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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.

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

Activity history (last 12 weeks)

Recent activities (last 7 days)

×1 ×4 ×2 ×1 6h 47m ▸ show details
  • run ×4 4h 40m
  • gym ×1 47m
  • cycle ×2 42m
  • swim ×1 37m
  • Mon 22 Jun
  • swim
  • 2 km · 37m · ♥ 145 bpm
  • Sun 21 Jun
  • run
  • 3.3 km · 22m · ↑25m · ♥ 146 bpm
  • Sat 20 Jun
  • run
  • 24.1 km · 2h 45m · ↑73m · ♥ 153 bpm
  • cycle
  • 5.1 km · 14m · ↑19m · ♥ 128 bpm
  • Fri 19 Jun
  • cycle
  • 8.1 km · 27m · ↑58m · ♥ 127 bpm
  • Thu 18 Jun
  • run
  • 6.2 km · 43m · ↑31m · ♥ 140 bpm
  • Wed 17 Jun
  • run
  • 9.2 km · 49m · ↑42m · ♥ 174 bpm
  • gym
  • 47m
  • Tue 16 Jun
  • walk
  • 4.7 km · 1h 1m · ↑45m · ♥ 102 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 184 parkruns at 64 locations Latest: University Parks #225 on 13 Jun 2026 (22:34)
  • Volunteered 294 times Co-Event DirectorUniversity Parks parkrun Core Team VolunteerFlorence Park juniors