Timothy Sands

Biography

Dr. Timothy Sands is on the engineering faculty at Cornell University since 2020, where his research and teaching focus on astronautical engineering and systems engineering. From 2010 through 2020, he was an executive and senior leader of both military postgraduate universities (the Air Force Institute of Technology and the Naval Postgraduate School respectively), serving sequentially as Chief Academic Officer, Associate Provost, Dean, Associate Dean, and research center Director in addition to serving as a Fellow of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He executed the DARPA Challenge for digital manufacturing analysis, correlation, and estimation (DMACE), investigating the science behind the burgeoning field of digital manufacturing.

During nearly three decades of active duty service in the U.S. Air Force, he performed space mission design and space experimentation for the Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program (STP) including the middle atmosphere high resolution spectrograph investigation (MAHRSI) flown in the pallet system on space shuttle mission STS-66; as well as the polar ozone and aerosol measurement (POAM) geophysical research mission flown on the French SPOT-4 satellite; and also the beryllium induced radiation experiment flown on Russian RESURS satellite. His other interesting space experiment missions include the polar orbiting geomagnetic survey flown on the defense meteorological satellite program; the remote atmospheric and ionospheric detection system on TIROS-J; and the solar wind interplanetary measurement flown on the NASA WIND satellite. He was the propulsion engineer of the Atlas space launch vehicle, the reliability engineer of the Centaur upper stage, and an electronic warfare engineer and operator, having flown over six-hundred hours in combat in four countries, being thrice decorated for single acts of combat gallantry and bravery in addition to other decorations for achievement and meritorious service.

His areas of academic expertise include space mission design; guidance, navigation, and control; estimation; adaption and learning; and nonlinear systems; and his minor fields include electrical engineering topics of electronic warfare and autonomous systems. His background represents a breadth of leadership experience in space experimentation across academia, the aerospace industry in general, and particularly the defense department. His research has been funded by DARPA, ONR, AFOSR, AFGSC, and AETC and has been awarded one shared patent in spacecraft attitude control.

Recognized for his teaching and mentorship at the Naval Postgraduate School and Air Force Institute of Technology, Dr. Sands remains broadly interested in social sciences disciplines of deterrence, command and control communications, and international relations as well as technical translation, particularly of engineering developments written in Chinese.

Research Interests

My career goal is to apply a broad background to the problems faced by the nation and the world, particularly emphasizing student growth and expanded critical thinking abilities. That broad background has merged into the initial expression of a method of deterministic artificial intelligence, where physics-based mathematics are used to establish self-awareness augmented by both simple and optimal learning methods, and the results enhance system autonomous robustness in the face of significant damage applied to electrical systems, mechanical systems, and complex systems such as global temperatures and sales of electric vehicles. In the near-term, I will emphasize application of my methods towards space robotics, electric power beaming from space, and robustness and recovery of electric circuits to the deleterious effects of electromagnetic pulse.

• Algorithms
• Artificial Intelligence
• Complex Systems, Network Science and Computation
• Nonlinear Dynamics
• Remote Sensing
• Robotics and Autonomy
• Satellite Systems
• Sensors and Actuators
• Space Science and Engineering