Trey Smith
Research Computer Scientist AST at NASA Ames Research Center Intelligent Robotics Group
Mountain View, California, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolTrey Smith is a research computer scientist and systems engineer with over 21 years building human-robot systems for space exploration, currently leading technical research at NASA Ames’ Intelligent Robotics Group. He designs safety-focused, adaptable platforms and information systems that help expert teams manage data-dense, real-time robotic operations—from planetary probes to a free-flying ISS research robot. Trey combines deep academic rigor (PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon) with hands-on engineering: notable open-source contributions include improving NASA’s Astrobee flight messaging and enhancing the Ames Stereo Pipeline and Vision Workbench for photogrammetry and reflectance accuracy. He excels at turning research-grade robotics into reusable, modular tools that enable other scientists to innovate faster, and has advised NASA HQ on modularity and autonomy standards. Colleagues describe him as pragmatic about system design yet obsessed with creating flexible platforms that become springboards for future research.
21 years of coding experience
9 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Robotics, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University
Github Skills (19)
c-language10
image-processing10
photogrammetry10
automation10
geodesy10
automations10
cprogramming-language10
idl10
documentation10
python9
geospatial9
build-automation9
shell8
sh8
ros8
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
visionworkbench/visionworkbench
Feb 2008 - May 2011
The NASA Vision Workbench is a general purpose image processing and computer vision library developed by the Autonomous Systems and Robotics (ASR) Area in the Intelligent Systems Division at the NASA Ames Research Center.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:9 commits in 3 years 2 months
Contributions summary:Trey primarily contributed to the `visionworkbench/visionworkbench` repository by adding and modifying code related to image processing and photogrammetry calculations. Their work included implementing a TMS-compatible tile path option, adjusting dependencies, and introducing features like corner fields for bounds caching in ModelParams. Furthermore, they developed and integrated an alternate albedo calculation method while also "vw-izing" photometry calculations and fixing interpolation for more accurate reflectance results.
autonomous-systemscenterpythonautonomousdivision
nasa/astrobee
Oct 2020 - Dec 2022
NASA Astrobee Robot Software
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:152 reviews, 56 commits, 105 PRs in 2 years 2 months
Contributions summary:Trey primarily focused on improving the documentation within the Astrobee command dictionary. They updated command descriptions, ensuring clarity for new developers and guest scientists regarding command usage and integration into the concept of operations. Furthermore, the user modified the flight mode options within the system settings. These changes involved modifying the IDL files that define the messaging system.
roboticsrobotrobot-softwarenasa
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