Ethan Brown

Ethan Brown’s fascination with robotics began in elementary school, when his father gifted him an Arduino microcontroller. “I discovered that I was deeply motivated by the ability to make quick software changes and immediately see their effects in the physical world,” he recalls. That spark led him through FIRST Robotics in high school and on to Purdue University, where he studied mechanical engineering and conducted agricultural robotics research. By early 2023, the College of Engineering rolled out a new structure for Purdue AI Racing. “He brought me onto the team,” Brown says of his advisor Dr. Greg Shaver, recalling how he eventually rose to become technical lead, helping the team achieve a 135 mph overtake at LVMS.

Brown recently shifted focus to his PhD work on localization in GPS-denied environments—vital for both racetracks and real-world settings. He’s also exploring control research at the very edge of vehicle performance. Believing we’re at “an explosive moment for AI,” Brown sees the future in bridging digital breakthroughs to the physical realm while ensuring safety. “As robotics researchers, our goal is to close the gap between these uncertain algorithms and the high standards of physical reliability,” he says, underscoring the high stakes and limitless possibilities of AI’s next frontier.