With the announcement Costello joins an elite group of ASME members recognized for supporting the organization's commitment "to be the essential resource for mechanical engineers and other technical professionals throughout the world for solutions that benefit humankind."

Costello holds AE's David S. Lewis Professorship of Autonomy and holds an appointment in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

In 2013, Costello launched the Georgia Tech Center for Advanced Machine Mobility (CAMM), a multidisciplinary research network of faculty and students engaged in creating new mobile platform technologies and configurations. The CAMM focuses on creating highly specialized and application-specific technologies to improve the mobility of new and existing platforms.

"Professor Costello has earned an outstanding international reputation for his creative research -- at the intersection of design, dynamics, and control system engineering,"  said Yang, also an ASME Fellow.
"He has created and implemented innovative technologies for flight vehicles such as rotorcraft, smart projectiles, and autonomous airdrop systems that improve the machine’s dynamic behavior and automatic control. This has included creation of new physical control mechanisms, specialized autonomous control algorithms and software, and unique sensor arrays. Many of these technologies have been commercialized and transferred to practice through collaborations with industry and government partners." 

Costello earned his master's and doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering at the Daniel Guggenheim School. His research focuses on dynamics, control, and design. He has earned national recognition for a substantial research program in the development of innovative flight mechanics and controls technologies for a variety of flight vehicles, including rotorcraft, projectiles, parafoils, and unmanned air vehicles.

Prior to his appointment at Georgia Tech, Costello was on the faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Oregon State University and the United States Military Academy at West Point. He also worked as a research engineer in the Helicopter Division of the Boeing Company and at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.