James Preiss
Assistant Professor at UC Santa Barbara
Los Angeles, California, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolJames Preiss is an incoming Assistant Professor of Computer Science at UC Santa Barbara with 13 years of experience at the intersection of robotics, machine learning, control, and optimization. His trajectory spans industry and academia—from firmware and embedded systems work on the popular Crazyflie quadcopter platform to a PhD at USC and a postdoc at Caltech—bringing both theoretical depth and hands-on systems expertise. He has made practical contributions to large open-source robotics projects (e.g., build and firmware improvements for crazyswarm and crazyflie) and has a strong background in high-performance C++ systems and real-time hardware integration. Known for reviving low-level timers and adding full-state control capabilities in constrained embedded environments, he blends careful algorithmic thinking with pragmatic engineering. Based in Los Angeles, he leverages interdisciplinary training in math, CS, and even photography to approach robotics problems with a creative, systems-first mindset.
13 years of coding experience
11 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Computer Science, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Computer Science at University of Southern CaliforniaB.S.; B.A., Mathematics, Computer Science, Photography, B.S.; B.A., Mathematics, Computer Science, Photography at The Evergreen State College
Github Skills (22)
robotics10
python10
firmware10
c1110
c1710
i2c10
sys10
build-automation10
pwm10
embedded10
scripting9
simulation9
missionplanner9
freertos9
simulations9
Programming languages (9)
Github contributions (5)
USC-ACTLab/crazyswarm
Jun 2016 - Apr 2022
A Large Quadcopter Swarm
Role in this project:
Software Engineer
Software EngineerContributions:14 reviews, 301 commits, 83 PRs in 5 years 10 months
Contributions summary:James made several modifications to the build scripts and example code, including updating the firmware, making the utility scripts runnable, and adding support for Python 3. Their contributions involved changes to build.sh, demonstrating involvement in the project's build process. They also added a python script for computing the pixel diameter of markers and developed a matlab script for reading and animating cloud logs. Finally, they added a few example scripts demonstrating various Crazyflie behaviors and features.
quadcopterswarm
bitcraze/crazyflie-firmware
Mar 2016 - Jan 2022
The main firmware for the Crazyflie Nano Quadcopter, Crazyflie Bolt Quadcopter and Roadrunner Positioning Tag.
Role in this project:Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT Developer
Embedded Systems Engineer / IoT DeveloperContributions:10 reviews, 21 commits, 17 PRs in 5 years 11 months
Contributions summary:James primarily focused on firmware development for the Crazyflie Nano Quadcopter and related products. Their contributions include reviving and configuring a microsecond timer, implementing I2C PWM support for the PCA9685 driver, and adding a commander packet for full-state control. The user also made adjustments to the high-level commander and the planner to integrate with the overall system, as well as copying and integrating the latest version of a math library.
boltfirmwarecrazyfliezeroquadcopter
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