PhD Candidate @ University of Washington
she / her / elle
pavlasek [at] uw [dot] edu
I am currently a PhD candidate in the department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington. I am a member of the Autonomous Controls Lab supervised by Prof. Behçet Açıkmeşe.
My PhD research focuses on trajectory optimization for aerospace systems. In particular, I work on system modelling using physics-based models, nonconvex optimization using sequential convex programming, and multi-objective optimization.
I hold a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University. I was a member of the DECAR Systems Group supervised by Prof. James Forbes. My Master's thesis focusses on navigation using local magnetic fields and their gradients.
September 2025: Earned candidacy by passing my general exam!
Here are some of my recent, representative publications and projects. For all my papers, see my publications page or my Google Scholar.
Satellites in geostationary Earth orbit undergo uncontrolled periods of several weeks. We propose a method based on sequential convex programming to plan their trajectories during these periods. This work is done in collaboration with Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories.
ACC '25 Paper
This work focuses on incorporation ordered constraints into trajectory optimization problems.
ACC '24 Paper
This work presents an Invariant Extended Kalman Filter (IEKF) that fuses measurements from two GPS receivers to improve state estimation accuracy.
IROS '21 Paper