# Adam Haroon [aharoon@iastate.edu](mailto:aharoon@iastate.edu) · Ames, IA · [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamharoon) · [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PzxLhRUAAAAJ&hl=en) · [GitHub](https://github.com/oadamharoon) Undergraduate researcher in **trustworthy perception and control for autonomous systems**: diagnosing hidden failures in learned 3D perception and building reinforcement-learning controllers with run-time safety guarantees. --- ## Education ### B.S. Applied Computer Science and Mathematics, Honors | Aug 2023 – May 2027 #### Iowa State University - Admitted with junior standing after completing two associate degrees by high school graduation. - Relevant coursework: Machine Learning, Machine Vision, Computational Perception, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Probability and Statistics. --- ## Research Experience ### NREIP Robotics Intern | May 2026 – Aug 2026 #### U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Distributed Autonomous Systems Group - Investigating scalable frameworks for cooperative multi-agent reinforcement learning for high-altitude balloon systems. - Designed a communication-efficient reinforcement learning framework that jointly learns control and sampling time under a Lyapunov run-time assurance shield, achieving **3.51× fewer control updates** than classical methods, under Dr. Rodríguez-Seda. ### Reinforcement Learning Undergraduate Research Assistant | Aug 2024 – Present #### Iowa State University, VRAC - Unifying dynamical-systems and control theory to enforce hard safety and efficiency guarantees within deep-RL robotic control architectures, under Dr. Cody Fleming. - Developing a deep-RL policy for the safe, efficient, and equitable traversal of multi-agent urban air vessels through a simulated Austin, TX skyline using Gymnasium. ### NREIP Robotics Intern | May 2025 – Dec 2025 #### U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Distributed Autonomous Systems Group - Developed simulation environments, path-planning, and optimization algorithms for multi-agent teams and swarms of autonomous high-altitude balloons in complex dynamic flow fields. ### NSIN X-Force Research Fellow | Jun 2024 – Aug 2024 #### U.S. Department of Defense, DEVCOM Soldier Center - Engineered a method to extract a 4D human-body reconstruction rigged to SMPL from arbitrarily posed 3D body scans for PPE fit evaluation, under Dr. Peng Li, using OpenGL, AlphaPose, and Open3D's ICP. ### Computer Vision and Robotics Undergraduate Research Assistant | Aug 2023 – Jul 2024 #### Iowa State University, VRAC - Built a fully configurable mobile robotic scanning-system digital twin for rapid 3D reconstruction of large-scale warehouse environments using NVIDIA Isaac Sim, ROS2 Humble, and Open3D's ICP, under Dr. Beiwen Li. - Established fringe projection profilometry active imaging within NVIDIA Isaac Sim, with automatic capture of an 18-step phase-shifted scan set in 1.4 seconds, intrinsic calibration matrices, and varied calibration-board pose scans. ### Computer Vision and Robotics Student Research Assistant | Oct 2022 – Present #### Drake University - Establishing a robotics-based method for real-time prevention of fatigue-induced postural injury using unsupervised time-series chain discovery and pose landmark detection, under Dr. Alimoor Reza. ### NSF CSSI Data-Driven Engineering Research Intern | May 2023 – Aug 2023 #### Iowa State University - Developed an algorithm in R to induce controlled missing-value increases in the UCI air-quality dataset to evaluate the limits of fractional hot-deck imputation for large-scale data curation, under Dr. In-Ho Cho. --- ## Work Experience ### Renewable Energy Project Development Engineering Intern | Feb 2024 – May 2024 #### MidAmerican Energy Company - Led a technoeconomic market survey of energy-storage systems, resulting in adoption of 5 new BESS evaluation methodologies. ### Electric Utility Distribution Engineering Intern | Jun 2022 – Aug 2022 #### MidAmerican Energy Company - Directed 2 research enterprises on smart sensor-based fault detection for streetlamp energy efficiency. --- ## Publications *† denotes equal authorship. Full list with BibTeX on the [Publications](publications.html) page.* - **Adam Haroon**, E. J. Rodríguez-Seda, C. Fleming, T. Schuler. "Learning When to Act: Communication-Efficient Reinforcement Learning via Run-Time Assurance." *Under review, NeurIPS 2026.* - **Adam Haroon†**, A. Lakshman S.†, B. Balasubramaniam, B. Li. "VIRTUS-FPP: Virtual Sensor Modeling for Fringe Projection Profilometry in NVIDIA Isaac Sim." *IEEE Sensors Journal (accepted, in press) [Q1, IF 4.5].* - **Adam Haroon**, T. Schuler. "Distributed Area Coverage with High Altitude Balloons Using Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning." *2026 IEEE Aerospace Conference.* doi: 10.1109/AERO66936.2026.11520127 - **Adam Haroon**, A. Lakshman S., C. Fleming, B. Li. "Diagnosing Shape-Prior Shortcuts in Long-Range Single-Shot FPP." *Under review, Elsevier Optics & Laser Technology.* - **Adam Haroon**, C. Fleming, B. Li. "Repairing Shape-Prior Shortcuts in Long-Range Single-Shot FPP." *Under review, Elsevier Optics & Laser Technology.* - **Adam Haroon**, C. Fleming, B. Li. "Differentiable Self-Calibration for Single-Shot Fringe Projection Profilometry with Uncertainty Propagation." *Under review, Elsevier Optics and Lasers in Engineering.* - **Adam Haroon**, C. Fleming, B. Li. "Differentiable Pattern Design for Identifiable Self-Calibration in Single-Shot Fringe Projection Profilometry." *Under review, Elsevier Optics and Lasers in Engineering.* - N. Subedi, **Adam Haroon**, S. TK Tetteh, P. Koirala, C. Fleming, S. Sarkar. "LCLA: Language-Conditioned Latent Alignment for Vision-Language Navigation." *Under review, CoRL 2026.* - **Adam Haroon**, E. J. Rodríguez-Seda, T. Schuler, C. Fleming. "Inverting Self-Triggered Control: Adversarial Reinforcement Learning for Sparse Denial-of-Service Attacks." *In preparation, ACC 2027.* - **Adam Haroon**, C. Fleming. "State-Conditioned Safe Offline Preference-Based Reinforcement Learning." *In preparation, ICLR 2027.* - A. Lakshman S., **Adam Haroon**, I. F. Shihab, M. B. Shahid, A. Balu, C. Fleming, B. Li, A. Pawar. "CONFORM: Continuous Normalizing Flows for Surface Roughness Measurement of Curved Surfaces." *In preparation, Springer Nature Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing.* - A.-F. Khan†, **Adam Haroon†**, C. Fleming. "Graph-Encoded Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Zero-Shot Scalable UAS Conflict Resolution." *Under review, AIAA SciTech 2027.* - A. Lakshman S.†, **Adam Haroon†**, B. Li. "Comprehensive Machine Learning Benchmarking for Fringe Projection Profilometry with Photorealistic Synthetic Data." *Proc. SPIE 13904, Photonics West 2026.* doi: 10.1117/12.3082257 - A.-F. Khan, **Adam Haroon**, C. Fleming. "Urban Nav: A Comprehensive Simulation Framework for Urban Air Mobility Research." *2026 IEEE Aerospace Conference.* doi: 10.1109/AERO66936.2026.11519889 - N. Subedi†, **Adam Haroon†**, S. Ganguly, S. TK Tetteh, P. Koirala, C. Fleming, S. Sarkar. "Can Pretrained Vision-Language Embeddings Alone Guide Robot Navigation?" *RSS 2025 Workshop on Robot Planning in the Era of Foundation Models.* [arXiv:2506.14507](https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14507) - **Adam Haroon**, A. Lakshman S., M. Mundy, B. Li. "Autonomous Robotic 3D Scanning for Smart Factory Planning." *Proc. SPIE 13038, SPIE DCS 2024.* doi: 10.1117/12.3014169 - **Adam Haroon**, W. Carlyon, F. Cantu, K. N. Ackaah-Gyasi, L. Zhang, M. A. Reza. "Unsupervised Human Fatigue Expression Discovery via Time Series Chain." *SIAM SDM24 Workshop on Data Science for Smart Manufacturing and Healthcare.* --- ## Presentations - "Distributed Area Coverage with High-Altitude Balloons Using Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning." *Oral presentation, IEEE Aerospace Conference 2026* (11 Mar 2026). - "Urban Nav: A Comprehensive Simulation Framework for Urban Air Mobility Research." *Oral presentation, IEEE Aerospace Conference 2026* (11 Mar 2026). - "Comprehensive Machine Learning Benchmarking for Fringe Projection Profilometry with Photorealistic Synthetic Data." With A. Lakshman S. (equal contribution). *Oral presentation, SPIE Photonics West 2026* (19 Jan 2026). - "Distributed Area Coverage with High-Altitude Balloons: Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning and an Insight on Research at NRL." *Invited oral presentation, Iowa State University Navy Engineering Analytics Program* (13 Oct 2025). - "Cross-Domain Robotic Intelligence: From Factory Floors to the Stratosphere." *Invited poster presentation, Iowa State University College of Engineering Dean's External Advisory Board Meeting* (18 Sep 2025). - "Mesh2SMPL: End-to-End Human Body Modeling and Reflections on Research at DEVCOM Soldier Center." *Invited oral presentation, Iowa State University Navy Engineering Analytics Program* (29 Oct 2024). - "Reinforcement Learning for Intelligent Robotics: Challenges, Opportunities, and Ongoing Research at Iowa State University." With P. Koirala and N. Subedi. *Invited oral presentation, Iowa State University Robotics Club* (10 Oct 2024). - "Autonomous Robotic 3D Scanning for Smart Factory Planning." *Oral presentation, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing 2024* (25 Apr 2024). - "Unsupervised Human Fatigue Expression Discovery via Time Series Chain." *Poster presentation, Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Central Plains, Lamoni, Iowa* (6 Apr 2024). - "Autonomous Robotic 3D Scanning for Smart Factory Planning." *Oral presentation, Iowa State University Undergraduate Research Symposium* (Spring 2024). - "Autonomous Robotic 3D Scanning for Smart Factory Planning." With M. Mundy and A. Lakshman S. *Poster presentation, Iowa State University VRAC 20th Anniversary Graduate Student Poster Competition* (11 Apr 2024). - "Human Pose Classification for Better Ergonomics." With S. Chaudhry. *Poster presentation, Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Central Plains, Overland Park, Kansas* (22 Apr 2023). --- ## Honors & Awards - SPIE Photonics West Student Conference Support Grant ($700), Nov 2025. - Navy Engineering Analytics Program Student Research Internship Grant ($5,000), Aug 2025. - NASA Iowa Space Grant Consortium Undergraduate Research Scholarship ($5,000), Jul 2025. - Boeing Undergraduate Research Fellowship ($3,600), Jun 2024. - Navy Engineering Analytics Program Scholarship ($6,000), Aug 2024. - Andrea L. Schroder Engineering Scholarship ($2,375), Aug 2024. - Navy Engineering Analytics Program Student Research Internship Grant ($5,000), Jun 2024. - 7x24 Exchange – Silicon Prairie Chapter Scholarship for Excellence in STEM ($4,000), Apr 2024. - 3rd place, quality of research, VRAC 20th Anniversary Graduate Student Poster Competition, Apr 2024. - 3rd place, best research poster, Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Central Plains, Apr 2024. - First-Year Honors Mentor Program Research Grant ($300), Mar 2024. - Honors Student Enrichment Conference Travel Grant ($300), Mar 2024. - Engineering Incoming Freshman and Leadership Through Engineering Academic Diversity Award, Aug 2023. --- ## Leadership & Mentoring ### Undergraduate Research Ambassador | Aug 2024 – Present #### Iowa State University - Bolstering undergraduate research involvement and innovation on campus by sharing experiences, giving presentations, and mentoring underclassmen across disciplines. --- ## Skills - **Languages:** Python and OpenCV (intermediate), MATLAB (intermediate), C++ (familiar), R (familiar) - **Robotics & simulation:** ROS2, NVIDIA Isaac Sim (proficient), Gymnasium, Open3D