Who is JANUS' Dr. Cordula Robinson?
09/17/2025
JANUS’ Cordula Robinson, Ph.D. will present a paper titled, “Space Weather AI into Warfighter Kill Chains Toward Operational Dominance” on December 2 at the annual Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) held in Orlando, Fla. Her paper examines the initial proof of concept results from an AI application designed to identify, monitor, diagnose, predict, and respond to space environment threats in real time.
Dr. Robinson joined JANUS when it acquired AER in 2024, and she has been working in advancing deep learning/AI approaches for space application for three decades. She earned her doctorate in Physics and Astronomy in England analyzing data from Mars before coming to the United States for the first time for a one-year post-doctorate program. That led to her becoming a United States citizen and settling permanently in the country.
Early in her career, Dr. Robinson was fortunate to work with Apollo scientists, which she found incredibly inspiring. “Life happens when you’re making other plans,” Dr. Robinson says of what led her into space research. “I was fortunate early in my career to work with people I found incredibly inspiring.” Why space? “I got into space research at a time when everyone was saying, ‘Don’t do it.’ Oil was dominant then. Space ignited my imagination. That led, eventually, to the thought that there’s trouble in space.”
By trouble, Dr. Robinson is referring both to how congested it is becoming (more than 100,000 satellites are projected to be orbiting Earth by 2030) and the threats that come from having adversaries also in space. Her move to AER a few years ago allowed her to find the right project to start addressing some of these troubling concerns, which she continues with JANUS. “We lose over $1.2 billion every five years or so in satellites alone,” she explains. “Through weather, predator loss. It’s lost intelligence, broadband loss, even human life. We can’t react as quickly to dangerous flooding, for example, when our satellites are compromised or completely lost. It’s getting very congested in space, and our adversaries are there, too.”
About a year ago, Dr. Robinson figured out how to work on the issue. Her team took just three months to adapt her patented algorithm to their needs. In collaboration with the Department of the Air Force, Dr. Robinson has developed an AI/ML-powered tool that can detect space hazards and satellite anomalies. The results of this first proof of concept is what she will share at I/ITSEC. Next steps include leveraging this research and further adapting the technology to the needs of the warfighter and commercial industry. “It’s a promising prototype,” says Dr. Robinson. “One that is ready to develop from proof of concept to real application.” There’s refinement and adjustments that need to be made, but it’s a very real solution for what is becoming an increasingly crowded frontier.
