People

We value diligent effort, with a healthy dose of fun. If you have an interest in our work, we will find a place for you to apply your knowledge and background.

Faculty

Dr. Mario Harper founded the DIRECT lab in 2021. He has experience across a swath of domains including Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Power Systems, Financial Technologies, and pretty much everything else. Mario usually wears a beret, which the photo above unfortunately fails to capture.

Contact: mario.harper@usu.edu

Staff

Max Ramsdell has graduated from Utah State with a Masters in Computer Science and continues to support our lab in a staff capacity. Max serves as the Project Manager and primary Platform Developer for the lab’s power electronics and electrified transportation efforts.

interests: Digital Twinning, Embedded Devices, and Platform Development

fun fact: Max makes artisan homemade vinega0r in his closet.

contact: max.ramsdell@usu.edu

PhD Students

Isaac Peterson is pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering. Isaac focuses on simulation development utilizing IsaacSim/IsaacLab to explore reinforcement learning applied to robots in a simulation environment and bridging the sim-to-real gap. In Isaac’s free time he plays super smash.

interests: reinforcement learning and how it can be applied in research applications.

fun fact: Isaac can unicycle

Contact: isaac.peterson@usu.edu

Chandler Justice is probably doing a PhD in Electric Engineering. Chandler focuses on robot swarming and advancements in Multi-agent robot autonomy. Chandler also works on electrified transportation projects pertaining to energy systems and electric aviation.

interests: reinforcement learning, vehicles, rock climbing, hiking

fun fact: Chandler is the 2nd fastest typist in the lab (120 WPM).

contact: chandler.justice@usu.edu

Jacob Morrey is pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering while working on research in neuromorphic machine learning, edge computing, and autonomous systems.

interests: AI/ML, Robotics, Basketball, Guitar

fun fact: Jacob would like you to know that there are over 11,000 different species of ant

Master’s Students

Nathan Nelson is completing a Master’s in Data Science and works on Neomorphic computer vision and is a post-hoc technical recruiter.

interests: Neomorphic vision processing, high-speed decision making, and catching bullets with robots.

fun fact: Nate is the best cook (self attributed), second-best Smash Bros player (self attributed), and third-worst programmer in the lab (self attributed).

contact: n.w.nelson@usu.edu

Ishara Mawelle Kankanamge is pursuing an MSc in Data Science and works on full stack development and MLOps in the lab.

interests: Building systems and data science.

fun fact: Ishara is good at cooking!

Undergraduate Students

Maggie Michelsen is working on a Bachelors in Computer Engineering. Maggie works on compute-limited spacecraft systems and implementing state-of-the-art algorithms and prediction models.

interests: video games, reading, and tinkering with random electronic devices.

fun fact: served in many roles in USU IEEE’s student branch, including president and conference chair. prefers to play stardew valley on an old crt monitor when given the option.

contact: maggie.michelsen@usu.edu

Nash Bryce is actively willing a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering. Nash works on the activity intelligence team focusing on collecting data for airplane positions and building tools to parse that data into useable context for LLMs.

interests: automation, embedded systems, horticulture, videogames, and camping.

fun fact: Nash has a mini green house and a dozen different plant species.

contact: A02424834@usu.edu

David Templeton is gunning for a Bachelors in Computer Science and operates as a software engineer in the Activity Intelligence group.

interests: computers, games, religion, and procrastinating.

fun fact: David played the tuba in high school.

contact: Templeton.Templeton@usu.edu

Daxton Broadhead is doing everything he can to get a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering. Daxton works under the activity intelligence group doing software development.

interests: running, skiing, gaming, and shrek

fun fact: The background picture on Daxton’s computer is of Big Chungus

contact: a02295257@aggies.usu.edu

Ammon Hunter is going for gold in his pursuit of a Bachelors in Computer Science. Ammon currently focuses on iterating on SLAM algorithms for drones and is involved in multi-agent SLAM project currently in progress.

interests: Robots, dones, AI

fun fact: Ammon enjoys competing at rock climbing competitions (bouldering)

contact: a02356342@usu.edu

Michael Harris is chasing a Bachelors in Human Experience Design and Interaction. His recent work has been on activity intelligence where he has excelled at reading documentation and doing mean things to GPUs. Lately he has taken an interest in trains.

interests: Robotics, sensors, building new weird things

fun fact: He is decent at knitting

Ryan Austin is pursuing a Bachelors in Computer Science and works on software engineering for intelligent systems.

interests: Magic: The Gathering and tanks.

fun fact: Ryan can do a variety of pretty good voice impressions.

Joel Eppich is a junior pursuing a Bachelors in Computer Engineering and works on neuromorphic computing research in the lab.

interests: Gaming, cars, working out, and bowling.

fun fact: Nokia used to sell toilet paper before making phones.

Alumni

Christopher Allred completed his PhD in Computer Science in December 2025. His research focused on Multi-agent systems, reinforcement learning, and ballistic motions of legged robots. Christopher now works at Alpha-Z as a roboticist.

interests: Robotic Intelligence, Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning, Legged Robotics, and Simulation

fun fact: Christopher loves watermelon

contact: christopher.allred@usu.edu

Zac Maughan Completed his Bachelors in Computer Engineering in May 2026. Zac played a “flex” role in the lab and filled in for research projects as needed including CARLA, DREAMS, and the Rosbots (rovers). Zac now works as a Software Engineer at OrthoSelect.

interests: The outdoors, sports/games, learning everything.

fun fact: Zac is the fastest man in the lab! (As of 2025)

Kyler Nelson completed his Master’s in Computer Science while working on on satellite ship detection and the CARLA simulation project at ASPIRE.

interests: Machine Learning, Reinforcement Learning, decision-making under uncertainty, robotics, and high-performance computing.

fun fact: Kyler started playing Pickleball before its COVID popularity boom and occasionally teaches piano students.

Kyler now works as a Software Engineer at Adobe on the Adobe Analytics team, with recent work focused on semantic search and vector embeddings.