Naira Hovakimyan received her MS degree in Applied Mathematics from Yerevan State University in Armenia. She got her Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics from the Institute of Applied Mathematics of Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. She is currently W. Grafton and Lillian B. Wilkins Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering and the Director of AVIATE Center of UIUC.

Naira has co-authored two books, eleven patents and more than 450 refereed publications. She is the 2011 recipient of AIAA Mechanics and Control of Flight Award, the 2015 recipient of SWE Achievement Award, the 2017 recipient of IEEE CSS Award for Technical Excellence in Aerospace Controls, and the 2019 recipient of AIAA Pendray Aerospace Literature Award. In 2014 she was awarded the Humboldt prize for her lifetime achievements. 

Naira is Fellow of AIAA and IEEE, and senior member of NAI. She is co-founder and chief scientist of Intelinair. Her work was featured in the New York Times, on Fox TV and CNBC.

Rafi was an executive at Shell for 35 years, covering the technical, commercial and leadership aspects of the energy business during 10 assignments worldwide until 2017. From late 2017 to early 2020, he was the CEO of IDeA Foundation.

Currently, Rafi is an advisor to various foundations and related entities. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Aznavour Foundation, co-founder and board member of the International Chamber of Mines of Armenia and a member of the Energy4Climate team of AUA. Rafi lectures around the world using 45 Learnings based on some 60 real life stories and events from his 35 years at Shell, covering Cultural Navigation, Deal Making and Strategic Leadership.

Armen Sardaryan is a Program Manager at the Center of Scientific Innovations and Education (CSIE). He graduated from Yerevan State University (YSU), Mathematics Department in 1991. During 1994-1997, he went through an MBA program at the American University of Armenia (AUA). The emphasis of the Program has been Executive Management, with a minor in Economics. Since 2002, Armen has studied MA in Economics at Central Michigan University, MI, USA. The Program has been rigorous on math models and their applications in Economics. The major field of study has been Development Economics. Specialized in chaos theory and its applications in the stock markets, international trade, and government policies leading to economic development; Excellent academic performance with a US government fellowship, a recipient of the Edmund Muskie Fellowship award from 2002 to 2004,  and a recipient of the University Teaching Fellowship in 2006.

Haykanush Darbinyan is a Lab Technical Manager at the Center of Scientific Innovations and Education and Aerial Robotics Education (CSIE)․ She earned her ME degree from the State Engineering University of Armenia (SEUA) in 2013, specializing in Automation and Control.She has been qualified as a Research Engineer by the SEUA in the field of Informatics, Computer Science, and Automation in 2019. Haykanush obtained her Ph.D. from the NPUA in Engineering, specializing in Automation and Control in 2020. 

Since 2013, Haykanush has held various positions at Armenian National Engineering Laboratory (ANEL) of NPUA, National Instruments, AirWorker, and American University of Armenia (AUA). Her main responsibilities include teaching UAV-related courses and conducting laboratory sessions, organizing cooperation and overall lab duties, developing safety protocols and maintaining schedule, as well as grant application support, among others. 

Haykanush is concurrently an Assistant Professor at the Control Systems chair of the National Polytechnic University of Armenia (NPUA) and a Researcher at the Aerial Robotics Research and Education Center of NPUA. 

Astghik Hakobyan is a Research Scientist at the Center of Scientific Innovations and Education and Aerial Robotics Education (CSIE), mostly working at the Aerial Robotics Education and Research Center of the National Polytechnic University of Armenia (NPUA) in Yerevan. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Automation and Control from NPUA in 2018 and went on to achieve her M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University (SNU) in Seoul, graduating in 2020 and 2023, respectively. Astghik has been recognized with the prestigious Distinguished ECE M.S. Dissertation Award and the Distinguished ECE Ph.D. Dissertation Award from SNU. Her research focuses on control and optimization, motion planning, and the development of safe autonomous systems.

Andy Younes is a research intern at the Center of Scientific Innovations and Education (CSIE). She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering from NPUA in 2024. Andy has distinguished herself through her research on drone control for efficient plant seeding and her expertise in machine learning. She developed a machine learning algorithm capable of deblurring, denoising, and colorizing old images for her Bachelor's dissertation. Recently, she served as the team captain for the 2024 American Control Conference Self-Driving Car Student Competition organized by Quanser. Her team successfully implemented object detection technology combined with state-of-the-art control techniques.

Artur Ghazaryan is a third-year undergraduate student majoring in Computer Science in NPUA. He is a specialist in UAV design and assembly and is specialized in parameter tuning, calibration, testing. Artur is proficient in Mission planner, Betaflight, MATLAB, Adobe, etc.

Artur distinguished in the "Hawq 2023" competition with top placements in several categories. He modified a custom VTOL UAV for environmental monitoring, contributing to university research. Artur conducts workshops on UAV construction at Center for Scientific Innovation and Education (CSIE).

Anna Tonoyan is a junior research scientist at the Center of Scientific Innovation and Education (CSIE). Currently, she is a Master's student specializing in Automation at the National Polytechnic University of Armenia in Yerevan. She graduated from Yerevan State University with a Bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics and Informatics in 2023.

Anna is actively engaged with the Center of Scientific Innovations and Education, where she has completed intensive courses and participates in seminars to deepen her understanding of emerging technologies and their practical applications.