Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Contact Information
Campus: Fairfax
Building: Nguyen Engineering Building
Room 3240
Mail Stop: 1G5
In the News
Biography
Dr. Pachowicz is an associate professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, at George Mason University. His current interests include CubeSats, SatCom, and SpaceCom. He is leading activities in these areas at the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC). He is leading the engineering team developing the payload for the NASA/GMU Landolt mission to be launched in 2028. Specific CubeSat areas of his interest include ultra-small-factor satellite bus engineering, resilient satellite bus architectures, and rad-hard embedded software. His interests in satellite communications are oriented toward the design of low-noise antennas, signal and data fusion, and custom software-defined radios.
He is responsible for the development of the CEC SatCom and SpaceCom ground stations, which include a 9.1-meter satellite dish, as well as the ECE CubeSat Engineering Lab. This infrastructure will allow students, faculty, and cooperating institutions to support data transmissions from spacecraft on their flight to the Moon, as well as Moon relays, stations, and landers. He is also responsible for a SmallSat Engineering certificate and Space-Based Systems specialization areas as part of ECE graduate programs.
His past interests and expertise include knowledge-based systems, knowledge acquisition, intelligent systems engineering, automatic target recognition, machine vision/perception, machine learning, self-adaptive systems, data/decision/algorithm fusion, integration of AI and ML within engineering systems, and transitioning theoretical frameworks into practical applications. His academic research was sponsored by DARPA, DARPA/AFOSR, OSD, BMDO, NIMA, NSF, and the local industry. He also has industrial experience in the design and development of applied intelligent systems and sensory systems. For over 10 years, he was a consultant to SAIC, the U.S. Army NVL, and several companies in Northern Virginia. He specialized in transitioning theoretical frameworks into practical applications.
Degrees
- PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering, AGH University of Science and Technology
- MS, Electrical and Computer Engineering, AGH University of Science and Technology
- BS, Electrical and Computer Engineering, AGH University of Science and Technology
Research Interests
- Ultra-small Satellite Design and Engineering
- Resilient Satellite Bus Architectures
- Antenna Design and Satellite Communications
- Real-Time Embedded Systems
- Rad-hard Embedded Software
- Sensors and Sensor Data/Decision Fusion
- Intelligent Systems
- Adaptability in Algorithms and Systems
- Pattern Recognition and Computer Vision
- System Architectures
Research
2005 - 2009 : AFOSRMURI-05. Funded by US Air Force.
2005 - 2007: Computational Modeling of Cultural Dimensions in Adversary Organizations. Funded by Air Force Office of Scientific Research.