Our lab is interested in engineering and understanding collaborative autonomy and assured autonomy. We study many topics on the borders of control theory, artificial intelligence, formal methods, and cognitive science. Currently, our research focuses on:

  • Trustworthy AI/CPS, particularly safety and explainability
  • Adaptive human-autonomy teaming
  • Cognitive neuro-engineering
  • Autonomous UAS and UAS swarms
  • AI and aerial robotics for agricultural, environmental, public health, and defense applications

Our lab accepts students from MAE, CS, and BME. If you want to join our lab, please read this before contacting us.

Recent Lab News

  • 07/01/2025 Our research on early wildfire detection is featured in the cover story of Aerospace America: “Wanted: More Eyes in the Skies”.
  • 06/28/2025 Dr. Cristina Davis and Dr. Zhaodan Kong attended a Colorado Regional Event organized by the UC Davis Development and Alumni Relations and presented their work on wildfire research.
  • 06/05/2025 Dr. Kong visited UC Riverside and gave a talk at the ME Colloquium on "Control Meets Machine Learning: Applications to Wildfire Detection and Neural Decision-Making".
  • 05/23/2025 Dr. Kong attended ICRA and gave an invited talk at the "Autonomy Under Duress – Robots in Wildland Fire" workshop. 
  • 05/21/2025: Our paper, "Optimization of Three-Dimensional Waypoint Ordering for Energy-Optimal Multirotor Operation," is now available online.
  • 05/16/2025: Our paper, "Neural dynamics encoding risky choices during deliberation reveal separate choice subspaces," is now available online.
  • 05/12/2025 Our paper "Exploring the Suitability of Piecewise-linear Dynamical Models for Cognitive Neural Dynamics" is now available online. 
  • 05/05/2025 A UC Davis team with Orfeas as the lead, Oliver and Rachel as team members, Dr. Kong and Dr. Wei as advisors won three of four CITRIS Aviation Prizes (one shared with a UC Berkeley team).
  • 05/04/2025 The AIFS X Sony AgTech Challenge with Dr. Kong as the lead instructor and Peng, Prabhash, and Vitor as mentors has successfully concluded! 
  • 04/26/2025 Dr. Kong and Prabhash attended the first Bay Area Drone Fest, where we presented our UAV-related projects. 
  • 04/25/2025 Pinn has been awarded a 2025-2026 NeuralStorm Fellowship in Neuroengineering. Congrats, Pinn!
  • 04/25/2025 Dr. Kong and Prabhash attended the 7th NorCal Control Workshop, where Prabhash gave a talk on early wildfire detection. 
  • 04/25/2025 Eric, Luuanne, and Rachel presented their projects at the 2025 Undergraduate Research Scholarship and Creative Activity Conference. 
  • 04/03/2025 Dr. Bashir El-Khoury, the Deputy Command Surgeon of the USSPACECOM, visited our lab.
  • 03/14/2025 Our team with Oliver as the lead and Dr.s Kong and Wei as the mentors is one of the finalists of the 2025 NASA Gateways to Blue Skies Competition.
  • 02/26/2025 Our lab will be part of a NASA Ignite project "Integrated System and Predictive Model to Assess Air Quality and Rapidly Pinpoint Emerging Sources" led by Interlink Electronics.
  • 02/25/2025 Our lab will be part of a Global Affairs project "Exploring Complex Social-ecological Systems: Strategies for Climate Change Resilience and Sustainable Development in the Africa Wetland" led by Dr. Valeria La Saponara.
  • 02/19/2025 Dr. Kong gave a talk titled "UAS or Drones for Precision Agriculture" at the AIFS Speakers Series.
  • 02/03/2025 Dr. Kong visited UCSC and gave a talk titled "Uncrewed Aerial Systems for Disaster Response."
  • 01/23/2025 Dr. Kong served on a panel titled "Open Question: Artificial Intuition" held at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.
  • 12/23/2024 Dr. Kong will serve as a guest editor for a special issue (of L-CSS) on Safety, Robustness, and Effectiveness in Human-Machine Teaming.
  • 12/09/2024: Our paper, "CohEx: A Generalized Framework for Cohort Explanation," has been accepted by AAAI-25.
  • 12/01/2024 Andreas joins our lab. He will work on designing and building an air sampler for our CPI project. Welcome, Andreas!
  • 11/20/2024 Dr. Kong and Dr. Bales attended the USSPACECOM AEE Symposium held in Colorado Springs and presented our work on brain state assessment. 
  • 11/06/2024: Our paper, "Optical Flow as Spatial-Temporal Attention Learners," is now available online.
  • 11/01/2024 Dr. Kong will serve as the Chair of the National Organizing Committee (NOC) for the 8th IFAC Conference on Sensing, Control and Automation Technologies for Agriculture (AGRICONTROL 2025). Please consider submitting your manuscript. 
  • 10/11/2024 CITRIS publishes an article featuring our CITRIS-supported research.
  • 10/11/2024 Dr. Kong, Dr. Wei, and Prabhash attended and gave a talk at the "Bay Area Robotics Symposium" held at UC Berkeley. 
  • 09/27/2024 Dr. Kong, Prabhash, and Oliver attended "Leading the Change Series Workshop A Community Discussion on Making the Most of Drone and Sensor Data" held in UCSC Silicon Valley Campus. 
  • 09/26/2024 Dr. Kong presented his work on real-time brain state assessment at "Psychology and Physiology in Deep Space Habitation/Extreme Environments" co-organized by UCD and U of Adelaide. 
  • 09/17/2024 Dr. Kong and Dr. Michele Barbato shared their research on wildfire management at an Engineering on Tap event.
  • 08/28/2024 Dr. Kong joins the CITRIS Aviation Initiative Leadership team.
  • 08/22/2024 Our lab will be part of the Center for Pandemic Insights (a new multi-institution partnership supported by NSF and with Dr. Christine Johnson as the PI).

In the Press

Location

Contact Us
2900 spafford St,
​davis, CA 95618
zdkong (at) ucdavis (dot) edu