Benjamin Hockman

Ph.D. Candidate
Stanford University
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
496 Lomita Mall, Room 009
Stanford, CA 94305

Phone:
Email:

(302) 379 6645

bhockman@stanford.edu

Biosketch
Benjamin Hockman is a Ph.D. candidate in the Mechanical Engineering Dept. at Stanford University,
where he works with Professor Marco Pavone in the Autonomous Systems Laboratory (in the Aeronautics
and Astronautics Dept.) to develop novel autonomous rovers for exploring some of the most extreme
environments in the Solar System. Before joining Stanford, he was an Undergraduate Researcher at the
Cooperative Robotics Laboratory at the University of Delaware, where he received his Bachelors degree
in Mechanical Engineering in 2013. Benjamins areas of expertise lie in the fields of controls and robotics.
His main research interests are in the development of methodologies for the analysis, design, and control
of autonomous systems, with an emphasis on autonomous rovers in extreme and uncertain environments.
He is the recipient of an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, the Stanford School of Engineering Fellowship, and has received several best paper and presentation awards. His work has been reported in
many scientific publications as well as popular press outlets, including ABC, NBC, Forbes, the Economist,
Reuters, the Huffington Post, the Discovery Channel, and Popular Science.

Education
Stanford University (Stanford, CA), Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. Advisor: Prof. M. Pavone
(expected conferral: June 2018).
Stanford University (Stanford, CA), Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, 2015. Advisor: Prof.
M. Pavone, GPA: 4.09.
University of Delaware (Newark, DE), Honors Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Concentration, 2013, GPA: 4.0.

Employment
Graduate Research Assistant, Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA (Sept. 2013present).
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Delaware,
Newark, DE (June 2011May 2013).
Summer Research Intern, DuPont, Wilmington, DE (May 2012Aug. 2012).
Registration Coordinator (contractor), 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, St. Paul, MN (Sept. 2011May 2012).

Benjamin Hockman

Selected Awards
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2013present).
Best Student Paper Award, Field and Service Robotics Conference (2015).
Best Poster Award, NASA Exploration Science Forum (2015).
Best Student Presentation Award, Stanford Mechanical Engineering Conference (2015).
Stanford School of Engineering Fellowship (20132015).
University of Delaware Scholar (20092013).
W. Francis Lindell Mechanical Engineering Award to the Distinguished Senior (2013).
Best Senior Design Project (2012)
Tau Beta Pi Scholarship (2012).
W. Francis Lindell Mechanical Engineering Award to the Distinguished Junior (2012).
Mechanical Engineering Alumni Award to an Outstanding Sophomore (2011).
General Honors Award (2011).
Ralph M. & Sarah Joe Newman Scholarship (2011).
Slocomb Engineering Scholarship (2011).
Michael C. Ferguson Achievement Award (2009).

Selected Grant Proposals

Student Contributor, Assistive Free-Flyers with Gecko-Inspired Adhesive Appendages for Automated Logistics in Space, NASA Early Stage Innovation, $500,000 (2015), PI: M. Cutkosky.
Student Contributor, Spacecraft/Rover Hybrids for the Exploration of Small Solar System Bodies,
Phase II, NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program, $500,000 (2014), PI: M. Pavone.
Student Contributor, Validating Microgravity Mobility Models for Hopping/Tumbling Robots, NASA
Announcement of Flight Opportunities, $250,000 (2014), PI: M. Pavone.

Invited Talks and Presentations

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Stockholm, Sweden (May 2016)
NASA Tech Day on the Hill, Capitol Hill, Washington D.C. (Apr. 2016).
Interplanetary Small Satellite Conference, California Institute of Technology (Apr. 2016).
Stanford Mechanical Engineering Conference, Best Student Presentation (May 2016, May 2015).
NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Symposium, EMP Museum (Oct. 2015), NASA Kennedy
Space Center (Jan. 2015).
Bay Area Robotics Symposium, University of California Berkeley (Oct. 2015).
NIAC Phase II Midterm Review, NASA Headquarters (Aug. 2015)
Field and Service Robotics Conference, University of Toronto (Jun. 2015).
NASA Exploration Science Forum, NASA Ames (Jul. 2016, Jul. 2015).
Industrial Affiliates Meeting, Stanford University (Apr. 2015).
Stanford Robotics Seminar (Nov. 2014)

Benjamin Hockman

Collaborators
Collaborators in preceding 48 months: R. Allen (Stanford), A. Bylard (Stanford), J. Castillo (JPL),
Y. L. Chow (Stanford), M. Cutkosky (Stanford), M. Estrada (Stanford), A. Frick (JPL), J. Hoffman
(MIT), B. Ichter (Stanford), M. Kochenderfer (Stanford), A. Koenig (Stanford), I. Nesnas (JPL), R.
Reid (JPL), F. Rossi (Stanford), E. Schmerling (Stanford), S. Singh (Stanford), J. Starek (Stanford), J.
Sun (Delaware), H. Tanner (Delaware), R. Zhang (Stanford).
Graduate and Undergraduate Advisors: M. Pavone (Stanford), M. Cutkosky (Stanford), H. Tanner
(Univ. of Delaware)

In the News
Benjamin Hockmans work has been reported in many popular press outlets, including: ABC  NBC 
Forbes  Reuters  San Francisco Chronicle  IEEE Spectrum  Popular Science  Popular Mechanics 
Huffington Post  The Economist  The Times of India  Aerospace America  Universe Today  Discovery
Science.

Publications
Journal Articles
[J2] B. Hockman, A. Frick, R. Reid, I. A. D. Nesnas, and M. Pavone. Design, Control, and Experimentation
of Internally-Actuated Rovers for the Exploration of Low-Gravity Planetary Bodies. Journal of Field
Robotics, 2016. To Appear.
[J1] B. Hockman, J. Sun, and H. G. Tanner. Emulating Nuclear Emissions with a Pulsed Laser. IEEE
Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, 11(1), 317-323, 2014.

Refereed Conference Proceedings

[C3] B. Hockman, R. Reid, I. A. D. Nesnas, and M. Pavone. Experimental Methods for Mobility and
Surface Operations of Microgravity Robots. Int. Symposium on Experimental Robotics, Tokyo, Japan,
Oct. 2016. In Review.
[C2] M. A. Estrada, B. Hockman, A. Bylard, E. W. Hawkes, M. R. Cutkosky, and M. Pavone. Free-Flyer
Acquisition of Spinning Objects with Gecko-Inspired Adhesives. IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, Stockholm, Sweden, May 2016.
[C1] B. Hockman, A. Frick, I. A. D. Nesnas, and M. Pavone. Design, Control, and Experimentation of
Internally-Actuated Rovers for the Exploration of Low-Gravity Planetary Bodies. 10th Int. Conf. on
Field and Service Robots, Toronto, Canada, June 2015. Best Student Paper Award

Last updated: May 3, 2016

http://asl.stanford.edu/people/ben-hockman/