Grace Gao

Grace Gao is an Associate Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, leading the Navigation and Autonomous Vehicles Laboratory (NAV Lab). Previously, she was faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University, focusing on robust and secure perception, localization, and navigation for aerial vehicles, autonomous driving, and space robotics.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University

Research Interests: Her work integrates machine learning with navigation systems to enhance autonomy in harsh environments. Key areas include GNSS spoofing mitigation, lunar positioning, and neural radiance fields for 3D mapping. She emphasizes resilient algorithms for unmanned systems and space exploration.

Awards:

• NSF CAREER Award
• Institute of Navigation Early Achievement Award
• 29 Best Paper Awards at Institute of Navigation conferences
• Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence (Stanford)

Teaching & Advising: Recognized repeatedly as an excellent instructor, she has mentored students in autonomous systems and received awards for advising excellence from AIAA and Stanford.

Labs & Projects: The NAV Lab develops open-source tools like gnss_lib_py and simulators like LuPNT for lunar navigation. Her work bridges theory with practical applications in space robotics and urban autonomous systems.