The AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee (ISTC) is concerned with the application of Intelligent System (IS) technologies and methods to aerospace systems, the verification and validation of these systems, and the education of the AIAA membership in the use of IS technologies in aerospace and other technical disciplines.
Welcome to the ISTC!
The Intelligent Systems Technical Committee addresses the application of Intelligent System (IS) technologies and methods to aerospace systems, the verification and validation of these systems, and the education of the AIAA membership in the use of IS technologies in aerospace and other technical disciplines.
ISTC Focus: Commercial and military aerospace systems, and those ground systems that are part of test, development, or operations of aerospace systems. Technologies which enable safe and reliable operation of complex aerospace systems or sub-systems with minimal or no human intervention (autonomy), or collaborative synthetic-human agent teams are of interest. These include, but are not limited to: autonomous and expert systems, discrete planning/scheduling algorithms, intelligent data/image processing, learning and adaptive techniques, data fusion and reasoning, and knowledge engineering.
Members of the ISTC have experience in developing and managing aerospace systems involving knowledge engineering, knowledge acquisition, verification/validation of knowledge based systems, neural networks, and expert systems, as well as the use of artificial intelligence concepts/techniques to support natural language interfaces, image understanding, planning/scheduling, and data fusion.
If you would like more information, or are interested in joining the ISTC, please see the Our Mission page!
2026 Intelligent Systems Workshop
Digital Transformation Center, August 12-13, 2026 (save the date!)
The 10th annual Intelligent Systems Workshop will take place August 12-13, 2026, at the Digital Transformation Center in Dayton, OH.
This year’s workshop themes:
1. Autonomy at Scale
2. Human Interaction
3. Counter UAS
4. Precision Navigation
5. AI’s Impact on Workforce
Registration is coming soon!
For more information, see: https://aiaa-istc.github.io/2026_IS_Workshop.html
Announcements:
News: 2026 May 26, 2:50pm EDT (by Cat McGhan)
ISTC Technical Seminar Series
Don’t miss Dr. Peng Jiang’s seminar this Wednesday May 27 at 1:00pm ET on Zoom!
Speaker: Peng Jiang, PhD
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Date/time: Wednesday, May 27th, 2026 – 1:00pm-2:00pm Eastern time
Title: Enhancing UAV Localization and Security in GPS-Challenged Environments
Meeting link: https://aiaa.zoom.us/j/87451066169?pwd=hUOobrtu6979KIN2hgntVPKJsO8LZ8.1
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Meeting ID: 874 5106 6169
Passcode: 174159
Abstract: Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) rely on GPS and wireless communications for navigation and coordination, making them vulnerable to spoofing, signal manipulation, and other attacks. This talk presents a multi-modal approach to UAV security, fusing data from cameras, LiDAR, IMUs, geospatial maps, and wireless signals to detect compromised positioning and communication channels. The research highlights emerging UAV attack surfaces and demonstrates how integrated sensing and AI-driven analysis can enhance resilience, operational safety, and trustworthiness in adversarial or GPS-challenged environments.
Bio: Dr. Peng Jiang is an Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. His research focuses on securing UAVs, autonomous vehicles, and other cyber–physical systems by developing intelligent, multi-modal methods for detecting and mitigating emerging threats in navigation, wireless communications, and perception. He holds a B.S. in Communication Engineering (Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications) and an M.E. and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Old Dominion University). He has received the NSF CRII Award, the UNO Research and Creative Activity Award, and the PEARC 2025 Best Paper Award.
News: 2026 Mar 16, 4:23pm EDT (by Cat McGhan)
ISTC Technical Seminar Series
Don’t miss Dr. Jueming Hu’s seminar Wednesday March 18 at 1:00pm ET on Zoom!
Speaker: Jueming Hu, PhD
University of North Dakota
Date/time: Wednesday, March 18th, 2026 – 1:00pm-2:00pm Eastern time
Title: AI-Assisted UAV Operations for Safe, Resilient, and Efficient Autonomy
Meeting link: https://aiaa.zoom.us/j/85324780221?pwd=s9EnOoBzK9dinf4awUPygDtEMDajHP.1
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Meeting ID: 853 2478 0221
Passcode: 151529
Abstract: As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to advance, autonomous systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and robotics are rapidly gaining capabilities in complex, safety-critical environments. This talk will present a three-level view of AI-assisted UAV operations, spanning vehicle control, mission-level resilience, and multi-agent coordination. At the vehicle level, I combine reinforcement learning and optimization to achieve safe and steady autonomous landing for fixed-wing aircraft. At the mission level, I develop learning-based methods to detect and mitigate GPS spoofing, with an emphasis on mission continuity under cyber attacks. At the multi-agent level, I integrate reinforcement learning with formal methods to improve learning efficiency for temporally extended missions and team behaviors. Building on these results, this talk will outline ongoing research directions toward trustworthy autonomous systems, including data-driven dynamics modeling and state estimation, control and planning in unseen environments, and runtime monitoring and mitigation.
Bio: Dr. Jueming Hu is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of North Dakota (UND). She received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University, as well as a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Southeast University, China. Before joining UND, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Texas A&M University and Arizona State University. Dr. Hu’s research interests include AI, optimization, and formal methods and their applications in cyber-physical systems.
News: 2026 Feb 9, 11:00pm EDT (by Cat McGhan)
ISTC Technical Seminar Series
Don’t miss Dr. Donald Haryford Costello’s seminar Thursday February 19 at 1:00pm ET on Zoom!
Speaker: Donald Haryford Costello, PhD
University of Maryland
Date/time: Thursday, February 19th, 2026 – 1:00pm-2:00pm Eastern time
Title: Enabling Autonomous Aerial Systems
Meeting link: https://aiaa.zoom.us/j/86789421638?pwd=YvXzS5YPooBAwG3a79NGozzfF7WopB.1
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Meeting ID: 867 8942 1638
Passcode: 575322
Abstract: The future of transportation is uncrewed, and ultimately autonomous. However, current standards and methods of compliance are not designed for certifying systems without a human in or on the loop. This talk will focus on ongoing efforts at the UMD MATRIX Lab dedicated to defining standards, metrics, and methods of compliance for an autonomous system to take actions currently reserved for fully qualified humans. In particular, the talk will focus on enabling autonomous aerial refueling and autonomous drone integration onto naval vessels in support of United States Naval Aviation and NAWCAD. Additionally, the talk will highlight collaboration opportunities with the UMD MATRIX Lab.
Bio: Dr. “Bucket” Costello received the B.S. degree in systems engineering from the United States Naval Academy in 2000, the M.A.S in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach in 2005, the M.S. in aeronautical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 2009, the M.S. in systems engineering from the Naval Post Graduate School, Monterey 2011, and the Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA in 2020. He served as a Naval Aviator, Test Pilot, and Permanent Military Professor in the United States Navy from 2000-2025. His academic positions have included Adjunct Associate Professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Assistant Professor in the Weapons, Robotics, and Control Engineering Department at the United States Naval Academy. Currently, he is an Associate Research Professor at the MATRIX Lab, University of Maryland Clark School of Engineering at USMSM. His work focuses on the test and evaluation of unmanned and autonomous systems for practical use. Dr. Costello’s awards and honors include two Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development, and Acquisition) Dr. Delores M. Etter Top Scientists and Engineers of the Year (Group Award 2024, individual engineering 2021), and the International Test and Evaluation Association 2021 Publication Award. He is a member of the Tailhook Association, IEEE, AIAA, the International Test and Evaluation Association.
More announcements are available on the Announcements page.
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