Steve McGuire
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Advisor, HARE Lab
Morgan Masters
Ph.D Candidate, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Matt Rochford
Ph.D Candidate, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Adam Korycki
Graduate Student, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Adam arrived at UCSC as a Freshman in Fall 2018 and immediately fell in love with the beauty of the campus. Through hard work he earned his B.S. in Computer Engineering in 2022, and having resonated with the university’s environmental emphasis he was inspired to continue at UCSC as a graduate student to study the cross section of forest ecology and autonomous field robotics. His current work involves development of a custom autonomous, sensor-driven system on the B1 Unitree Robot Dog platform to augment and enhance the FERP (Forest Ecology Research Plot) dataset. As Adam puts it: “Nothing beats driving robots around groves of old growth redwoods!”
Outside of the lab, Adam enjoys sport climbing and deep powder skiing.
Luca Altaffer
Graduate Student, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Luca is passionate about anything that flies: rockets, airplanes, drones, you name it. Earning his B.S at UCSC in Applied Physics in 2022, Luca decided to continue at UCSC in a new role: researching autonomous flight control and navigation using image based detection methods. He is currently working on developing an aerial data labeling system meant to construct annotated image datasets to train and apply deep computer vision. Among his responsibilities, Luca is also an FAA-certified UAS pilot and claims “The drone crashed itself. I was just holding the controller.”
Outside of the lab you can find Luca on the soccer field.
Nick Kuipers
Undergraduate Student, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
California born and raised, Nick is an Electrical Engineering undergraduate at UCSC. He is currently conducting research on autonomous localization using Ultra-Wideband (UWB) systems, serves as the lab safety officer, and manages the HARE Lab website. He is also an FAA-certified UAS drone pilot with tens of hours of flight experience with the DJI Mavic 2, Mavic 3, and most notably the lab’s DJI Mavic 300 quadcopter drone (Astro). Prior to his work at the university Nick served as a Field Radio Operator in the United States Marine Corps from 2015 – 2019, leaving the service as a Sergeant. This experience serves as the foundation from which he launched his path into Electrical and Robotics Engineering, as well as his passion for fitness and bodybuilding. If Nick were asked to describe himself in a sentence it would be “I lift heavy circles and play with robots”
Outside of the lab you can find Nick at the gym.
Connor Guzikowski
Undergraduate Student, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
