PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Jake Welde

Jake Welde is a robotics researcher who uses geometry and control theory to develop methods for autonomous robots. At the University of Pennsylvania, he earned degrees in mechanical engineering and robotics and completed a Ph.D. while working in the GRASP Laboratory. His work spans quadrotor flight, aerial manipulation, symmetry-based control, and learning robot controllers. At Cornell, he is an assistant professor and leads the GeoDesiC Lab; he joined the faculty in 2025.

Works
19
Citations
183
h-index
5

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 27 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2017

    Tracking targets with a quadrotor

    He coauthors a 2017 IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters paper about a small quadrotor that detects, localizes, and tracks moving targets.

  2. 2019–2020

    Penn engineering degrees

    He earns a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at Penn in 2019 and an M.S. in Robotics there in 2020.

  3. 2021–2022

    Aerial manipulator planning

    His 2021 paper develops task-space planning for underactuated aerial manipulators and becomes an ICRA Best Paper finalist in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles category. In 2022, his research at Penn's Vijay Kumar Lab focuses on planning and control for underactuated multibody aerial robots such as quadrotors with manipulator arms.

  4. 2023

    Geometric flat outputs

    He coauthors a 2023 ICRA paper on using symmetry to construct geometric flat outputs for free-flying robotic systems.

  5. 2024

    Tracking on homogeneous manifolds

    With Vijay Kumar, he publishes a 2024 controller for trajectory tracking in fully actuated mechanical systems on homogeneous manifolds. They apply it to an axisymmetric satellite and an omnidirectional aerial robot.

  6. 2024

    The John A. Goff Prize

    He receives the John A. Goff Prize in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania in 2024.

  7. 2025

    A Penn doctorate

    While working in Penn's GRASP Laboratory, he completes a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics in 2025. He coauthors a 2025 ICRA paper that uses symmetry to accelerate learning of trajectory-tracking controllers for free-flying robotic systems.

  8. Since 2025

    Assistant professor at Cornell

    He joins Cornell's Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering as an assistant professor in 2025 and leads the GeoDesiC Lab. His work connects abstract mathematics with physical robot design. In 2026, he and coauthors introduce weak invariance, a flexible notion of symmetry for control systems.

Career

  1. Since 2025Cornell UniversityAssistant Professor, Lab Lead
  2. University of PennsylvaniaResearcher

Education

  1. 2025University of PennsylvaniaPh.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics
  2. 2020University of PennsylvaniaM.S. in Robotics
  3. 2019University of PennsylvaniaB.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

From the biography.

Checked career sources: geodesic.mae.cornell.edu, duffield.cornell.edu, kumarrobotics.org, jakewelde.com, duffield.cornell.edu, arxiv.org.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Jake Welde yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Publications – GeoDesiC Lab geodesic.mae.cornell.edu. Checked 26 October 2026.
  2. Jake Welde | Cornell Duffield Engineering duffield.cornell.edu. Checked 26 October 2026.
  3. Jake Welde : Vijay Kumar Lab kumarrobotics.org. Checked 26 October 2026.
  4. [2403.04900] Almost Global Asymptotic Trajectory Tracking for Fully-Actuated Mechanical Systems on Homogeneous Riemannian Manifolds arxiv.org. Checked 26 October 2026.
  5. Jake Welde jakewelde.com. Checked 26 October 2026.
  6. Exploring the interplay of math and machines | Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering | Cornell Duffield Engineering duffield.cornell.edu. Checked 26 October 2026.
  7. A Weak Notion of Symmetry for Control Systems arxiv.org. Checked 26 October 2026.