James Baxter
Graduate Student Instructor
Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolJames Baxter is an autonomous systems researcher and engineer with eight years of hands-on experience prototyping hardware and software for mobile robots, from perception and drive-by-wire integration to control and state estimation. He completed a Mechanical Engineering BS at Purdue with a CS minor, led student robotics programs that built real-world competitive systems, and transitioned into graduate research at the University of Michigan focusing on estimation, planning, and control for off-road autonomy. His industry work includes ADAS research at Ford—where he developed objective radar-to-LiDAR evaluation metrics and integrated prototype software into an F-150—and multiple internships building pose estimation, SLAM improvements, and simulation environments for UAVs and UGVs. Comfortable across ROS, C++, embedded systems, and CI pipelines, he brings a rare combination of rapid prototyping fluency and rigorous research mindset. Notably, he has repeatedly bridged theory and practice by shipping vehicle-integrated autonomy demos that validated algorithms on physical platforms.
8 years of coding experience
2 years of employment as a software developer
High School Diploma, High School Diploma at Pine-Richland High SchoolDoctor of Philosophy - PhD, Mechanical Engineering, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Mechanical Engineering at University of MichiganBachelor of Science - BS, Mechanical Engineering, Bachelor of Science - BS, Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University
Github Skills (41)
openai-gym10
ros10
rocket9
robotics9
python9
opencv9
docker9
robot9
autonomous-vehicles9
nodes9
localization8
reinforcement-learning8
nonlinear8
simulation7
emr7
Programming languages (8)
Github contributions (5)
purdue-arc/arc_tutorials
Feb 2020 - Oct 2021
Tutorials and example code designed to streamline learning ROS
Contributions:166 commits, 14 PRs, 70 pushes in 1 year 8 months
streamlinerosemr
purdue-arc/rocket_league
Oct 2020 - Apr 2022
Teaching cars soccer
Contributions:67 reviews, 877 commits, 126 PRs in 1 year 7 months
autonomous-systemsroboticsautonomousreinforcement-learningleague
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