Ellis Thompson

I'm Ellis, a PhD student in Computer Science at The George Washington University. My research focus is in intelligent aviation systems. Currently, I am researching approaches to Strategic Deconfliction and Operational Volume (OV) generation for Urban Air Mobility (UAM). I am also engaged on a NASA system wide safety (SWS) project looking at predicting flight plan nonconformance of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) and larger eVTOLS, due to wind and battery degradation.

My other research interests are primarily in Machine Learning applications for trustworthy autonomous systems. I am particularly interested in Reinforcement Learning based approaches to these problems, and began looking into RL based solutions since my Undergraduates Degree. Broader research interests include Air Traffic Management (ATM)/ UAS Traffic Management (UTM), Computer Vision and Optimization.

I am also an aspiring pilot! While a lot of my work is centred around aviation and has application in air traffic management, it is all underpinned by a love for aviation. Until recently I had yet to start working towards my licenses, favouring my education, and securing a plan B the off chance I wasn't able to secure my goal. As of 2023 though I have begun preparing to take the first big step towards a pilot and have begun organising flight training for my CAA PPL. If you are interested, I have begun compiling a list of questions based on Volume 2 of "The Air Pilots Manual" which others can use by looking here!

Email: [email protected] | Mobile: +44 07538 334917 | Repos: Git Lab & Git Hub