Mechanical engineering alumus honored for work on autonomous amphibious vehicle

UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering mechanical engineering alumnus Aaron Burmeister (B.S. mechanical engineering 2001) has been selected as one of the nation’s top scientists and engineers of the year by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research Development and Acquisition.

Burmeister is an engineer for Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific). He won the prestigious Dr. Delores M. Etter Top Scientists and Engineers award, in the individual engineer category, for his work developing an autonomous amphibious vehicle.

“It’s challenging because perception, navigation, and control strategies have to change as the vehicle transitions from sea to surf zone to land domains. We have started the effort by developing an autonomy system that can control a commercially available amphibious manned vehicle capable of going up to 45 mph on land or water,” explained Burmeister, in a statement. 

He goes into more detail on the project in a US Navy video by Aaron Lebsack (embedded below).