Short Bio
Steve Ulrich is Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Carleton University and Founding Director of the Spacecraft Robotics Laboratory. He received his B.Eng. and M.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Université de Sherbrooke (2004 and 2006) and his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Carleton University (2012). From 2006 to 2008, he was Spacecraft GN&C Research Engineer with NGC Aerospace Ltd, where he led the development of the attitude perturbation estimation system for the European Space Agency’s PROBA-2 spacecraft. In 2013, as Postdoctoral Associate with the Space Systems Laboratory at MIT, he made key contributions to vision-driven control systems that were flight-tested on ISS-SPHERES during Expeditions 34 and 35. Prof. Ulrich’s research interests include computer vision, GN&C, and robotics applied to spacecraft rendezvous, proximity operations, and formation flying. Some of his recent contributions were flight-tested on ISS-Astrobee during Expedition 71.
From 2014 to 2022 he was a member of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Technical Committee and is currently a member of the IAF Astrodynamics Technical Committee and the AAS Space Flight Mechanics Technical Committee. He is an Associate Fellow of AIAA, senior member of AAS and IEEE, and Associate Editor for the Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics and The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences.
Publications
See a list of Prof. Ulrich’s publications here.
Selected Awards and Recognition
Associate Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (2024)
Research Achievement Award, Carleton University (2020)
Early Researcher Award, Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade (2019)
Excellent Reviewer, AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics (2011, 2015-17, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025)
NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship (2013)
Senate Medal for Outstanding Achievement at the PhD Level, Carleton University (2012)
E.Y. and J.W. Research Award in Mechanical/Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University (2011)
NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (2009-2012)
Leonardo Da Vinci Medal, Université de Sherbrooke (2006)
NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship (2006)
Professional Activities
Editorial Positions
Associate Editor, The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences (since 2021)
Associate Editor, American Control Conference (since 2015)
Associate Editor, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (2019, 2020)
Technical Area Chair (Space Robotics), AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference (since 2017)
Program Committee Membership
Publication Chair, American Control Conference (2024)
20th IFAC Symposium on Automatic Control in Aerospace (2016)
Technical Committee Memberships
AAS Space Flight Mechanics Technical Committee
AIAA Space Automation and Robotics Technical Committee
IFAC Technical Committee on Adaptive and Learning Systems
Session Chair/Co-Chair
AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference
IEEE Conference on Decision and Control
American Control Conference
IFAC World Congress
CASI Conference on Astronautics
Journal Reviewer
AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics
Acta Astronautica
The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences
IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology
IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Control Engineering Practice
International Journal of Advanced Robotics
Aerospace Science and Technology
Robotica
Mechanism and Machine Theory
Advances in Space Research
Canadian Aeronautics and Space Journal
Other Committees
Scientific Committee Evaluator, Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Québec
Aerospace Engineering Program Evaluator, Engineers Canada – Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board
Member, IFAC Canada – Board of Directors
Reviewer, NSERC Discovery Grant Program
Reviewer, U.S. National Science Foundation