Jonathan Salfity

Jonathan Salfity has a diverse work experience in the fields of robotics, AI, and engineering. Jonathan is currently a PhD student at The University of Texas at Austin, specializing in Robotics and AI/ML. Their research interests include Robotics, Control Theory, Machine Learning, Reinforcement Learning, and Game Theory. Jonathan is part of the Control and Learning for Autonomous Robots group, under the supervision of David Fridovich-Keil.

In 2021, Jonathan co-founded geCKo Materials, where they serve as an advisor. geCKo Materials focuses on manufacturing a bio-inspired, purely mechanical, ultra-high shear strength adhesive.

Prior to that, Jonathan worked as a Software Engineer at Empiric.io from 2020 to 2021. Their role involved Python API development and backend AWS cloud resources for life science IoT devices.

Jonathan also gained experience as a Robotics and AI Research Engineer at HP Labs in Palo Alto, CA, from 2016 to 2020. Their work there included projects related to Grasping and Manipulation, Deep Reinforcement Learning, and Mobile Robots, including topics such as edge compute, SLAM, motion planning, navigation, environment representation, and human-robot interaction. Additionally, they had a role as an R&D Mechanical Engineer at HP from 2014 to 2016.

Jonathan's earlier work experience includes serving as an Undergraduate Technical Support Staff at The Aerospace Corporation from 2010 to 2012, where they conducted research under Dr. R. J.

Overall, Jonathan Salfity's work experience demonstrates their expertise and involvement in various aspects of robotics, AI, and engineering, from research and development to software engineering and entrepreneurship.

Jonathan Salfity began their education at Loyola High School of Los Angeles. Jonathan then went on to earn a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles from 2008 to 2013. Following that, they pursued a Master of Science (M.S.) in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Systems and Control, Robotics at UCLA from 2013 to 2014. Currently, Jonathan is studying for their Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Robotics at The University of Texas at Austin, a program which is expected to be completed in 2025.