized Connectivity Maintenance in Multiagent Surveillance”, AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, vol. 39, no. 3, 2016.

View More Publications.