Monica Garcia

Title
Assistant Professor
Email
Department
Mechanical Engineering Department
College
College of Engineering

Areas of Expertise

Robotics, Autonomous Systems
Monica Garcia

Dr. Garcia is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at ERAU.  Dr. Garcia earned her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science from Duke University. After graduation, Dr. Garcia completed a post-doc at the University of Rochester before joining the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) as a contractor for the Vehicle Technology Directorate. In 2012, Dr. Garcia joined the staff at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), an independent non-profit research and development laboratory in San Antonio, TX.  During her tenure at SwRI, Dr. Garcia conducted research and development activities in the areas of robotics, unmanned systems, electromechanical and optical systems, energy harvesting and transfer, and access denial. Dr. Garcia’s primary research interests focus on robotics and unmanned systems in complex environments. She has led multiple projects and programs in this area including the “Unmanned Aerial System for Primary Containment Vessel Exploration” program that focused on evaluating the feasibility of using small, autonomous UAS to explore inside of the damaged containments at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan.  

At ERAU, Dr. Garcia has continued research and development activities in the areas or robotics and unmanned systems.  Dr. Garcia is currently an investigator, instructor, and advisor on several robotics’ activities including the development a quadruped test platform, the development of a robotic perception payload for indoor navigation, the development of a low-cost robot to assistant and monitor elderly individuals, and the development of shadow-based robot localization for autonomous robot operation in visually degraded environments.  

  • Ph.D. - Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University
  • Graduate Certificate in Biological and Biologically Inspired Materials, Duke University
  • B.S. - Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
  • ME 800: Dissertation
  • ME 700: Graduate Thesis
  • ME 407L: Prlmnry Dsgn Robotic Sys Lab
  • ME 407: Prlmnry Dsgn Robotic Sys W/Lab
  • ME 395D: Robotic Architecture
  • ME 437L: Sr Dsgn Robotic Systms Lab
  • ME 437: Sr Dsgn Robotic Systms w/lab

ME311 - Robotic Technologies for Unmanned Systems

ME395D - Robotic Architecture

ME402 - Robotic Arms

ME407/407L - Preliminary Design for Robotic Systems with Laboratory

ME437/437L - Senior Design for Robotic Systems with Laboratory

ME499 - Modern Tools for Robotic Applications

ME503 - Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles

ME540 - Mechanical Engineering Practicum (Faculty Advisor)

ME700 - Graduate Thesis

ME800 - Dissertation

UAS691 - Unmanned and Autonomous Systems Capstone Design Project

UAS692 - Unmanned and Autonomous Systems Capstone Design Project II