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Jonathan Kelly

Associate Professor

Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, Institute for Aerospace Studies

Orcid identifier0000-0002-5528-6136
  • Associate Professor
    Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, Institute for Aerospace Studies
  • +1 (416) 667-7708 (Work)
  • +1 (416) 667-7799 (Fax)
  • University of Toronto, Institute for Aerospace Studies, 4925 Dufferin Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3H 5T6, Canada

BIO

Prof. Kelly is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies and the Director of the Space & Terrestrial Autonomous Robotic Systems (STARS) Laboratory. Before joining the University of Toronto, he was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Robust Robotics Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with Prof. Nick Roy. He completed his Ph.D. in the Robotic Embedded Systems Laboratory at the University of Southern California, under the supervision of Prof. Gaurav Sukhatme. Prior to graduate school, he was a Software Engineer in the Space Technologies division of the Canadian Space Agency.

The work in Kelly’s group is motivated by the desire to implement effective autonomy solutions across a broad spectrum of application domains. Specifically, the group seeks to build robots that are: pervasive — widely deployed in assistive roles across the spectrum of human activity, persistent — able to operate reliably and independently for long durations, on the order of days, weeks, or more, and perceptive — aware of their environment, and capable of acting intelligently when confronted with new situations and experiences.

Towards these goals, Kelly’s group designs algorithms for an array of sensing devices and robotic platforms. Examples of current research topics include: power-on-and-go sensor systems, energy-aware path planning for planetary rovers, and deep learning methods for reliable navigation under challenging conditions (e.g., extreme lighting and appearance change). The group has recently launched a major initiative in the area of collaborative mobile manipulation.

Media availability: TV, Radio, Print/Online

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

  • Associate Professor
    University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada1 Jul 2020 - present
  • Affiliate Faculty Member
    University of Toronto, Electric Vehicle Research Center, Toronto, Canada1 Aug 2017 - present
  • Assistant Professor
    University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada1 May 2013 - 1 Jun 2020
  • Affiliate Faculty Member
    Vector Institute, Toronto, Canada1 Jun 2018 - present

NON-ACADEMIC POSITIONS

  • Canada Research Chair (Tier II)
    University of Toronto, Collaborative Robotics, Toronto, Canada1 Apr 2019 - present
  • Associate Director
    University of Toronto, Center for Areal Robotics Research and Education (CARRE), Toronto, Canada1 Aug 2015 - present
  • Dean's Catalyst Professor
    University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada1 Jul 2018 - 1 Jun 2021
  • Director
    STARS Laboratory, Canada1 Jun 2013 - present
  • Lab Scientist
    Creative Destruction Lab, Canada1 Aug 2018 - present
  • Visiting Research Scientist
    NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California, United States1 Jun 2021 - 1 Dec 2021
  • Visiting Associate Professor
    Stanford University, Stanford, United States1 Jan 2021 - 1 Jun 2021

DEGREES

  • Ph.D. in Computer Science (Robotics)
    University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States2010
  • M.Sc. in Computing Science (Robotics)
    University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada2008
  • M.S., Computer Science
    University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States2005
  • B.Sc., Computer Engineering
    University of Alberta, Canada

POSTGRADUATE TRAINING

  • Postdoctoral Associate
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States21 Aug 2011 - 15 May 2013
    Postdoctoral Fellowship

AVAILABILITY

  • Media enquiries

INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

  • Robotics Institute
  • Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (SRI)

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