Dr. Liang Sun

Education

• Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering, Brigham Young University (2012)
• M.S., Electrical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University (2007)
• B.S., Electrical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University (2004)

Research Areas

• Aerospace engineering
• Multi-agent autonomy
• Airborne robotic system dynamics and control
• Advanced air mobility

Teaching

• ME 4325 Dynamic Systems
• ME 5963 Intro to Reinforcement Learning

Biography

Dr. Liang Sun joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Baylor University in 2024 as a tenured Associate Professor. Prior to Baylor, he was a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at New Mexico State University. 

Dr. Sun is the Director of the Advanced Vehicle Intelligence and Autonomy (AVIA) Laboratory, located in the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC). He has also served as Site Director of the Center for Aviation and Space Data Analytics (NSF IUCRC Planning Grant). Dr. Sun is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Since 2015, he has served as an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems.

Dr. Sun’s research focuses on autonomous systems, multi-agent robotics, advanced air mobility, and energy-aware operations. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Department of Energy, Toyota Research Institute of North America, Sandia National Laboratories, and the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium. He is the Principal Investigator of a $6 million NASA University Leadership Initiative (ULI) project that addresses technical challenges in infrastructure planning for Advanced Air Mobility, bringing together multi-institutional, national laboratory, and industry partners.