Apurva Badithela joins the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, with research focused on safety certification of robotic autonomous systems using tools from control theory, optimization, formal methods and applied statistics. Her research goal is to advance theoretical and algorithmic frameworks for test and evaluation, verification and validation of autonomous robotic systems, along with compelling real-world demonstrations. Badithela holds a Ph.D. in control and dynamical systems from the California Institute of Technology and a B.S. in aerospace engineering and mechanics from the University of Minnesota, Twin-Cities. She is advised by Anirudha Majumdar, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.