The Robotics Pathways and Careers Speaker Series (RPCSS) invites professionals working in robotics to come talk with current undergraduates about their career path, how a background in robotics has impacted their professional growth, and what they hope to see in students looking to enter the profession.

The 90-minute format of the event will consist of a 30-minute presentation from the invited speaker and up to 40 minutes of moderated Q&A and discussion. Students will be able to participate in person or remotely.

Zoom Link: https://umich.zoom.us/j/92286702864

John B Wurts is an autonomous systems engineer at the MITRE corporation and local to Ann Arbor. John primarily supports work programs related to the Department of Defense, but has supported projects related to Federal Aviation Administration and National Science Foundation. Prior to joining MITRE, he completed his PhD from UMich – Mechanical Engineering in 2020 under Prof Tulga Ersal and Prof (Ret) Jeffery Stein. His research focuses on nonlinear optimal control with applications to parallel and GPU-enabled computations. Previously, John was an automotive engineer local to Detroit with interests in active and passive crash safety.