Hello! 👋

I'm Joshua McConkie

Robotics & Autonomy | Applied Mathematics Student

Brigham Young University · Expected graduation: April 2028

Robotics Research Assistant at FRoST · Incoming Engineering Intern, State Estimation at Shield AI (Summer 2027)

About Me

I study applied and computational mathematics at BYU (ACME), with interests in robotics and autonomy. I’m the Perception Lead for BYU’s RoboBoat Team, and my projects range from a camera-guided balancing system to a multi-agent coverage simulator.

Python C/C++ OpenCV ROS 2 Optimization Perception Multi-Agent Planning Feedback Control Embedded Systems

Projects

Ball-on-plate system tracking and balancing a ball

Ball-on-Plate Balancing System

Built a camera-guided system that balances a ball on a tilting plate using PID control.

Developed camera-based tracking, ESP32 firmware for two-servo actuation and IMU feedback over I2C, and supporting custom PCB hardware.

PythonCOpenCVState EstimationPID ControlESP32

Performance comparison for receding-horizon multi-agent coverage planning

Multi-Agent Coverage Planner

Built a simulator to study the tradeoff between planning time and multi-agent coverage.

On an 8×8 grid with 1–7 agents and eight-step paths, planning 3–4 steps at a time retained roughly 97–99% of full-horizon greedy coverage on average and ran 2.5–10× faster.

PythonPath PlanningMulti-Agent SystemsOptimizationData Analysis

Mimic’s simulated Franka Panda carrying a red cube above the tabletop in MuJoCo

Mimic — Learning from Human Demonstration

2nd Place · BYU HireReady Hackathon

Co-created a system that turns human demonstration video into pick-and-place tasks for a simulated Franka Panda in MuJoCo.

Co-designed the architecture and skill-transition graph to map recognized actions to valid robot movements.
Directed implementation and integration through AI coding agents; the recorded simulation demonstrates grasp, transport, and release using conventional inverse kinematics and control.

Robotics ArchitectureSkill GraphsCoordinate RetargetingMuJoCo

Physical AI Sprint team on stage holding the first-place award beneath the event and sponsor banner

Physical AI — Robot Integration & Evaluation

1st Place · Physical AI Hackathon · 2026

Our team won the NVIDIA × Nebius × Antioch × Toloka Physical AI Hackathon with a vision-language-action evaluation and retraining workflow.

Built and tested a control harness intended to connect model actions to LeRobot, with action validation, command clamping, and explicit control intents.
Investigated platform, device-mapping, and serial-connection limitations. The final demo ran the frontend and backend; the physical robot connection remained incomplete.

PythonLeRobot IntegrationAction ValidationRobot Control Harness

Circuit Analysis Solver

Programmed a C++ modified-nodal-analysis solver for resistor networks and independent sources, representing circuits as linear systems to calculate node voltages and component currents.

C++Linear AlgebraCircuit Analysis

Experience

Robotics Research Assistant

FRoST

Sep 2026 - Present

Organizing DB3-to-MCAP conversion with AI coding agents, selecting data to retain, and investigating timing issues and dataset usability
Setting up website documentation, contributing the paper’s data structure section, and evaluating dataset hosting options

RoboBoat Perception Lead

Brigham Young University

Sep 2026 - Present

Leading the perception team’s technical direction and turning system requirements into implementation tasks
Guiding architecture and evaluating approaches for sensor fusion, state estimation, and vision-based detection
Overseeing ROS 2 node responsibilities and interfaces across the perception system

Research Assistant — Multi-Agent Planning & Optimization

BYU IDeA Labs

Mar 2026 - Sep 2026

Developed a multi-agent grid path planner that achieved 97–99% of full-horizon coverage with a 2.5–10× runtime reduction
Proved a 50% approximation guarantee for a robust round-robin resource planner against the optimal solution
Identified failure conditions for adjacency-constrained path-planning guarantees

Research Assistant — Quantum Photonics Simulation

BYU Electrical Engineering Department

Nov 2025 - Jan 2026

Contributed to a team effort to optimize a Julia simulation engine for hybrid Gaussian and non-Gaussian quantum-optics states

View project repository

Research Assistant — Econometrics

BYU Economics Department

Apr 2025 - Sep 2025

Built statistical-modeling and large-scale data-preparation workflows in Python and Stata for causal-inference research
Supported reproducible quantitative analysis of relationships between language learning and career outcomes

Education

B.S. in Applied and Computational Mathematics

Brigham Young University

Expected Apr 2028

Major GPA: 4.00/4.00
BYU Merit Scholarship
AI Association team lead and Competitive Programming Association member
ACME core curriculum: mathematical analysis, algorithm design and optimization, probabilistic modeling, and dynamical systems and control