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Team

Daniel Burbano (PI)

Bio: Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA.

He received the B.Sc. degree in electronic engineering and the M.Sc. degree in industrial automation from the National University of Colombia, Manizales, Colombia, in 2010 and 2012, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in control engineering from the University of Naples Federico II, Italy, in 2015. From 2017 to 2018, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Northwestern University, USA, working on network inference. From 2019 to 2022, he was a Faculty Fellow at New York University, working on animal behavior.

Dr. Burbano is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award 2025. He serves as a Senior Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II (TCAS II) and as an Editor for PLoS Complex Systems. His research interests encompass the analysis and control of complex systems and networks, with a focus on data-driven modeling, network inference, and collective decision-making in animal groups.

Current Swarm Members

Deze Liu
Deze Liu (PhD Candidate)
Bio: Deze Liu received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Northeast Agricultural University and Syracuse University, respectively. He joined Rutgers University in the fall semester of 2023. His research interests center on using network control theory, dynamics, and data-driven models to study animal behavior.
Mohammad Tuqan
Mohammad Tuqan (PhD Candidate)
Bio: Mohammad received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Engineering from the American University of Beirut. His research interest is in the overlap between applied mathematics and behavior, specifically in the context of control and network theory.
Sylvester Omungu
Sylvester Omungu (MS Student)
Bio: Sylvester received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pecs in Hungary. His research interests include robotics, embedded autonomous intelligent systems, hardware design exploration and optimization, and machine learning.
Akhil Sankar
Akhil Sankar (MS Student)
Bio: Akhil received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rutgers University, and also has around a decade of professional software engineering experience. He is interested in control theory and its practical implementation through embedded systems on safety-critical mechatronic systems. Website: https://fuzzygreenblurs.github.io/
Julia Alvarado
Julia Alvarado (Undergraduate Student)
Bio: Julia is an undergraduate student at the Rutgers School of Engineering, currently double-majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Her research interests include robotics and computer graphics.
Christopher Minervini
Christopher Minervini (Undergraduate Student)
Bio: Christopher is currently a Junior at Rutgers University, majoring in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Political Science. He has a broad range of interests, including everything from Electrical Engineering to photography. Chris also serves as the mechanical lead for the Rutgers Solar Car team.
Cy Westbrook
Cy Westbrook (Undergraduate Student)
Bio: Cy is a first-year undergraduate student at Rutgers University, planning to study Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is interested in UI design and microcontroller-based control/automation systems, and is excited to be working in a research lab for the first time. Website: cy2.me
Angelina Wang
Angelina Wang (Undergraduate Student)
Bio: Angelina is an undergraduate student double-majoring in Computer Science and Art. Her research interests include machine learning, agent-based modeling, and computer graphics/visualization.
Krish Arora
Krish Arora (Undergraduate Student)
Bio: Krish is an undergraduate Honors College student at Rutgers University studying Computer Science and Mathematics. His research interests include machine learning, algorithm design, and computational modeling.
Kashyap Tanuku
Kashyap Tanuku (Undergraduate Student)
Bio: Senior at Rutgers University, double-majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics. Interests include machine learning, algorithm optimization, and large language models.

 

Past Swarm Members

  • Sahana Senthilkumar (Undergraduate Student, Summer 2023).
  • Ali Khan (Undergraduate Student, Summer 2025).
  • Lavanya Rao (Undergraduate Student, Spring 2025).
  • Maya Zarcone (Undergraduate Student, Spring 2025).
  • Mahir Shah (Undergraduate Student, Fall 2024).
  • James Sullivan (Undergraduate Student, Fall 2023).
  • Akhil Reddy (Undergraduate Student, Fall 2023)
  • Wei Bao (MS Student, Spring 2024).