Company
Anita Flynn, Ph.D.
Dr. Anita M. Flynn is the President of MicroPropulsion Corporation. Dr. Flynn specializes in microrobotics. She holds BS, MS and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, and worked for 5 years as a Research Scientist at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the Mobile Robot Group. Dr. Flynn's dissertation research focused on development of thin-film and bulk ultrasonic motors. The latter produced 50 times the stall torque density of comparably-sized (~8mm dia.) electromagnetic motors. From 1995-97, she spent two years at the University of California, Berkeley's EECS Dept., as a lecturer and post-doctoral associate in power electronics, designing novel step-up converters with piezoelectric transformers. During the 1999-2000 academic year, Dr. Flynn was a Visiting Professor in UC Berkeley's Mechanical Engineering Dept., developing courses in Mechatronics. At MicroPropulsion, she has collaborated with UC Berkeley researchers to develop the world's smallest autonomous robot (10 mg), and with SRI International, has investigated the application of dielectric elastomer actuators to microrobotics. Her current interest is software and intelligent control for mobile robotic ornithopters. Presently, she leads a team at MicroPropulsion as a prime contractor in the DARPA Nano Air Vehicle program.