Ayush Rai earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2019 from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. At Purdue University’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, he earned his master’s degree in 2020 and expects to complete his PhD in August 2025. His research focuses on control and learning methodologies for autonomous systems with a specific focus on distributed cooperation strategies. He had three papers accepted for presentation at the Conference on Control and Decision (CDC) 2023 in Singapore and is scheduled to present at the American Control Conference (ACC) 2024 in Canada and CDC 2024 in Italy. Additionally, he has had three first-author journal papers accepted, with two others currently under review. Recently, he received the prestigious Dean’s Teaching Fellowship and will be teaching a course as an instructor in Fall 2024. In his future endeavors, he hopes to develop new control and learning frameworks and innovative algorithms that have practical applications and the potential to advance state-of-the-art methodologies. Having observed the challenges arising from significant variances in curricula across different countries and the distinctive needs of students from diverse backgrounds, he is committed to providing personalized assistance to meet specific needs. Rai also aims to develop innovative curricula and instructional materials that not only offer students a solid theoretical foundation but also inspire them to explore real-world problems from an application perspective.