Stephen L. Smith, PEng

Stephen L. Smith is a Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, the Canada Research Chair in Autonomous Systems, and the Director of the Autonomous Systems Laboratory. He is a licensed Professional Engineer (PEng) by the Professional Engineers Ontario and is a Senior Member of the IEEE. He is currently an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems and the Co-chair the 30th IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2021). Previously he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT.

Professor Smith's research group focuses on control, learning, and optimization for autonomous systems and robotics. Through this research he collaborates with several industrial partners in robotics and transportation systems and have designed control, optimization, and autonomy for improving efficiency in applications including future urban mobility systems, underwater ocean monitoring, and industrial robotic cleaning.

• Autonomous systems
• Robotics
• Artificial intelligence
• Human-robot interaction
• Multi-robot systems
• Machine learning
• Control theory
• Distributed and coordinated control
• Optimization
• Autonomous vehicles
• Intelligent transportation systems

• 2009, Doctorate Mechanical Engineering, University of California, U.S.A
• 2005, Master of Applied Science Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Canada
• 2003, Bachelor of Applied Science Engineering Physics, Queen's University, Canada

• 2016 Flexible and Adaptive Motion Planning for Multi-Robot Teams
• 2016 Outstanding Performance Award in Faculty of Engineering
• 2017 Canada Research Chair in Autonomous Systems

• ECE 380 - Analog Control Systems
  • Taught in 2021
• ECE 406 - Algorithm Design and Analysis
  • Taught in 2020, 2022
• ECE 686 - Filtering and Control of Stochastic Linear Systems
  • Taught in 2020, 2021, 2024, 2025
• MTE 481 - Mechatronics Engineering Design Project
  • Taught in 2023
• MTE 482 - Mechatronics Engineering Project
  • Taught in 2024

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Three professors named to Canada Research Chairs