Rate My Professor Brittany Duncan

Brittany Duncan is the Ross McCollum Associate Professor in the School of Computing within the College of Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she also serves as Co-Director of the Nebraska Intelligent MoBile Unmanned Systems (NIMBUS) Lab. She earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Texas A&M University in 2015, focusing on field robotics and human-robot interaction as part of the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue, and a B.S. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2009. Duncan began her academic career at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in August 2015 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. She was promoted to Associate Professor in the School of Computing in August 2021 and appointed to the Ross McCollum Associate Professorship in July 2022. Her research specializes in human-robot interaction, particularly intuitive interactions with small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAVs), unmanned systems, gesture perception by drones, public perceptions of drone behaviors, and applications in disaster response and environmental monitoring. She has led extensive fieldwork, including a 2014 deployment to the SR-530 mudslide in Oso, Washington, and ongoing projects in Alaska and Costa Rica.

Duncan's contributions have earned her the NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award for studying novice user interactions with sUAVs, the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship from 2010 to 2015, the Best Paper Award at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in 2018, Best Paper Nomination at the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction in 2019, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering Excellence in Research Award in 2019. She was recognized as the NUtech Ventures 2023 Emerging Innovator of the Year and participated in leadership programs such as the Faculty Leadership in AI Research (FLAIR). Notable publications include "An ethical governor for constraining lethal action in an autonomous system" (2009), "Comfortable approach distance with small unmanned aerial vehicles" (2013), "Use of a small unmanned aerial system for the SR-530 mudslide incident near Oso, Washington" (2016), "Recognizing User Proficiency in Piloting Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (sUAV)" (IEEE RA-L, 2022), and "Predicting Visual Differentiability for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Gestures" (IEEE RA-L, 2022). Duncan holds editorial roles, including Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (Aerial and Field Robotics) since 2020, and has served on numerous program committees for major conferences like ACM/IEEE HRI, IEEE IROS, and IEEE ICRA, as well as university committees on diversity, curriculum, and UAS policy.