People

Our faculty have a wide range of expertise and education. Their interdisciplinary work in teaching and research spurs exciting opportunities for students and partners.

MARC has 50+ faculty members and dedicated PhD students who make strides in research and education that connect us with sponsors from across the public and private sectors.

MARC Leadership

A headshot of Missy Cummings wearing a black shirt and she has auburn hair
Mary (Missy) Cummings
Mary (Missy) Cummings

Professor and Director of the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC)

Jesse Kirkpatrick is a professor at George Mason University
Jesse Kirkpatrick
Jesse Kirkpatrick

Associate Research Professor and Co-director of the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC)

MARC-Affiliated Faculty

  • Mechanical engineering associate professor Leigh McCue-Weil

    Professor and Department Chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering

    A trailblazer in naval engineering research and engineering education, Leigh McCue combines curiosity, storytelling, and teaching to foster a welcoming environment for the future STEM workforce.
  • Mason ECE associate professor Cameron Nowzari

    Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Research Interests: Multi-robot systems, swarm robots, bio-inspired robots, distributed resource allocation
  • I-Corps Program Manager Kuzeyhan Ozdemir wears a dark suit and glasses

    I-Corps Program Manager, George Mason University

    Research Interests: Entrepreneurship, Technology Commercialization, Growth Mindset
  • Mason associate professor Peter Pachowicz

    Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Research Interests: Ultra-small Satellite Design and Engineering, Resilient Satellite Bus Architectures, Antenna Design and Satellite Communications, Real-Time Embedded Systems, Rad-hard Embedded Software
  • Mason ECE assistant professor Maryam Parsa

    Tenure-Track Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; CEIE Affiliate Faculty

    Research Interests: Neuromorphic learning, bio-inspired robotics, distributed learning, algorithm hardware co-design
  • Mason associate professor Nathalia Peixoto

    Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Affiliate Faculty in Bioengineering

    Research interests: Brain-computer interfaces with wearable devices, neural engineering, biomedical applications of sensors and actuators
  • A headshot of Elizabeth Phillips

    Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology

    Research Interests: Human-robot interaction, autonomous systems, augmented and virtual reality
  • Headshot of assistant professor David J. Porfirio

    Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science

    Research Interests: Human-Robot Interaction, End-User Development, AI Planning, Interaction Design
  • Mason Electrical and Computer Engineering assistant professor Sai Manoj

    Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    Research Interests: Distributed learning for MAS, information security for NxG robots, resilient multi-robot systems
  • Mason SEOR assistant professor Ali Raz

    Assistant Professor, Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research

    Research Interests: Defense and aerospace systems, system of systems/ multi-robots, information fusion, test, evaluation, and explainable AI