Biography
Lauren Ervin is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the Florida International University in Miami, FL. She received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in August 2025, her Master's in Electrical Engineering in May 2025, and her Bachelor’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a minor in Mathematics in 2020 all from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL. Her research interests span the areas of mobile robotics, computer vision, and deep learning. Current focuses include robot simulation and learning, the design and modeling of spherical tensegrity robots, cable-driven manipulators, compliant microspines integrated into soft robots, and multi-modal semantic segmentation.
She received the Best Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) Soft Robotics for Space Applications workshop in 2025. In 2024, she was awarded the Engineering Council of Birmingham Electrical Engineering Graduate Student of the Year as well as received the NSF Impact: Redefining Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty (iREDEFINE) Professional Development Award. She has additionally received seven scholarships and fellowships from NASA, NSF, and UA.
Awards & Honors
- Best Paper Award at the IEEE ICRA Soft Robotics for Space Applications Workshop, 2025
- NASA Alabama Space Grant Consortium (ASGC) Fellowship Renewal #2, 2024-2025
- Engineering Council of Birmingham (ECOB) Electrical Engineering Graduate Student of the Year, 2024
- NSF Impact: Redefining Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty (iREDEFINE) Award, 2024
- NSF Broadening Participation (BPart) Travel Fellowship, 2023
- NASA Alabama Space Grant Consortium (ASGC) Fellowship Renewal #1, 2023-2024
- NASA Alabama Space Grant Consortium (ASGC) Fellowship, 2022-2023
Education
- Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, August 2025
- M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, May 2025
- B.S., Electrical Engineering with a Computer Option and Math Minor, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, May 2020