Group

George Pappas is the UPS Foundation Professor at the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a secondary appointment in the Departments of Computer and Information Sciences, and Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. Previously, he served as the Deputy Dean for Research in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Pappas’s research interest focus on control systems, robotics and autonomous systems, formal methods, machine learning for safe and secure cyber-physical systems. He has received numerous awards including the NSF PECASE, the Antonio Ruberti Young Researcher Prize, the George S. Axelby Award, the O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award, and the George H. Heilmeier Faculty Excellence Award. Pappas has mentored more than fifty students and postdocs, most of the faculty in leading universities around the world. Recognized for his outstanding contributions, Pappas is a Fellow of IEEE, IFAC, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2024.

Research Interests

Control systems, robotics, formal methods and machine learning for safe and secure cyber-physical systems applications

Education

University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Ph.D, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, December 1998
Thesis : Hybrid Systems : Computation and Abstraction
Advisor : Prof. Shankar Sastry

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Graduate Fellow, Division of Applied Sciences, January 1994 – August 1994

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
M.S., Computer & Systems Engineering, December 1992,
Thesis : Modeling, Stabilization and Tracking Control of Nonholonomic Vehicles
Advisor: Prof. Kostas Kyriakopoulos

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
B.S., Magna Cum Laude, Computer & Systems Engineering, December 1991

Honors and Awards

• U.S. National Academy of Engineering, 2024
• Outstanding Multi-Robot Systems Paper, IEEE ICRA, May 2023
• Best Paper Award, ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems, October 2022
• Best Student Paper Award, IEEE CDC, Dec 2021 (as advisor)
• EE Distinguished Alumni Award, UC Berkeley EECS, February 2021
• International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Fellow, July 2020
• Best Paper Award, IEEE ICASSP, Barcelona, Spain, May 2020
• Finalist, Best Student Paper Award, American Control Conference, July 2019 (as advisor)
• Finalist, Best Paper Award, ICCPS, Montreal, Canada, April 2019
• IEEE Control Systems Magazine Outstanding Paper Award, IEEE CSS, Dec 2018
• Finalist, Best Student Paper Award, IEEE CDC, Melbourne, Australia (as advisor), December 2017
• Finalist, Young Author Prize, IFAC World Congress, Toulouse, July 2017 (as advisor)
• Best Conference Paper Award, IEEE ICRA, Singapore, May 2017
• Finalist, Best Robotic Vision Paper Award, IEEE ICRA, Singapore, May 2017
• Provost’s Award for Distinguished Ph.D. Teaching and Mentoring, April 2017
• Best Poster Award, IoT Design & Implementation (IoTDI), April 2017
• O. Hugo Schuk Best Paper Award (theory), American Automatic Control Council, July 2016
• Finalist, Best Paper Award, ICCPS, Seattle, April 2015
• George H. Heilmeier Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, March 2015
• O. Hugo Schuk Best Paper Award (theory), American Automatic Control Council, June 2014
• Best Paper Award, ICCPS, Berlin, Germany, April 2014
• Best Student Paper Award, American Control Conference, Washington, 2013 (as advisor)
• Best Presentation Award, Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN), 2012
• Semi-Plenary Speaker, IEEE CDC & European Control Conference, Orlando, FL, December 2011
• Finalist, Best Manipulation Paper Award, ICRA 2011, Shanghai, China, 2011
• Plenary Speaker, Cyber-Physical Systems Week (CPSWEEK), Chicago, April 2011
• Antonio Ruberti Young Researcher Prize, IEEE CSS, 2010
• George S. Axelby Outstanding Paper Award, IEEE CSS, 2009
• IEEE Fellow, Class of 2009.
• Finalist, Best Paper Award, IEEE/RSJ IROS 2007, San Diego, CA
• Finalist, Best Student Paper Award, ICRA 2007, Rome, Italy (as advisor)
• N.A.E.-A. von Humboldt German-American Frontiers of Engineering Program, 2007
• Finalist, Best Student Paper Award, IEEE CDC 2006, San Diego, CA (as advisor)
• Plenary Speaker, IFAC Workshop on Multi-Vehicle Systems, Salvador, Brazil, October 2006
• Finalist, Best Student Paper Award, IEEE CDC 2004, Bahamas (as co-advisor)
• Finalist, Best Student Paper Award, American Control Conference 2004, Boston, MA (as advisor)
• NSF Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) Award, 2004
• National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2002
• Finalist, Best Student Paper Award, IEEE CDC 2001, Orlando, FL (as advisor)
• Finalist, Best Student Paper Award, American Control Conference 2001, Arlington, VA (as advisor)
• Eli Jury Award for Excellence in Systems Research, University of California at Berkeley, 1999
• Finalist, Best Student Paper Award, IEEE CDC 1998, Tampa, FL (as student)