Mark Plecnik is an assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. His research is grounded in the computational design of robot geometries. His current focus is in forming the prevailing dynamics of a robot by shaping its configuration space rather than depending purely on motor control to achieve desired motions. Plecnik received the NSF CAREER Award in 2022. He received the Freudenstein Young Investigator Award from ASME in 2024. He is a senior member of IEEE.