Dr. Umar Iqbal

Biography

Dr. Umar Iqbal is an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and a founding faculty member of the College of Engineering at Illinois State University. His research develops resilient multisensor autonomy, sensor fusion, estimation, GNSS-challenged navigation, robotic perception, and control that let intelligent vehicles and robots operate reliably when GNSS or individual sensors are degraded, uncertain, or unavailable. That work has progressed from MEMS-based inertial/GNSS integration and nonlinear navigation-error modeling to radar- and LiDAR-aided sensing, precise point positioning, robotic navigation, and integrity-aware autonomy. He has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications with 1,200+ citations (Google Scholar), contributed as a Co-PI, faculty advisor, and investigator on NSF- and DOE/Argonne-funded programs totaling nearly $3 million, and co-supervised and mentored 8 master's and 12 doctoral students.

At Illinois State, Dr. Iqbal contributes to building the new College of Engineering by developing and teaching first-year engineering design, leading the MotoVida humanitarian design challenge with OSF HealthCare, and helping establish teaching and robotics laboratories, design studios, a makerspace, and ABET processes.

He joined Illinois State in 2024 from Mississippi State University (2018–2024), where he was Co-PI on an NSF S-STEM award for engineering transfer students, faculty advisor to the DOE/Argonne EcoCAR EV Challenge team, and co-architect of the ECE department's fully online program. Earlier, he was a postdoctoral fellow and deputy director of the NavINST Research Lab at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen's University, taught engineering design at the University of Ottawa and Queen's University, and held industry R&D roles.

He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Queen's University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer (P.Eng., APEGA), a Senior Member of IEEE, a member of the Institute of Navigation, and an Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has developed and taught more than 25 distinct courses across five universities, from first-year design to graduate multisensor fusion, robotics, and control; he was inducted into Mississippi State's Academy of Distinguished Teachers in 2024 and received University College's 2026 Impact Award at Illinois State for contributions to student success.