Researcher

Alan Fern

Alan Fern studies how learned behavior and explicit planning can work together. His projects include the Cassie bipedal robot and AI for agriculture. Fern earned his doctorate in computer engineering at Purdue University in 2004, with Robert Givan as his adviser. Fern jointly directs the Dynamic Robot Lab with Jonathan Hurst. Their work studies learning and planning for agile movement by the Cassie robot.

Now at
Dynamic Robot Lab and Oregon State University
Works
282
Citations
6,105
h-index
43

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.

Photo of Alan Fern

Timeline

  1. 2004

    Doctoral research

    Fern earned his doctorate in computer engineering at Purdue University in 2004, with Robert Givan as his adviser.

  2. 2021

    Agricultural applications

    AgAID launched in October 2021. Fern leads an Oregon State team working on AI, robotics, and human interaction.

  3. 2026

    Research recognition

    AAAI elected Alan Fern as a Fellow in 2026.

  4. As of October 2026

    Learning to walk

    Fern jointly directs the Dynamic Robot Lab with Jonathan Hurst. Their work studies learning and planning for agile movement by the Cassie robot.

Sources and credits

Photo: engineering.oregonstate.edu; embedded metadata: EXIF:Copyright = KARL MAASDAM; IPTC:CopyrightNotice = KARL MAASDAM; XMP:rights = KARL MAASDAM. License: Not stated by source. Notice in the file: KARL MAASDAM. Source: engineering.oregonstate.edu. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.

  1. Alan Fern's Personal WWW Page web.engr.oregonstate.edu. Checked 13 October 2026.
  2. Elected AAAI Fellows — 2026 — Alan Fern aaai.org. Checked 13 October 2026.