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Graduate Students

  • Headshot of Andy Chu

    Andy Chu

    Master's Student, Mechanical Engineering
    Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering

    Andy Chu graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2023 from West Virginia University, where he participated in the Honors Foundation Program. He is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering at WVU, with a focus on Dynamics and Controls. His research is in robotics, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. During his undergraduate and graduate studies, Andy has gained hands-on experience through roles such as an Engineering Intern at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where he contributed to cost-saving optimizations and prototyped innovative designs. He has also worked as a student researcher in WVU’s Robotics Lab, where he has developed skills in operating unmanned ground vehicles and advanced object detection models like Yolo. Outside of his academic and professional pursuits, Andy serves as a Graduate Student Advisor for WVU’s Robotics Club, where he provides guidance on various projects and leads teams in competitions such as the Vex U Robotics Competition. Andy is passionate about additive manufacturing and owns and operates multiple 3D printers. In his free time, Andy enjoys going to the gym, cooking, photography, and traveling. Personal Website: https://www.andychu.info

  • Headshot of David

    David Akhihiero

    PhD Student, Mechanical Engineering
    Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering

    David is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at West Virginia University. His research focuses on robot localization, SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping), and multi-UAV cooperation in GNSS-denied environments. David is actively involved in projects that enhance navigation and perception in complex settings, such as underground mining and multi-robot cooperation. With a background in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Benin (First Class Honors), David contributes to various research initiatives, including optimizing the accuracy of SLAM-generated maps and improving safety in subterranean activities. His work aims to push the boundaries of autonomous system performance in challenging environments. In his free time, David enjoys music, reading novels, hiking, and watching movies.

  • Headshot of Kulhubshan

    Kulbhushan Komarraju

    PhD candidate, Aerospace Engineering
    Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering

    He’s currently pursuing his PhD in MMAE department where he works as a Graduate Research Assistant in the NavLab. He’s engaged in research on Factor Graph optimization and Error State Extended Kalman Filter with Zero Velocity Update for collective localization. He’s developing a turtlebot simulation in Gazebo to test and improve these algorithms. He’s also involved in a project developing surface slip estimation methods using collaborative robots. He did his Master of Science in Robotic Systems Engineering at RWTH Aachen, Germany. In his Master thesis, he trained a Neural network on piezoelectric sensor measurements to process machine vibrations. He worked as a Mechanical Engineer in an underground zinc mine at Hindustan Zinc Limited in India and was in charge of heavy equipment maintenance. He completed his Bachelor’s in Production Engineering at NIT Trichy, India. He has a solid foundation in Robotics, Mechanics, Control systems, State estimation and Numerical optimization. He’s proficient in Python, ROS 2, Matlab and R. In his free time, he loves to hike, read books, play cricket and table tennis and watch stand-up comedies among other things. He can speak five languages, so he can rant about life in four more languages than most people.