Research

This page contains a curated list of my major research projects. I manually update this so it may be out-of-date. For the most up-to-date list of research and publications please see my Google Scholar page.

Robust AI Through Automated Red-Teaming AI SafetyArtificial Intelligence

Automated red-teaming methods for failure discovery and validation of AI systems, with applications to language models and safety-critical domains including cybersecurity and mental health.

Expert Evaluation and the Limits of Human Feedback in Mental Health AI Safety Testing
Kiana Jafari, Paul Ulrich Nikolaus Rust, Duncan Eddy, Robbie Fraser, Nina Vasan, Darja Djordjevic, Akanksha Dadlani, Max Lamparth, Eugenia Kim, Mykel Kochenderfer
ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, 2026 (Submitted)
ASTPrompter: Weakly Supervised Automated Language Model Red-Teaming to Identify Low-Perplexity Toxic Prompts
Amelia F. Hardy, Houjun Liu, Bernard Lange, Duncan Eddy, Mykel J. Kochenderfer
EMNLP, 2025

World Models for Robust Robotics RoboticsArtificial IntelligenceWorld Models

By applying principles of deep learning and representation learning, we can train models that learn to predict the future state of the world based on past actions and observations. These world models can be used for planning and control in complex, high-dimensional environments with inherent quantification of uncertainty, enabling robust decision-making and control for across a range of real-world robotic systems.

Foundational World Models Accurately Detect Bimanual Manipulator Failures
Isaac R Ward, Michelle Ho, Houjun Liu, Aaron Feldman, Joseph Vincent, Liam Kruse, Sean Cheong, Duncan Eddy, Mykel J Kochenderfer, Mac Schwager
International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2026

Space Safety SpaceSpace Safety

Application of formal decision-making frameworks, including Markov decision processes, to optimize operational safety of space systems and the sustainability of the space environment, with a focus on collision avoidance and space traffice management.

Space Safety
Markov Decision Processes for Multi-Objective Satellite Task Planning
William Kuh, Jun Wang, Duncan Eddy, and Mykel Kochenderfer
IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2025

Automated Space Mission Operations and Task Planning Satellite SchedulingOptimizationSpace

Algorithms for scheduling and task planning in Earth-observing satellite constellations, combining maximum independent set methods and Markov decision processes to optimize image collection across large satellite networks.

Automated Space Mission Operations and Task Planning
Adaptive Science Operations in Deep Space Missions using Robust Precomputed Autonomy
Grace Kim, Hailey Warner, Duncan Eddy, Evan Astle, Zachary Booth, Edward Balaban, Mykel J. Kochenderfer
International Conference on Space Robotics, 2025
A Maximum Independent Set Method for Scheduling Earth-Observing Satellite Constellations
Duncan Eddy and Mykel Kochenderfer
AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, 2021
Task Planning for Earth Observing Satellite Systems
Duncan Eddy
PhD Thesis, Stanford University, 2021
Capella Space First Operational SAR Satellite
Davide Castelletti, Gordon Farquharson, Craig Stringham, Michael Duersch, Duncan Eddy
International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2021
An Update on the Capella Space Radar Constellation
Gordon Farquharson, Davide Castelletti, Craig Stringham, and Duncan Eddy
European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar, 2021
Markov Decision Processes for Multi-Objective Satellite Task Planning
Duncan Eddy and Mykel Kochenderfer
IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2020
Operational Readiness of the Capella SAR System
Davide Castelletti, Gordon Farquharson, Craig Stringham, and Duncan Eddy
International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2020
The Capella X-band SAR Constellation for Rapid Imaging
Craig Stringham, Gordon Farquharson, Davide Castelletti, Eric Quist, Lucas Riggi, Duncan Eddy, Scott Soenen
International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2019
Satellite Task Planning Under Orbit Prediction Uncertainty
Duncan Eddy and Mykel J. Kochenderfer
prerint, 2019

Astrodynamics SpaceAstrodynamics

Application of formal decision-making frameworks, including Markov decision processes, to optimize operational safety of space systems and the sustainability of the space environment, with a focus on collision avoidance and space traffice management.

Brahe: A Modern Astrodynammics Library for Research and Engineering Applications
Duncan Eddy, and Mykel Kochenderfer
Journal of Open Source Software, 2025 (Submitted)

Ground Station Optimization Satellite SchedulingOptimization

Integer programming approaches for selecting optimal ground station networks for low-Earth orbiting satellites, minimizing cost while maximizing data downlink coverage.

Ground Station Optimization
Optimal Ground Station Selection for Low-Earth Orbiting Satellites
Duncan Eddy, Michelle Ho, and Mykel Kochenderfer
IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2025

Robust Learning for AI Systems Artificial Intelligence

For AI systems to be operationally effective they must be robust to variations encounted in real-world applications. This research explores methods for improving the robustness of AI systems, including techniques for training models that can generalize well to unseen data, and methods for improving the effectiveness of AI systems in real-world settings.

Beyond Gradient Averaging in Parallel Optimization: Improved Robustness through Gradient Agreement Filtering
Francois Chaubard, Duncan Eddy, and Mykel J. Kochenderfer
EMNLP, 2025
RAG-DOLL: Zero-Shot LLM Multi-Hop Question Answering by Simultaneously Planning Over Documents and Strategies
Houjun Liu, Amelia F. Hardy, Samuel Akinwande, Robert J. Moss, Duncan Eddy, Christopher D. Manning, and Mykel J. Kochenderfer
EMNLP, 2025

Other Research Decision-Making

Other research projects and publications in decision-making, planning, and related topics that don't fit into the other categories.

Optimizing Task Completion Time Updates Using POMDPs
Duncan Eddy, Esen Yel, Emma Passmore, Niles Egan, Grayson Armour, Dylan M. Asmar, and Mykel J. Kochenderfer
International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2026