Abenezer G. Taye

I’m a postdoctoral scholar at the Institute for Software Integrated Systems at Vanderbilt University, where I work with Prof. Bryan C. Ward and Prof. Gautam Biswas. I received my Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from George Washington University, advised by Prof. Peng Wei, where I studied safety and decision-making in autonomous aircraft operations. My research sits at the intersection of control theory, optimization, and artificial intelligence, with a focus on developing algorithms that enable safe, secure, and reliable next-generation air transportation systems.

During my time at GW, I was part of NASA’s System-Wide Safety program, contributing to research on the safe integration of autonomous aircraft into the national airspace. In addition, I served as a Teaching Assistant for MAE 4182 - Electromechanical Controls. I also completed two research internships at MathWorks, where I worked on multi-agent perception and trajectory planning.

Currently, my work focuses on securing aerospace systems. I develop methods to identify vulnerabilities in autonomous aviation platforms and design defense strategies against cyber attacks, with the goal of building autonomy that is safe and trustworthy.