Mae Seto

Education

• BASc (Engineering Physics - Electrical Option), University of British Columbia, 1987
• MASc (Engineering Physics), University of British Columbia, 1990
• PhD (Mechanical Engineering - Aerodynamics and Control), University of British Columbia, 1996
• NSERC Postdoctoral Industrial Research Fellow (1996 - 1998)

Biography

Dr. Seto worked in private industry (ISE Research Ltd., Pt. Coquitlam, Canada) for six years on research and development projects related to autonomous underwater vehicles. Then, Dr. Seto moved to Nova Scotia to work as a defence scientist for Defence R&D Canada. She joined the Dalhousie Department of Mechanical Engineering as an Associate Professor in 2017. Dr. Seto is registered in Nova Scotia as a Professional Engineer (PEng).

Research interests

The Intelligent Systems Laboratory is multi-disciplinary and works at the intersection of engineering (electrical, mechanical) and computer science to enable autonomous systems to operate at long ranges from an operator for extended durations in harsh and dynamic environments like oceans and space.  This is achieved by developing and using tools that include adaptive deliberation, machine learning, decision-making, optimization, autonomous mission-planning, etc.  

Areas of research include but are not limited to:

• autonomy for robotic systems in harsh and difficult environments
• localization and mapping
• multi-robot collaboration
• fault tolerance
• autonomous agents for autonomous vehicles
• embedded programming 
• vehicle dynamics and control
• above and below water acoustics

The applications and partners are military, scientific and commercial

Current Courses

• MECH 3900 - Systems I
• MECH 4640 - Robotics
• MECH 6905 / CSCI 6511 - Autonomous Robotics
• ECED 6575 - Underwater Acoustic Engineering
  

Professional activities

• American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Professional Engineers Nova Scotia