Zachary K. Kingston

Zachary K. Kingston is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Purdue University, leading the Computational Motion, Manipulation, and Autonomy (CoMMA) Lab. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rice University (2021), with prior master's and postdoctoral studies under Dr. Lydia E. Kavraki. His research focuses on robotics, computer vision, artificial intelligence, and motion planning algorithms for complex robotic systems.

Education

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Rice University, 2021
• Master's and Postdoctoral studies at Rice University

Research Interests

• Robotics and Computer Vision
• Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing
• Manifold-constrained motion planning and long-horizon multi-modal motion planning

His work emphasizes algorithms and software enabling robots to make safe, efficient decisions in dynamic environments.

Awards

• NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (Ph.D. funding)

Grants & CollaborationsHis Ph.D. research was supported by a NASA fellowship, and he collaborated with NASA's Robonaut 2 team. He maintains the Open Motion Planning Library (an open-source tool for robotics planning).

Labs & TeamsHe leads the CoMMA Lab, exploring motion planning, autonomy, and software engineering for robotic systems.