Tucker is the Director of CMU-Africa and Associate Dean for International Affairs-Africa, and a Trustee Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, with courtesy appointments in Machine Learning, Robotics, and Biomedical Engineering. His research uses AI and data mining for system design and optimization. He has led grants from NSF, DARPA, and the Gates Foundation. He teaches and develops AI-based educational tools. He holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from UIUC, an MBA, and a B.S. from Rose-Hulman Institute.