Naira Hovakimyan (born September 21, 1966)[11] is an Armenian control theorist who holds the W. Grafton and Lillian B. Wilkins professorship of the Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

[12] She is the director of AVIATE Center[13] of flying cars at UIUC, funded through a NASA University Leadership Initiative.

[15][16] Naira Hovakimyan received her MS degree in Theoretical Mechanics and Applied Mathematics in 1988 from Yerevan State University in Armenia.

Her research interests are in control and optimization, autonomous systems, machine learning, cybersecurity, neural networks, game theory and their applications in aerospace, robotics, mechanical, agricultural, electrical, petroleum, biomedical engineering and elderly care.

[1] In 2014 she was awarded the Humboldt prize for her lifetime achievements and was recognized as Hans Fischer senior fellow of Technical University of Munich.