Bio:
Minduli Wijayatunga earned her B.Sc. and B.Eng. degrees in Aerospace Engineering, Physics, and Mathematics from the University of Sydney, Australia, in 2020. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, in 2024, specializing in trajectory design and guidance for autonomous active debris removal missions. Her technical expertise includes convex optimization, optimal control, model predictive control, and reinforcement learning. She is also an active member of the space sustainability initiative at the University of Auckland.In 2024, she worked as a graduate research intern at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, contributing to the development of ion beam deflection for planetary defense. Currently, she is a Research Associate at the University of Sydney, focusing on mission autonomy for spacecraft servicing satellites.