▋
alex@astephens.dev
about

Hi, I'm Alex!

I work on GPS-free magnetic navigation at Q-CTRL. I did my PhD (ahem, DPhil) at Oxford in long-term decision making for autonomous robots. My research interests are in probabilistic robotics, state estimation, and quantum sensing.

Outside of work, I'm into triathlon, parkrun, fantasy/sci-fi books, speedcubing.

Alex Stephens
career
  • Q-CTRL
    Senior Scientist
    2026 — present
  • Smith Institute
    Mathematical Consultant
    2025
  • NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
    Visiting Robotics Researcher
    2019
  • Atlassian
    Software Development Intern
    2018
education
  • PhD, Decision Making for Robotics
    University of Oxford
    2020 — 2025
  • BEng (Mechatronics) & BSci (Physics, Computer Science)
    University of Sydney
    2015 — 2019
fitness

Year in sport

M W F Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct
run cycle swim gym walk other

Activity history (last 12 weeks)

Recent activities (last 7 days)

×2 1h 7m ▸ show details
  • run ×2 1h 7m
  • Mon 26 Oct
  • walk
  • 6 km · 1h 37m · ↑137m · ♥ 103 bpm
  • Sun 25 Oct
  • walk
  • 1.2 km · 19m · ↑36m · ♥ 93 bpm
  • Sat 24 Oct
  • run
  • 4.9 km · 24m · ↑89m · ♥ 187 bpm
  • Fri 23 Oct
  • walk
  • 1.1 km · 13m · ↑9m · ♥ 111 bpm
  • Thu 22 Oct
  • run
  • 6.7 km · 42m · ↑30m · ♥ 157 bpm
  • Wed 21 Oct
  • walk
  • 4.1 km · 52m · ↑13m · ♥ 113 bpm

Sports

  • Triathlon: raced distances from Sprint to 70.3 ("half ironman") Proudest race: Brutal Half (1.9k swim / 94k bike / 23.6k run up Snowdon)
  • Running: completed 2 marathons, ran every street in Oxford (>1400!) 5k20:35 10k43:25 Half1:37:07 Marathon3:59:38

parkrun ↗

  • Completed 188 parkruns at 65 locations Latest: University Parks #231 on 25 Jul 2026 (25:43)
  • Volunteered 302 times Co-Event DirectorUniversity Parks parkrun Core Team VolunteerFlorence Park juniors