Federal Project Grant Award Summary

George Mason University received a $639,870 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Engineering (CFDA 47.041), effective September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2031. The award supports research to advance reliable and efficient knowledge transfer in robot learning by developing a dynamical systems approach to enable robots to transfer and reuse prior knowledge across new tasks, environments, and hardware platforms. The research addresses critical limitations in current learning-based robot control methods, which typically require extensive data collection and trial-and-error approaches—constraints that are particularly problematic in high-cost, time-sensitive, or safety-critical applications such as disaster response, healthcare support, environmental monitoring, manufacturing, logistics, and transportation. The project will develop formal methods to model knowledge transfer as a principled dynamical system and introduce structural modularization approaches to analyze and regulate transfer behavior.

In addition to research outcomes, the award integrates education and workforce development components designed to expand participation in control, robotics, and artificial intelligence fields. Deliverables include hands-on learning opportunities connecting foundational concepts to real-world robotic systems, a RoboArt program targeting K-8 student engagement in creative robot design, research experiences for high school and undergraduate students, and new course materials preparing students for leadership roles in emerging technology sectors. The work will be conducted at George Mason University's Fairfax, Virginia campus.