Joseph Mockler Awarded DoD SMART Scholarship

Department of Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. Student Joseph Mockler was selected for a 2025 Department of Defense Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship. The SMART Scholarship builds future leaders in 23 STEM disciplines and is the largest education and workforce development initiative under the Department of Defense STEM Program.

"I'm honored to be recognized with the SMART scholarship and am excited for this opportunity to advance my career as a researcher!" said Mockler.

Mockler currently works with Associate Professor Mumu Xu where his research spans control design and improving estimation techniques, and is aimed at better understanding how to design machine-learning enabled control systems to meet design requirements.

He says that these systems are built in a "guess-and-check" fashion, but often lack methods of directly designing to requirements. In cases where safety matters, like autonomous flight and driving, many regulatory bodies are concerned with this design method.

“This idea of trying to understand, or assure, that a controller design works as intended formed the basis of my inspiration, and led me to pursue research in machine-learning assurance for safety critical systems,” explained Mockler.

He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2021 with his B.S in mechanical engineering. He went on to spend two years working as a research engineer at Meso-Scale Diagnostics before coming to Maryland in 2023 to pursue his Ph.D.

After graduating from Maryland, he wants to continue conducting autonomy and systems engineering research in industry or the government.

The SMART Scholarship-for-Service Program is a combined educational and workforce development opportunity for STEM students. Scholarship recipients receive hands-on experience at one of over 150 Department of Defense facilities during their internships and apply this knowledge as early career professionals. All scholarship recipients receive full tuition, annual stipends, internships, and guaranteed civilian employment with the Department of Defense after graduation.

Published May 1, 2025