Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Multi-Agent Systems Technology Research (UAV MASTER) Lab

Dr. Kelly Cohen, the Brian H. Rowe Endowed Chair in Aerospace Engineering, has been a faculty member since 2007 in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at UC's College of Engineering and Applied Science. He also serves as Director of the AI Bio Lab at UC Digital Futures and holds a secondary appointment as Professor of Biomedical Engineering. His career is marked by achievement in aerospace engineering, artificial intelligence, and education, including the NAFIPS King-Sun Fu Award for AI and Fuzzy Logic Research (the society's highest research honor), the UC Faculty Career Award, the SOCHE (Strategic Ohio Council for Higher Education) Excellence Award, the UC George Barbour Award for Good Faculty-Student Relations, the UC Faculty Core Values Award, the UC Dolly Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Outstanding Technical Contribution Application Award, the CEAS Distinguished Engineering Researcher Award (2015 and 2023), the UC Excellence Award for Faculty-to-Faculty Research Mentoring (2018 and 2025), and the Greater Cincinnati Consortium of Colleges and Universities Excellence in Teaching Award, among many others. He is an AIAA Associate Fellow, an IEEE Senior Member, and served as President of the North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society (NAFIPS) from 2024 to 2026.
Dr. Cohen is passionate about mentoring graduate students, having graduated 13 PhD and 37 MS students — many of whom have earned national best-thesis and early-career awards — while currently advising a research team of 18 PhD and 2 MS students. His main expertise lies in explainable and certifiable Artificial Intelligence (AI), intelligent systems, UAVs and advanced air mobility, and optimization. He has pioneered genetic fuzzy logic-based machine-learning algorithms for control and decision-making in autonomous collaborative robotics — including the landmark 2016 ALPHA system, whose technology transitioned to industry through the Thales TrUE AI Toolkit — as well as predictive modeling for personalized medicine, cybersecurity, and safety assurance in safety-critical systems. He has secured grants from NSF, NIH, USAF/AFRL, DHS, DOT, ODOT, OFRN, the State of Ohio, and NASA to develop AI and UAV technologies. His scholarly record includes more than 850 outputs: 76 peer-reviewed journal articles, 118 book chapters, 4 co-edited books, nearly 300 conference papers, and numerous invited seminars, keynotes, and patents.

Cooperative Distributed Systems Lab
UAV MASTER Lab
Dr. Manish Kumar directs Cooperative Distributed Systems (CDS) Laboratory, Collaboratory for Medical Innovation and Implementation, and co-directs UAV MASTER Lab. His research interests include Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, robotics, decision-making and control in complex systems, multi-sensor data fusion, swarm systems, and multiple robot coordination and control. His research has been supported by funding obtained from National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, Ohio Department of Transportation, Ohio Department of Higher Education, and several industry. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He has served as the Chair of the Robotics Technical Committee of the ASME’s Dynamic Systems and Control Division, and as an Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurements and Control.
 

George "Tom" Black is a Assistant Professor - Practice.  He teaches undergraduate classes in systems engineering, classical control theory and flight mechanics, and a senior/graduate class in flight test engineering.  He retired from his first career - an aerospace engineer at Wright-Patterson AFB - in December 2011 after 34 years, specializing in aircraft flying qualities and flight controls.  During that time he was lead flying qualities engineer for the development of the F-22, lead flight sciences engineer for the X-45 UCAV/J-UCAS program, lead flight systems engineer for the KC-X and T-6A/B programs and chief engineer for the Combat Systems Division.  He has also worked in AFRL and in technical intelligence, as an aerodynamics and flight test engineer for Beech Aircraft, and as an instructor, a flight instructor and research test pilot for the Ohio State University.

Tom has a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Cincinnati (1977) and an MS in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the Ohio State University (1983).  He also has a Commercial Pilot's License with Single-Engine Land, Multi-Engine Land and Instrument Ratings.  He has logged over 1,000 flight hours and has flown 50 major types of aircraft, including T-38, P-51, B-26 and Ford Tri-motor.  He also has a Remote Pilot License with Small UAS rating.  He is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Experimental Aircraft Association, Warbirds of America, and is an Associate Member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.  His research and teaching interests include aircraft flying qualities, air and space vehicle dynamics and controls, and air and space vehicle flight testing.