Dr. Christopher Clark is the Director of Experiential Learning and Industry Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at New York University (NYU). Before joining NYU, he worked at Apple for 8 years where he lead research teams in the areas of robotics and autonomous systems. Clark also spent 17 years as a Professor at various institutions including Harvey Mudd College where he served as the Associate Dean of Research and Experiential Learning. Clark is a Fulbright Scholar and for the 2011–2012 academic year, he held the William R. Kenan, Jr. Visiting Professorship for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University. In 2004, he was a first hire at the startup company Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics), which revolutionized warehouse management via multi-robot systems.

A significant component of Dr. Clark’s research includes international field deployments of autonomous underwater robots in Costa Rica, Denmark, Malta, Sicily, and the Arctic. The goal of this work is to develop new robotics algorithms and systems to be used as tools for oceanographers, geologists, and archeologists. His most significant field research includes shipwreck search and mapping via Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) in the Mediterranean, and autonomous shark tracking and following of sharks via AUVs along the coasts of California and Costa Rica.

Dr. Clark earned his undergraduate degree in engineering physics from Queen’s University, Canada, a master’s in mechanical engineering from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in aeronautics and astronautics with a minor in computer science from Stanford University. Clark’s research areas include multi-robot systems, underwater robot systems, machine learning, control theory, intelligent vehicles, state estimation and motion planning. His industry experience includes work with autonomous vehicles and ML for manipulation.