Press – AVIATE

AVIATE Center’s Autonomy Fest Featured in Aerospace America

Autonomy Fest 2025, part of a NASA initiative on robust autonomy, was highlighted in Aerospace America’s annual Intelligent Systems review. The event showcased the AVIATE Center’s learning-enabled autonomy with formal safety guarantees, including autonomous emergency landing and real-time replanning.

From MechSE to middle school: a drone design outreach project

A continued outreach project with middle school students at the Campus Middle School for Girls, in Urbana, was highlighted earlier March 2025 with a demonstration of the drones they built. The project is now in its third year.

Highlights from the AIAA SciTech Forum 2025

Our team had an engaging experience at the AIAA SciTech Forum, discussing our latest research with peers and exploring new ideas in safe advanced air mobility. The insightful feedback and thought-provoking conversations will shape our ongoing work. We’re excited to continue these collaborations and push our research forward!

MechSE Magazine Summer 2023

We are focused on the verification and validation tools and frameworks for the L1 adaptive controller, augmented with robust perception and learning-enabled components, that can safely and securely fly humans in urban areas. Ideally, one should be able to continue living in their affordable house in Urbana-Champaign, have a fancy dinner in Chicago and maybe consider working in Ohio. With UAVs this should be easy to do.

UIUC researcher leads flying taxi research effort with a $6M NASA grant

Fans of the 1997 film "The Fifth Element" were undoubtedly drawn to the gravity-defying cars filling the screen, especially the Bruce Willis character’s air taxi. Thanks to a $6-million NASA grant, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign mechanical science and engineering (MechSE) professor Naira Hovakimyan leads the way toward making these flying cabs a reality. And passengers won’t even need a driver.

$6 Million NASA Grant to Make Air Taxis a Reality, Really Soon

Naira Hovakimyan, Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how a $6 million grant from NASA will help to make flying air taxis a reality in the near future.

Will Autonomous Air Taxis Deploy Before Autonomous Cars?

Because of the imperfection of the autonomous systems, but more importantly, the unpredictability of human drivers, fully self-driving vehicles have been slow to deploy in larger numbers. But what about an arena – the sky – with no pedestrians and no other vehicles aside from low-flying planes? Take all that unpredictably out of the equation, and you have a much more attractive prospect – which is likely why autonomous air taxis have gained so much traction as of late. Here to discuss that is professor Naira Hovakimyan from the University of Illinois’ Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering department.

Flying Taxi Cabs in the Near Future? UIUC Researchers Say, ‘Heads Up, Everybody’

Thanks to a $6M NASA grant, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign mechanical science and engineering professor Naira Hovakimyan leads the way toward making flying taxi cabs a reality.

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