Research

This page contains a curated list of my major research projects, grouped by theme. Select a tag to highlight the related work. For a complete list organized by publication type, see all publications. I maintain these pages manually so they may be out-of-date; for the most up-to-date list please see my Google Scholar page.

Space Mission Autonomy

Decision making and optimization for space operations and exploration. This work spans the full operational stack of an Earth-observing or deep-space mission: scheduling image collection across large satellite constellations with maximum independent set methods and Markov decision processes, selecting cost-optimal ground station networks for downlinking that data, and building the astrodynamics tooling those algorithms depend on.

Space Mission Autonomy
Carlo Schreiber, Duncan Eddy, and Mykel J. Kochenderfer
IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2026 (Submitted)
OptimizationDecision MakingSpace
Grace Ra Kim, Duncan Eddy, Vedant Srinivas, and Mykel J. Kochenderfer
AIAA Journal of Aerospace Information Systems, 2026
OptimizationSpace
Grace Ra Kim, Duncan Eddy, Vedant Srinivas, and Mykel J. Kochenderfer
IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2026
OptimizationSpace
Duncan Eddy, and Mykel Kochenderfer
Journal of Open Source Software, 2025 (Submitted)
AstrodynamicsSpace
Duncan Eddy, Michelle Ho, and Mykel Kochenderfer
IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2025
OptimizationSpace
Grace Kim, Hailey Warner, Duncan Eddy, Evan Astle, Zachary Booth, Edward Balaban, Mykel J. Kochenderfer
International Conference on Space Robotics, 2025
OptimizationSpaceDecision Making
Duncan Eddy and Mykel Kochenderfer
AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, 2021
OptimizationSpaceDecision Making
Duncan Eddy
PhD Thesis, Stanford University, 2021
OptimizationSpaceDecision Making
Davide Castelletti, Gordon Farquharson, Craig Stringham, Michael Duersch, Duncan Eddy
International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2021
Space
Gordon Farquharson, Davide Castelletti, Craig Stringham, and Duncan Eddy
European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar, 2021
Space
Duncan Eddy and Mykel Kochenderfer
IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2020
OptimizationSpaceDecision Making
Davide Castelletti, Gordon Farquharson, Craig Stringham, and Duncan Eddy
International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2020
Space
Craig Stringham, Gordon Farquharson, Davide Castelletti, Eric Quist, Lucas Riggi, Duncan Eddy, Scott Soenen
International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2019
Space
Duncan Eddy and Mykel J. Kochenderfer
preprint, 2019
OptimizationSpaceDecision Making

World Models for Robust Systems

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 across a range of real-world robotic systems.

World Models for Robust Systems
Duncan Eddy, Isaac R. Ward, Grace Ra Kim, Mykel J. Kochenderfer
Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference, 2026
World ModelsArtificial IntelligenceSpaceAstrodynamics
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
World ModelsArtificial IntelligenceRobotics

Decision Making for Space Safety

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

Decision Making for Space Safety
Grace Ra Kim, Mahdi Al-Husseini, Duncan Eddy, and Mykel Kochenderfer
Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference, 2026
SpaceAstrodynamicsDecision Making
Grace Ra Kim, Mahdi Al-Husseini, Duncan Eddy, and Mykel Kochenderfer
AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, 2026
SpaceAstrodynamicsDecision Making
William Kuhl, Jun Wang, Duncan Eddy, and Mykel Kochenderfer
IEEE Aerospace Conference, 2025
SpaceAstrodynamicsDecision Making

Red-Teaming Safety-Critical Systems

Automated red-teaming methods for failure discovery and validation of AI systems. By searching for the inputs that induce failure rather than waiting to encounter them in deployment, these methods surface vulnerabilities in language models and the safety-critical domains they are increasingly used in, including cybersecurity and mental health.

Red-Teaming Safety-Critical Systems
Houjun Liu, Lisa Einstein, John Yang, Joachim Baumann, Duncan Eddy, Christopher D. Manning, Mykel Kochenderfer, and Diyi Yang
Neural Information Processing Systems, 2026 (Submitted)
AI SafetyArtificial Intelligence
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
AI SafetyArtificial Intelligence
Amelia F. Hardy, Houjun Liu, Bernard Lange, Duncan Eddy, Mykel J. Kochenderfer
EMNLP, 2025
AI SafetyArtificial Intelligence

Other

Other research projects and publications in decision making, planning, and machine learning that do not fit neatly into the themes above.

Duncan Eddy, Esen Yel, Emma Passmore, Niles Egan, Grayson Armour, Dylan M. Asmar, and Mykel J. Kochenderfer
International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2026
Decision MakingRobotics
Francois Chaubard, Duncan Eddy, and Mykel J. Kochenderfer
EMNLP, 2025
Artificial IntelligenceOptimization
Houjun Liu, Amelia F. Hardy, Samuel Akinwande, Robert J. Moss, Duncan Eddy, Christopher D. Manning, and Mykel J. Kochenderfer
EMNLP, 2025
Artificial IntelligenceDecision Making