Faculty Directory

Paley, Derek A.

Paley, Derek A.

Willis H. Young Jr. Professor of Aerospace Engineering Education
Director, Maryland Robotics Center
Aerospace Engineering
The Institute for Systems Research
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Maryland Robotics Center
Brain and Behavior Institute
3150 Glenn L. Martin Hall

Derek A. Paley is Director of the Maryland Robotics Center and Willis H. Young Jr. Professor of Aerospace Engineering Education in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research at the University of Maryland. He is the founding director of the UMD Collective Dynamics and Control Laboratory and the UMD Autonomous Micro Air Vehicle Team. Paley is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a member of the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center, the Maryland Robotics Center, the Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, the Burgers Program for Fluid Dynamics, the Applied Mathematics & Statistics, and Scientific Computation Program, the Brain and Behavior Initiative, and the Maryland Transportation Institute. Paley received the B.S. degree in Applied Physics from Yale University in 1997 and the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University in 2007. He is the recipient of the Yale University Henry Prentiss Becton Prize for Excellence in Engineering and Applied Science in 1997, the Princeton University Harold W. Dodds Honorific Fellowship in 2006, the National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2010, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2012, the University of Maryland E. Robert Kent Teaching Award for Junior Faculty in 2014, and the AIAA National Capital Section Engineer of the Year in 2015. Paley was a Fellow in the 2013–2014 Office of Naval Research Sabbatical Fellowship Program, a Fellow in the 2019–2020 UMD ADVANCE Leadership Fellows Program, and has been selected as a 2020-2021 UMD Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. Paley has authored more than 140 peer-reviewed publications including one textbook: Engineering Dynamics (Princeton University Press, 2011). He teaches introductory dynamics, advanced dynamics, aircraft flight dynamics and control, and nonlinear control. Paley’s research interests are in the area of dynamics and control, including cooperative control of autonomous vehicles, adaptive sampling with mobile networks, spatial modeling of biological groups, and bioinspired robotics. His research is based on support by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Office, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research. Paley is Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He serves as Associate Editor of AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics and IEEE Control Systems Magazine.

  • Dynamics, estimation, and control: Cooperative control of autonomous vehicles
  • Mobile sensor networks: Adaptive sampling of spatiotemporal processes
  • Biocomplexity and bioinspiration: Quantitative modeling of animal groups and behavior

Three UMD Students Named Among Aviation Week Network’s Class of 2024 20 Twenties

Annual awards recognize talented individuals on course to change the face of the aviation, aerospace and defense industry.

UMD-led Team Selected for DARPA Triage Challenge

Researchers will work to develop novel methods to detect injuries in mass casualty incidents.

UMD Student Team Lauded for Award-Winning Drone

U.S. Representative Glenn F. Ivey presented a proclamation honoring the AMAV team's NIST competition victory.

An Internship with Impact

Student projects run the gamut from counterUAS to medical support in high-casualty scenarios.

UMD Takes Second at VFS Design-Build-Vertical-Flight Competition

Team’s Horizon drone leveraged unique design to balance hover and cruise performance with autonomous flight capabilities.

MRC Faculty, Researchers, and Students Present 24 Papers at ICRA 2023

MRC researchers have a strong showing at ICRA 2023.

“Gambit” Pays Off in UMD Team’s Search-and-Rescue Competition Win

UMD Team wins NIST First Responder UAS Indoor Challenge with custom-built, low-cost drone, and takes home more than $150K in prize money.

Paley selected for special recognition at Division of Research event

Maryland Research Excellence Celebration honored faculty scholars and researchers for demonstrably elevating the university’s research visibility and reputation.

Maryland Engineers Awarded Grants to Address Humanity's Grand Challenges

Twelve projects led by or involving Maryland Engineering faculty have been awarded funding through the Grand Challenges Grants Program, the largest and most comprehensive program of its kind ever introduced at the University of Maryland.

ArtIAMAS receives third-year funding of up to $15.1M

The ArtIAMAS cooperative agreement with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory conducts research focused on safe, effective, and resilient capabilities and technologies that work intelligently and cooperatively with each other and humans.

NAWCAD-UMD Seed Grant Review and Discussion strengthens collaboration commitment

The event emphasized research, advanced education, and outreach collaborations for the region, the state of Maryland and the nation.

New Microsoft/Maryland Robotics Center partnership to enhance diversity and innovation

Microsoft Robotics and Diversity Initiative will support Ph.D. fellowships, seminars, student diversity groups and more.

UMD Team Wins Inaugural NIST UAS 3.1: FastFind Challenge

Competition challenged students to develop innovative UAV solutions for first responders.

Flatau Named UMD AE Chair

Alison Flatau has been named the new chair of aerospace engineering at UMD.

Ezra Bregin Takes First Place, AIAA Region 1 Student Conference

Winning student paper demonstrates alternative to GPS in UAS swarm navigation.

Packy, Suriyarachchi, Thompson, Weerakoon, and Young are 2022-2023 MRC GRA Recipients

The MRC Graduate Assistantship Program is open to mid-career UMD Ph.D. students with Maryland Robotics Center advisors.

Maryland Engineering Graduate Programs: Top 10 Public, Four Years in a Row

Maryland Engineering earns a top spot in the 2023 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools rankings among over 200 colleges.

Improving electric scooter-pedestrian safety with better modeling

Researchers with UMD ties develop a modiifed social force model to predict how pedestrians interact with micro-mobility vehicles.

MRC and MAGE Earn ARM Institute Endorsement

Organizations that earn the ARM Institute’s Endorsement pass a rigorous assessment process by proving that they provide students the skills needed for a career in manufacturing working with robotics.

ArtIAMAS cooperative agreement receives $10.3M in second-year funding

The $10.3M second-year funding is one of the largest single-year sponsored research awards for the Clark School of Engineering.

Newly-Opened SMART Building to Spur Autonomy Research

Maryland engineering will benefit from state-of-the-art labs and facilities at USMSM.

USMSM Debuts SMART Innovation Center

New, $86 million facility to expand educational opportunities, autonomous vehicles research.

Three Ph.D. students awarded Amazon Lab126 Fellowships

Sydrak Abdi, Sara Honarvar and Pedro Sandoval-Segura are the Fellowship recipients.

An Opportunity to Shape the Field…While Still a Student

Students selected for the UMD UAS Test Site’s summer internship program brainstorm. design and test real-world applications.

Derek Paley's e-scooter work featured in Washington Post

He envisions scooters that could bring themselves to you when you need them—autonomously.

Three UMD Alumni Among Aviation Week Network’s 2021 20 Twenties

Rachel Cueva (’21), Niloy Gupta (’21) and Justin Lidard (’20) among 2021 awardees.

Rachel Suitor aboard NGS/NOAA expedition in Gulf of Mexico

The Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. student is working with robotic "Driftcams" to document aquatic life at different depths of the oceanic rim ecosystem.

UMD Takes Second in VFS Design-Build-Vertical-Flight Competition

Competition challenges students to build remote-control electric-powered vertical take-off and landing vehicles.

UMD, UMBC, ARL Announce Cooperative Agreement to Accelerate AI, Autonomy in Complex Environments

The agreement leverages Maryland's national leadership in engineering, robotics, computer science, operations research, modeling and simulation, and cybersecurity.

Maryland Graduate Engineering Ranked #10 Public in the Nation

From extreme batteries to windows made from wood, Clark School’s trendsetting work ranks it among the country’s Top 10 public engineering schools for the 3rd consecutive year.

Standing with our Asian-American Community

The Clark School community stands united with our Asian, Asian-American and Pacific Islanders colleagues.

New undergraduate minor in robotics and autonomous systems

The Maryland Robotics Center will administer the program, which begins in Fall 2021.

Paley receives ONR funding for cross-domain cooperative control

The project will enable autonomous underwater 3D mapping using underwater laser imaging.

Maryland Robotics Center Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Research and education hub continues to expand programs, outreach

Paley, Wereley edit new Springer book on soft robotics

Bioinspired Sensing, Actuation, and Control in Underwater Soft Robotic Systems is a comprehensive snapshot of the latest advances.

UMD Student Team Advances in UAS Competition

High endurance design could be a boon for emergency responders.

Engineering Robotic Starfish

Echinoderm-inspired robots could perform many difficult, dangerous tasks.

UMD Student Wins First Place in AIAA Region I Student Conference Paper Competition

Aerospace engineering senior Charles Flanagan takes first place in Undergraduate Category.

Two Engineers Among 2020-2021 Distinguished Scholar-Teachers

Professors Thomas Murphy and Derek Paley have been selected by the University of Maryland as Distinguished Scholar-Teachers.

UMD names Derek Paley as a 2020–2021 Distinguished Scholar-Teacher

The program recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated outstanding scholarly achievement along with equally outstanding accomplishments as teachers.

Justin Lidard Receives 2020 Outstanding ASPIRE Student Research Award

Award recognizes the most outstanding performance on a semester-long ASPIRE engineering research project during the past year.

Congratulations to the 2020 Aerospace Engineering Honors Class

Students complete final presentations to earn “Honors Citation.”

Two Clark School teams take top spots in VFS micro air vehicle competition

The electric-powered, vertical take-off and landing, micro air vehicle competition encourages student interest in autonomous/unmanned aircraft technology and small air vehicle design and fabrication.

Nonlinear control design for a school of robotic fish

New paper presents control laws that stabilize planar formations of mobile agents.

A cooperative control algorithm for robotic search and rescue

The algorithm can guide a team of autonomous quadrotors to simultaneously build an occupancy graph of an uncertain environment and detect a single target moving on this graph.

Aerodynamic interaction model improves quadrotor flight stability in gusty winds

Work by Paley, Craig and Yeo equips quadrotors with custom flow probes that measure wind velocity.

UMD's Paley Wins Grant for Micromobility Study

Quantitative research will help better assess risks and benefits, while providing a foundation for planning.

Student autonomous drone racing team takes 2nd place at IROS

'TurboTerps' flew their drone autonomously through a set of gates, completing 14 runs in 4:42.

Clark School student teams sweep MAV competition

FIRE freshmen, AE undergrads and MEng Robotics students take first place in both categories at VFS Micro Air Vehicle Student Challenge.

Bioinspired robotics REU students present final projects

The REU was led by Hugh Bruck and Sarah Bergbreiter, along with Clark School faculty and graduate student mentors.

Inspired by Nature: Autonomous Underwater Robotics

Clark School Prof. Derek Paley wants autonomous underwater vehicles to have the same capabilities as fish.

Derek Paley interviewed for WYPR's 'On the Record'

Paley talks about how understanding the fluid movements of fish can help improve underwater vehicles.

Paley Promoted to Professor

Aerospace Engineering Associate Professor Derek Paley promoted to rank of professor.

Aerospace Engineering Student Wins NDSEG Fellowship

Senior Patrick Washington Receives National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship

Four UMD Aerospace Engineering Students Named Penton Aviation Week Network’s 20 Twenties

Free, Kumar, Ng and Weinstein recognized as tomorrow’s engineering leaders.

Paley is Principal Investigator for $2M 'SEA-STAR' grant

Researchers will create soft underwater robot appendages that mimic functionality found in sea stars; Werley is a co-PI.

Alumni Frontin and Stebbins Awarded NASA Fellowships

Two B.S. 2014 UMD aerospace engineering alums, Cory Frontin and Spencer Stebbins, receive NASA fellowships.

Synchronized swimming: How startled fish shoals effectively evade danger

Understanding response dynamics of startled fish reveals how orientation within the group effects escape chances, may offer insights into emergency response planning.

Paley Presents at NAE 2016 Frontiers of Engineering Symposium

Three Clark School faculty attend NAE 2016 Frontiers of Engineering Symposium.

Shishika and Petro Selected for 2016 Future Faculty Program

Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. students Daigo Shishika and Elaine Petro selected for Clark School Future Faculty Program.

Aerospace Engineering Students and Alumni Receive NSF Fellowships

Students Brown and Free, and alumni Mills awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.

Derek Paley to speak at 2016 US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium

NAE-sponsored event brings together emerging engineering leaders.

Barkley and Hersey Receive L-3 Graduate Scholarships

Aerospace Engineering graduate students Brett Barkley and Sean Hersey receive 2015-2016 L-3 Scholarships.

UMD Hosts Capitol Hill Panel on Autonomous Systems

Experts gathered to discuss UAVs in an event hosted by the Clark School on July 16.

New ONR grant for bio-inspired underwater sensing and control

Derek Paley is PI; alum Xiaobo Tan is one of the co-PIs.

Derek Paley is AIAA National Capital Section's Engineer of the Year

Award given for Paley's work in collective behavior in robotic and natural systems.

Paley Awarded 2014 E. Robert Kent Teaching Award for Junior Faculty

Paley to receive 2014 E. Robert Kent Teaching Award during Clark School Winter Commencement.

Aerospace Engineering Faculty Honored at University Celebration of Scholarship and Research

15 Aerospace Engineering faculty were recognized for their research and scholarly achievements.

Shrestha and DeVries Win 2014 Graduate Student Research Awards Competition

Elena Shrestha and Levi DeVries win Department of Aerospace Engineering Graduate Student Research Awards Competition.

Bergbreiter and Paley Honored at White House Ceremony

UMD researchers were honored yesterday at the White House as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

Robotic fish research profiled in Baltimore Sun

Derek Paley, Sean Humbert and alumnus Xiaobo Tan are collaborators on the project.

Aerospace Faculty Recognized at 15th Annual Research Leaders Luncheon

15 Department of Aerospace Engineering's faculty honored for successful research funding efforts.

Paley Awarded Willis H. Young Jr. Faculty Fellowship

Professor receives three-year fellowship and is named Willis H. Young Jr.  Professor of Aerospace Engineering Education.

Two Clark School Faculty Members Receive Presidential Early Career Awards

Bergbreiter and Paley honored by the White Houseas outstanding early-career scientists.

Engineering Dynamics textbook by Paley, Kasdin in use at top schools

The textbook introduces undergraduate students to engineering dynamics with an accessible, comprehensive and innovative approach.

REU in Miniature Robotics holds final project symposium

Nine projects range from wings for MAVs to vision sensors for small robots to small grasping hands.

DeVries Awarded Link Foundation Fellowship

DeVries Will Conduct Research on Bio-Inspired Unmanned Vehicles

Derek Paley is PI for new AFOSR grant

Paley will work on "Optimized Routing of Intelligent, Mobile Sensors for Dynamic, Data-Driven Sampling."

ENAE100 has Final Poster Presentations in Kim Building

ENAE100 students presented their final project posters on December 12th

Miniature Robotics REU students give final presentations

Ten undergrads from around the country give talks on their summer projects.

Derek Paley featured in new NSF research video

Video explains how unmanned aircraft could help determine hurricane strength.

AGRC is a Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence

Rotorcraft Center Garners VLRCOE Designation

Professor Derek Paley Publishes New Book!

Dr. Paley Has Co-Authored a New Textbook with Princeton Colleague

Professor Derek Paley elected as AIAA Associate Fellow

Paley Elected as AIAA Associate Fellow

Leishman, Schaler Named Goldwater Scholars

Aerospace, mechanical engineering students receive premier award for undergraduates.

Paley Wins NSF CAREER Award

Research will develop bio-inspired motion algorithms for autonomous vehicles.

Awais Raza Receives Golden Key Boeing Scholarship

Awais Raza Receives Golden Key Boeing Scholarship

Dr. Derek Paley Awarded NSF Grant

Dr. Paley Receives NSF Grant for Weather Related Research

Dr. Paley joins aerospace faculty

Dr. Derek A. Paley joins the aerospace faculty in Fall 2007