John Lai was born in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1984. He received his B.E. (First-Class Hons.) degree in aerospace avionics in 2005 and Ph.D. in 2010, both from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia. Since obtaining his Ph.D. degree, he has held a research fellow position at the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (ARCAA), a joint research collaboration between the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and QUT.