About the Institute

Peter Jorgensen

Dr. Peter J. Jorgensen is the Associate Director of Engineering for the University of South Florida Institute of Applied Engineering (IAE), where he serves as a leader of interdisciplinary teams focused on delivering applied engineering solutions for U.S. Government and Defense customers. Dr. Jorgensen applies his expertise and training in mechanical and electrical engineering for aerospace systems to develop practical, innovative solutions to complex problems.

Dr. Jorgensen earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida in Tampa where he developed and demonstrated a framework for on-board, autonomous, and human-understandable decision making by individual agents within large networks of distributed systems. During his time as a graduate student at USF, Dr. Jorgensen also led the design and development of three nanosatellites that were launched in 2021 to demonstrate inter-satellite communications technology.

Prior to arriving at USF, Dr. Jorgensen studied Mechanical Engineering at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, focused on electromechanical systems, dynamics, and guidance, navigation, and controls (GN&C) for planetary landers. While at Marquette, Dr. Jorgensen co-founded a student-led satellite engineering team that designed and tested spacecraft and related technologies, participated in a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program at Texas A&M in College Station, and contributed to the analysis and verification of NASA’s Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) sensor models and dual-state extended Kalman filter (EKF) culminating in an autonomous flight demonstration by NASA’s Morpheus vehicle.