Rate My Professor Airlie Chapman

Professor Airlie Chapman serves as Professor in Mechatronics in the Department of Mechanical Engineering within the Melbourne School of Engineering at the University of Melbourne. She received her Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics and M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 2013. Earlier, she obtained her M.Eng. in Robotics, B.Eng. in Aeronautics and Space, and B.Sc. in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Sydney, with M.S. and B.S. degrees awarded in 2008 and 2006, respectively. In 2017, she became the first woman appointed as Mechatronics lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Melbourne, advancing to her current professorial role. Chapman has collaborated with leading aerospace organizations including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Her research specializes in multi-agent dynamics, networked dynamic systems, data-driven control, and graph theory, applied to robotics, aerospace systems, and autonomous technologies such as robotic swarms. She authored the book Semi-Autonomous Networks, published by Springer in 2015, and co-authored the paper “Online distributed convex optimization on dynamic networks” in IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control in 2016. Chapman holds positions including Deputy Director of the Melbourne Space Lab, contributing to projects like the SpIRIT satellite and Roo-ver lunar rover thermal management. She has earned prestigious awards: two Amelia Earhart Fellowships, College of Engineering Dean’s Fellowship and Outstanding Female Engineer Award at the University of Washington, Springer Thesis Prize for her PhD thesis, L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship, and the 2022 Young Tall Poppy Science Award for her autonomous robotics research. A STEM education advocate, she supports women and rural/remote students through programs like Young Women in Science and Girls in Science. Her work has appeared in media such as The Age, Herald Sun, Vogue Australia, ABC Radio, and ABC News Breakfast.