Thomas Jones

Biography

Thomas Jones is a co-founder and the CEO of S-PLANE Automation. S-PLANE creates and supplies solutions to convert human-piloted aircraft into automated and optionally piloted systems. Previously, he served as: The project manager for the MIT and Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Technology Development Partnership Program; as Professor of Control Systems and Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Stellenbosch University (SU); and later as an Extraordinary Professor at SU. While at SU, he co-founded and directed the Centre of Excellence in Autonomous Systems, performing R&T activities for long-standing industry partners such as Airbus. Dr. Jones is a member of the IFAC Industry Committee and the IFAC Committee on Aerospace and is a long-time associate editor of the Control Engineering Practice journal. He hold a PhD in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from MIT, and Master's and Bachelor's degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from SU. His research interests include flight automation, human factors engineering, and flight certification of autonomous airborne systems.