What Is The Fellowship About?
The AIDA3 Fellowship is a prestigious program designed to support doctoral and postdoctoral candidates in advancing research on physical AI in digital, autonomous, and augmented aviation. The fellowship was initiated through the partnership of Purdue University and the entrepreneurial UAV manufacturer Windracers LLC, who founded AIDA3 as a new center in 2024. Read more about our launch here.
Fellows will have the opportunity to work on cutting-edge projects that align with the center’s “Lab to Life” vision, ensuring their research has a tangible impact on real-world aviation challenges. By joining the AIDA Fellowship, you will be part of a vibrant community of researchers, industry experts, and innovators who are shaping the future of autonomous aviation.
Am I Eligible?
- Open to current Purdue students or those interested in applying to Purdue.
- Doctoral and postdoctoral candidates with a strong background in a technical area in AI/ML for aerial autonomy and aviation demonstrated in prior education or practical experience. Under certain conditions, master students are also accepted.
- Candidates must be passionate about advancing research in autonomous aviation and solving real-world challenges.
- Faculty advisors can come from any of the 5 colleges at Purdue university (College of Agriculture, College of Engineering, College of Liberal Arts, College of Science, or Polytechnic Institute); you can choose from existing affiliated faculty members or new faculty that are planning to join the center; please reach out to our director to discuss details.
- Documentation/confirmation by your faculty advisor/committee that your research will become an integral part of doctoral research and papers/thesis produced.
Why Should I Apply?
Key Benefits:
- Access to state-of-the-art facilities, including the indoor testing facility PURT, smart operations center, and outdoor operations for the ULTRA vehicle.
- Collaborate with world-class faculty from one of Purdue’s five colleges and interdisciplinary R&D teams involving engineers from industry partners like Windracers.
- Leverage advanced AI/ML technologies to develop innovative solutions for real-world aviation problems.
- Establish a scientific reputation through high-quality publications jointly with the AIDA3 team
- Translate research into actionable, real-world applications that solve critical challenges in aerial autonomy.
- Receive research funding for up to two years, with the goal to extend funding until graduation pending availability of funds. (see details in the policy document here).
- Participate in demonstration events and showcase your research to your peers, other faculty members, and industry partners.
What You Will Do:
- Collaborate on groundbreaking research and solve 5 key “problems” guiding AIDA3’s research portfolio related to R&D pillars such as UAV autonomy, human-autonomy teaming, and cybersecurity. Read more about the problems to solve here.
- Conduct hands-on AI/ML experiments that combine rigorous scientific methods with real-world aviation scenarios.
- Develop software and algorithms for advanced UAV systems that are used in demonstrations with small and large UAVs, including the two large fixed-wing UAVs Earhart and Armstrong donated by Windracers.
Meet the Current Fellows
Watch this video to see what some of our current fellows are working on at the moment.
Empowering one operator to manage 100 ULTRAs while ensuring cognitive load remains manageable.
Jayanth Shreekumar
Research Fellow, AIDA3
What Are The Focus Areas?
As an AIDA fellow, your research will fall under one or more of our research areas, contribute to solving key challenges in autonomous aviation, and focus on one or more AI/ML technical areas.
Research Areas
- AI/ML-enabled human-autonomy teaming for scalable and safe remote UAV operations
- AI/ML for onboard systems advancing UAV autonomy
- AI/ML for aerial transportation and multi-modal supply chain
- AI/ML for UAV-enabled meteorological and agricultural sensing
- AI/ML for cybersecurity in autonomous aviation
Key Challenges
- The 1:100 Challenge: One human operating a hundred ULTRAs at the same time
- Simple to Use: Making a standard human operator 100% proficient after 2 hours of training
- Always Flying: 70% asset utilization
- Sensing Dynamically: sensing dynamically without constraints
- Attack Resilience: Making sure no outsider can take control
ML/AL Technical Focus
- Physics inspired neural networks
- Federated learning
- Reinforcement learning
- Model-based control
- Computer vision
- Edge computing
- Formal methods
- Safety verification and uncertainty quantification
- Large Language Models (LLMs)
- Explainability and interpretability of AI/ML
- Digital twins and fidelity simulations
- SLAM
- Embodied AI
How Do I Apply?
Application Deadline:
Applications are open on a rolling basis; however, we align our selection and start date with the dates of the different colleges and schools at Purdue University. So please contact us about your program of interest so that we can direct you to the right graduate coordinator, and or faculty member. We are actively recruiting for Fall 2025 now. Candidates for the 2025 fellowship competition are currently reviewed, and pre-selection of candidates for phase 1 will be made by March 2025, with final fellowships awarded based on successful phase 2 application by end of 2025.
Selection Process:
Step 1: Candidate evaluation based on CV, motivation letter, and work samples (e.g., GitHub projects) including indicated current program of study/current
Step 2: Research proposal submission (max 5 pages including references) developed by the fellow and his/her advisor in collaboration with the AIDA3 director. The plan should include:
- Problem statement aligned with AIDA³ objectives. It should also articulate the practical and the scientific research gap and the research aim/objectives.
- Proposed AI/ML Method and approach
- Activities and timeline with milestones (at least semester based)
- Expected outcomes/deliverables: scientific artifacts to be published (data, papers, source code/algorithms) along with publication plan
- Roadmap for transforming research into real-world solutions.
Read more about the Fellowship policies approved by the consortium governance council of AIDA3 here, and submit your application here: aida3@purdue.edu.
Have Questions?
Contact us on aida3@purdue.edu. We also invite you to join our weekly research meetings at 10 am on Wednesdays to meet other fellows and their projects! Let us know if you are interested to join so that we can invite you!
