Experience

Researcher, instructor, mentor, and technical-community leader.

My experience combines advanced research with a long record of technical instruction, operational responsibility, student mentorship, and organization building.

Research appointments

From real-time systems to quantum graph algorithms

The research record spans defense-oriented signal classification, interdisciplinary graph analysis, quantum software, and graph representation learning.

2024–Present

NSF Research Traineeship Fellow

University of Missouri–Kansas City

One of 20 funded fellows in a $3M interdisciplinary program in AI and Secure Networked Sensing.
Developing graph-theoretic methods across computer science, public health, and social science.

2024–Present

IBM Quantum Mentorship Program Mentee

IBM Quantum

Developed QuIC, a training-free quantum graph embedding for graph-invariant construction and hardware evaluation.
Resulting work accepted for oral presentation at IEEE Quantum Week 2026.

Summer 2025

Graduate Research Assistant

University of Missouri–Kansas City

Worked on quantum graph neural-network embedding optimization for the WeListen project.

2022–2023

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Missouri Institute for Defense and Energy

Developed machine-learning pipelines for real-time signal classification.
Contributed to experimental effects measurement on the DARPA WARDEN project.

Teaching and technical instruction

Explaining difficult systems precisely

Teaching is not a secondary activity in this profile. It includes graduate course design, cybersecurity outreach, spatial-computing instruction, and more than 12,000 hours of accredited military technical instruction.

Fall 2025

Graduate Instructor — Quantum Computing for AI

University of Missouri–Kansas City

Designed and taught UMKC's first quantum-computing course.
Received a 4.94/5.0 course rating and 100% “Strongly Agree” on critical-thinking assessments.

Spring 2025

Graduate Teaching Assistant — AI & AR/VR for Spatial Computing

University of Missouri–Kansas City

Supported curriculum design and instruction for spatial-computing courses serving approximately 100 students.

2024

Instructor — NSF/NSA GenCyber Camp

University of Missouri–Kansas City

Provided cybersecurity instruction for 42 high-school students.

2010–2019

Air Traffic Control Instructor

United States Air Force

Completed more than 12,000 hours of accredited technical instruction.
Named Instructor of the Year in 2016.

Mentorship, outreach, and service

Building technical communities around the work

The outreach record demonstrates the ability to recruit participants, organize technical programming, mentor new researchers, and sustain professional organizations.

Mentorship and outreach

Summer 2025

NSF REU Mentor

University of Missouri–Kansas City

Mentored 10 undergraduates in quantum optimization.
Student projects resulted in two ICDM Workshop publications.

November 2025

Lead Organizer — IBM Qiskit Fall Fest

University of Missouri–Kansas City

Organized UMKC's event as one of 10 U.S. universities selected by IBM.
Coordinated 76 participants across 21 sessions.

Leadership and professional service

2025–Present

President

IEEE UMKC Student Branch

Lead a 64-member student branch.

2025–Present

Founder & President

Quantum Society for AI & Computing, UMKC

Founded and lead a 62-member quantum-computing student organization.

2025–Present

President

IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Student Branch Chapter

2025–Present

President

IEEE Eta Kappa Nu, Theta Pi Chapter

2025–Present

Reviewer

ACM Computing Surveys

Education and credentials

Academic preparation and professional recognition

Doctoral study

Ph.D. Candidate, Computer Science

University of Missouri–Kansas City · 2024–Present

Dissertation: Graph-Theoretic Representations as Computational Primitives for Quantum Computing and Artificial Intelligence.

Graduate study

M.S., Computer Science

University of Missouri–Kansas City · 2024

Thesis: Weisfeiler–Lehman Graph Kernels for Out-of-Distribution Graph Detection.

Selected credentials

Quantum software and research

NSF Research Traineeship Fellow
IBM Quantum Advocate, Tier 1
Certified Qiskit Developer, v2.x
Reviewer, ACM Computing Surveys

Complete record

Download the current curriculum vitae

Download CV Email Luke