Deegan Atha

Deegan Atha is a Robotics Technologist III at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, leading semantic perception efforts for the DARPA RACER project, focusing on fast autonomous off-trail driving and crater-based localization for lunar navigation. Atha's experience encompasses roles as Robotics Technologist I and II at JPL, developing deep learning solutions for terrain classification in Martian and lunar environments. Prior to JPL, Atha served as a Research Assistant at Smart Informatix Laboratory, contributing to deep neural networks for structural health monitoring, and as a Software and Commercialization Lead at Purdue University's EPICS program. Atha's educational background includes a Master of Science in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.