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Aerospace Engineering,
Computational Engineering and Engineering Mechanics

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Education:
Ph.D., Stanford University in Electrical Engineering

Research Interests:

  • Design of humanoid and exoskeleton robots
  • Task and motion planning for agile mobile manipulation
  • Human autonomy teaming
  • Autonomous robots

Luis Sentis is a Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at The University of Texas at Austin. He is also a General Dynamics Endowed Faculty Fellow, and a member of UT Austin's Good Systems. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He was a La Caixa Foundation Fellow while at Stanford. He holds a B.S. degree in Telecommunications and Electronics Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Before Stanford, he worked in Silicon Valley as a Control Systems Engineer for clean room automation.

In Austin, he leads the Human Centered Robotics Laboratory, a laboratory focusing on control, task and motion planning, human factors, and experimentation with humanoid robots, mobile manipulation robots, exoskeletons and autonomous systems. He is also a founding member of the UT Robotics Portfolio Program and the UT Ethics of AI Portfolio Program. He was the UT Austin's Lead for DARPA's Robotics Challenge with NASA Johnson Space Center where he helped to design and test the Valkyrie humanoid robot. His research has been funded by ONR, NASA, NSF, ARL, AFC, DARPA and private companies.

He has been awarded the NASA Elite Team Award for his contributions to NASA’s Johnson Space Center Software Robotics and Simulation Division. He is also a founding member and innovation advisor for Apptronik Systems, a company focusing on human-centered robotic products.

News

ASE Building

Aerospace Engineering Program Ranks No. 8 in Nation

The aerospace engineering undergraduate program in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin has risen to No. 8 in the nation.

Anand Agrawal receiving small satellite award

Ph.D. Student Anand Agrawal Wins Award for Satellite Navigation Research

Ph.D. student Anand Agrawal is helping develop an onboard autonomous spacecraft navigation system that uses landmarks to estimate the spacecraft’s position and timing.

electromagnetic thruster concept

Thomas Underwood Wins NASA Early Career Faculty Award

Thomas Underwood has received a NASA Early Career Faculty award to develop an electromagnetic propulsion mechanism that is designed for interplanetary travel.

NASA NISAR satellite above Earth

A first-of-its-kind satellite just launched into space to map our planet at an unrivaled level of detail, and Jingyi “Ann” Chen will play a key role in the direction of this ambitious mission.

Published by the Cockrell School of Engineering

Research

From land and water on Earth to the stars and beyond, our research is not only changing the world and the lives of people who live here – it is transforming the future of air travel and space exploration, creating opportunities for future discoveries outside our world. At UT Aerospace, the sky is not the limit.

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Research Areas

$23.2M

In Research Expenditures

#9

Graduate Aerospace Engineering Program in the Nation

U.S. News & World Report

#10

Undergraduate Aerospace Engineering Program in the Nation

U.S. News & World Report

Spotlights

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Fall 2025 Newsletter

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Nomination Call: Academy of Distinguished Alumni

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Faculty Openings

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Research Seminars

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