Biography

Lukas was born in Czech Republic, raised in Japan and Hong Kong, studied in Philadelphia and worked on four different continents, making him a true global citizen. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Finance from the Wharton School of Business and a degree in Computer Science with a Math minor from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Lukas worked as a robotics researcher at Penn’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing & Perception (GRASP) Lab, developing guidance, navigation and control systems for UAVs. His work resulted in multiple published papers and a patent. Lukas also got to deep-dive into machine learning at Amazon Alexa, where he developed software for the Echo Show and Echo Look.

From 2017 to 2020, Lukas worked as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, serving clients in North America, Europe, South East Asia and the Caribbean across a wide range of industries. Lukas' specialty while at the Firm were strategy, corporate finance, private equity and large-scale, rapid corporate transformations projects.

In 2020, Lukas left the Firm to return to the world of technology, working on a startup and pursuing a Masters of Robotics. In his free time, he likes to fly planes (real ones & radio-controlled), sail and ski.

Download my resumé.

Interests
  • Aerial robotics
  • Artificial intelligence & machine learning
  • Aerospace & aviation
  • Finance
  • Corporate distress & turnaround
Education
  • Masters of Science in Engineering (Robotics), In progress

    School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania

  • Bachelor of Science in Economics (Finance), 2017

    Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania

  • Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Comp. Science), 2017

    School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania

Experience

May not be exhaustive, for most recent work experience please contact me.

 
 
 
 
 
Director
Zoomba Limited
Mar 2021 – Present
  • Successfully led ~30 consulting projects; usually run in collaboration with other consulting firms (incl. MBB)
  • Industry focus on private equity funds and their portfolio companies (strong exposure to healthcare and biotech)
  • Scope of consulting projects included: assessing market size, competitive dynamics & landscape, growth strategy, potential operational improvements and product segmentation & differentiation
 
 
 
 
 
Engagement Manager
McKinsey & Company
Aug 2017 – Apr 2020 San Francisco, California
  • Specialized in strategy, corporate finance, private equity and large-scale, rapid corporate transformations
  • Ran projects with both large-cap and small-cap companies across the entire globe, in both developed & developing regions, including: United States, Europe, South East Asia & the Caribbean

Sample projects include:

  • Multiple commercial, vendor and operational due diligences to assess market size, dynamics, competitive landscape and operational improvements across various industries, such as: electronic table games, advanced industries, healthcare, high tech, government services, automotive, travel and chemicals
  • Created a ‘future of mobility’ vision for supersonic air travel, including how this futuristic market could work
  • Identified a financial distress scenario in a public company, resulting in an immediate, rapid transformation
  • Improved working capital and reduced SG&A costs for a public company as part of a broad transformation
  • Built strategy for supermajor O&G company to expand into renewable energy
  • Developed a strategic response for a state-run health insurance company to deal with the launch of universal healthcare in a developing country
  • Optimized supply chain & manufacturing operations for a major semi-conductor manufacturer
  • Designed the financial restructuring of a Caribbean-based company suffering from long-term unprofitability
  • Created a go-to-market & competitive response strategy for a major payments company
 
 
 
 
 
Summer Software Development Engineer
Amazon Alexa
May 2016 – Jul 2016 Boston, Massachusetts
Developed software for Amazon Alexa. My focus was on data ingestion & gathering to help collect ground truth data on new, prototype devices for the machine learning platform.
 
 
 
 
 
Researcher
GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania
Apr 2016 – May 2017 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Designed guidance, navigation and control (GNC) algorithms for indoor and outdoor use on aerial robots, including path planning, computer vision (mono and stereo camera), object deployment and recovery, and mission control
  • Developed fully-integrated software and hardware for aerial robotic applications in agriculture, such as leaf sample collection or mosquito trap deployment and recovery for in-situ analysis (patent pending)
  • Contributed to the OpenUAV project (openuav.us) to create an open-source, easy-to-use UAV hardware and software platform for research and academic use
  • Published and/or presented papers at multiple conferences, including: ICUAS 2017, ACM/IEEE 2018
  • Helped create the inaugural NSF CPS-VO competition sponsored by the National Science Foundation
  • Lead the team that won 1st place at the NSF CPS-VO competition in October 2016
 
 
 
 
 
Process Optimization & Management / Data Privacy & Protection
MasterCard
Jul 2015 – Jan 2016 Purchase, New York
Optimized business processes in the legal & franchise integrity department and helped develop policies for data privacy to ensure anonimity.
 
 
 
 
 
President & Founder
Penn Aerial Robotics (non-profit organization affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania)
Jan 2014 – May 2017 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Created the club vision, structure and organization. Organized projects and lead competitions for the club.
  • At the time of founding was Penn’s 2nd competitive engineering club (after Penn Electric Racing)
  • 1st Place: NSF CPS-VO Competition, October 2016
  • 18th place (out of 138 entries): AIAA Design-Build-Fly Initial Proposal, October 2016 (competition in April 2017)
  • Best Technical Paper Award: International Aerial Robotics Competition, August 2016
 
 
 
 
 
Teaching Assistant (CIS 120)
University of Pennsylvania
Jan 2014 – Dec 2014 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Taught “Introduction to Computer Science”, including leading recitations, grading homework and helping students during office hours.
 
 
 
 
 
Sailing Instructor
Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club
Sep 2009 – May 2013 Hong Kong SAR
Taught sailing in Hong Kong as a RYA-certified instructor.

All publications

(2018). Systems, devices, and methods for agricultural sample collection. US Patent US20180335372A1.

Cite Source PDF

(2018). OpenUAV: A uav testbed for the cps and robotics community. 2018 ACM/IEEE 9th International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems (ICCPS).

Cite Source Code

(2017). sUAS for deployment and recovery of an environmental sensor probe. 2017 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

Cite Source Slides

(2017). An aerial phytobiopsy system: Design, evaluation, and lessons learned. 2017 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS).

Cite Source Video

(2016). Development of an Aerial Robot for Flying in Confined Spaces and Interacting with Ground Robots. 2016 International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC).

Cite PDF Slides Video

Projects

More sample projects will be added in due time

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Contact

Available for project-based work