Mulder Max

Supervisor for the following fellowship:
ESR 10: Revealing adverse Rotorcraft Pilot Couplings induced by Flight Control Systems
ESR 11: Understanding the use of automation in helicopters
ESR 12: Alleviating flight simulator negative transference for helicopter operations

Max received the M.Sc. degree and Ph.D. degree (cum laude) in aerospace engineering from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, in 1992 and 1999, respectively, for his work on the cybernetics of tunnel-in-the-sky displays.

In 2009 he was appointed Full Professor Aerospace Human-Machine Systems and became Head of the Control and Simulation section at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology (www.cs.lr.tudelft.nl). Later that year he was also appointed as Head of the Department of Control and Operations of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. The department has approximately 35 academic staff members and 10 supporting staff members, and is responsible for all research and education on safe, efficient and environmentally-friendly operations of aerospace vehicles.

His personal research interests are twofold. First, he studies manual control cybernetics and its use in modelling pilot perception and performance, in particular the modelling of human self-motion perception and neuromuscular dynamics, with applications in flight simulation and haptic control interfaces. Second, he investigates cognitive systems engineering and its application in the design of ecological human-machine systems for professionals working in the transport domain (pilots, air traffic controllers, UAV tele-operators). Max has been the recipient of the prestigious NWO/STW VIDI grant (2005) and many other grants from industry (Nissan, Boeing, BAE Systems), research laboratories (NLR, TNO, Eurocontrol), and government (STW, NWO, Ministry of Economic Affairs, European Union, SESAR).

In Since 1994, Max supervised 285 MSc graduate students and 30 PhD students. He (co-)authored more than 500 peer-reviewed academic publications, of which 110 ISI journal papers. He received best-of-conference paper awards from IEEE (2006, 2010, 2014, 2016), AIAA (2008) and EAM (2008). Max spent sabbaticals in Cambridge, USA (2000) and in Tübingen, Germany at the Max Planck Biological Cybernetics Institute (2011); he is elected to be an Associate Fellow of the American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Max has been invited lecturer at various (PhD) seminars, organizer of several international conferences, symposia and special sessions, is a member of five journal editorial boards, and an active reviewer for twelve other major journals. He has been involved in many program committees, technical committees, and has acted as an invited keynote/plenary speaker, reviewer, and session chair at many international conferences. Max teaches graduate courses on stochastic signal analysis, stochastic control systems, atmospheric flight dynamics, avionics and air traffic management, and human-machine systems.

Apart from leading the research in human-machine systems, Max is responsible for all research and education in aerospace control and estimation theory, flight dynamics, flight simulation, bio-inspired flight vehicle design, and unmanned (micro-)aerial vehicles. He leads the research laboratories of the department, ranging from the CITATION laboratory aircraft, the SIMONA full motion research flight simulator (www.simona.tudelft.nl) to the CyberZoo facility of the micro-air vehicle laboratory (MAVlab, www.mavlab.lr.tudelft.nl), of which the Delfly flapping-wing MAV has been a prominent developments, incl. several Guinness Book of records achievements for tiniest autonomous drones (www.delfly.nl).