Posted on October 7, 2026 by Klesse College Staff
Electrical Engineering Department Chair Dr. Yongcan Cao was recently elected to the Class of 2027 Associate Fellows of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
Dr. Yongcan Cao
Electrical Engineering Department Chair Dr. Yongcan Cao was recently elected to the Class of 2027 Associate Fellows of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).
Associate Fellows of AIAA have accomplished or overseen original engineering or scientific work of outstanding merit or made outstanding contributions to aeronautics or astronautics. Cao’s primary research focuses on robots, artificial intelligence, autonomy, human-robot interaction, and multi-agent systems.
“The award means a lot to me because it is not an individual award for me but a reflection of my team, especially the students who worked tirelessly on both technical work and real-world experimentation and testing,” he said.
Cao, the Mary Lou Clarke Endowed Distinguished Professor, is also the director of the Unmanned Systems Lab (USL). Its mission is to advance the foundational understanding of robotic systems and their collaboration with humans.
"The core work of my group is centered around three thrusts: flying many drones without a central controller, enabling drones to learn from limited and noisy data with or without human inputs, and enhancing drone operation resiliency in contested environments,” Cao said. “Each thrust represents a case when an aircraft needs to perform well in real-world applications when decisions need to be made with limited or unreliable information."
He holds numerous leadership roles with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), serving as editorial board member and editor for several IEEE publications and chairing the IEEE Control Systems Society Technical Committee on Manufacturing Automation and Robotic Control. Cao was a Margie and Bill Klesse Faculty Fellow, holds the President’s Distinguished Achievement Award in Research, and the Excellence in Teaching and Service Award for the College of Engineering.
Cao is an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Summer Faculty Fellow and recipient of the National Research Council Research Associateship Award at the Air Force Research Lab.
"Recognitions like these are how a department or college builds a reputation externally,” he said. “When AIAA elevates a UT San Antonio faculty member, it signals to prospective students, to sponsors, and to the national research community that impactful aerospace and autonomy work is happening at Klesse. That matters when faculty and students build future together.”
— Klesse College Staff
