PI - Dr. Pryor is a Research Professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. (Full CV)
Mitch Pryor earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Southern Methodist University in 1993. After graduating, he taught math and science courses at St. James School in St. James, Maryland before returning to Texas. He completed his master’s and PhD degrees at The University of Texas at Austin with an emphasis on the modeling, simulation, and operation of redundant manipulators.
Since completing his doctoral degree, Pryor has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Electrical and Computer Science and conducted research in applied robotics and automation with an emphasis on robotics in hazardous environments including nuclear, energy, and defense. He has worked for numerous research sponsors including Army Futures Command, NASA, DARPA, DOE-EM, Idaho National Lab, Los Alamos National Lab, Oak Ridge National Lab, Savannah River National Lab, Y-12, and many industrial partners.
Dr. Pryor is a co-founder of the Nuclear & Applied Robotics Group and RAPID - an industry affiliate program supporting automation in the energy sector. Both are interdisciplinary research efforts to deploy robotics in hazardous, uncertain environments to perform manufacturing, material handling, mobile survey, mobile manipulation, and other tasks. He has been a member of ROS-Industrial, IEEE, ASME, PGE, and ANS Professional Societies. He served as chair of the executive committee of the ANS Robotics & Remotes Systems Division. Dr. Pryor served as a Fulbright Specialist in 2018 and a Fulbright Scholar in 2023.
