Tobin Fricke

Tobin Fricke is a highly experienced Staff Software Engineer specializing in motion control, currently serving as the tech lead of motion control at Aurora since February 2021. Fricke has a strong background in flight control systems, having worked at Makani for over six years, where responsibilities included design, analysis, implementation, and field testing of the Makani M600 energy kite. Prior academic and research roles include postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, and a visiting research position at the California Institute of Technology, with a focus on laser interferometry. Fricke holds a PhD in Physics from Louisiana State University, a MA in Physics from the University of Rochester, and a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Additional early career experiences include founding the Ant Hill Cooperative, programming for the Kepler project, and contributing to scientific research at various prestigious institutions including CERN and the Weizmann Institute of Science.