Renato earned a Laurea degree from Politecnico di Milano in Italy and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin (UT). Before returning to UT as a faculty member, he held professional engineering positions from 2007 to 2017 at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory and NASA’s Johnson Space Center. In 2024–2025, he served as the Navigation Responsible Engineer for the human lunar landing system at Blue Origin.
Renato is a Fellow of the American Astronautical Society, an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Renato has received numerous NASA honors, including the prestigious 2015 Software of the Year Award for his contributions to the Orion GN&C system.
Curriculum Vitae (Last Updated 10/08/2024).
Jakub joined the group in Fall 2025. He received his Master’s in Cybernetics and Control Engineering from the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen in 2020 and earned his Ph.D. there in Spring 2025. His doctoral research focused on nonlinear state estimation using grid-based methods in both discrete and continuous time. In addition, he gained hands-on experience in applied research at the ERA a.s. company, where he worked on signal processing for passive radar systems.
Rachel joined the research group in Spring 2021. She graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2020 with a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering. She has worked on the Emirates Mars Mission at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics for almost her entire career at CU Boulder. She is currently funded by the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin on a fellowship. Her research focuses primarily on optical spacecraft navigation and statistical orbit determination.
Dalton joined the group in Summer 2021. He graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park and in 2022 with a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from UT Austin. Prior to joining the group, Dalton worked at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on the OSAM-1 mission, within its robot subsystem group. His research interests include nonlinear estimation and multi-target tracking.
Felipe joined the group in Fall 2021. He graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mechanical Engineering from Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia, and in 2023 with a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from UT Austin. Through his undergraduate studies, he worked with the Computational Mechanics and Quantum Materials research groups at Uniandes, concentrating primarily on machine learning. His current research focuses on Bayesian estimation with machine learning techniques.
Fabio joined the group in Spring 2022. He graduated in 2021 with a Master of Science in Robotics and Automation Engineering from University of Pisa, Italy, where he conducted research on cislunar rendezvous dynamics, guidance and navigation.
Andrea joined the group in Spring 2024. He graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy, and in 2023 with a Master of Science in Space Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Prior to joining the group, he had the opportunity to develop his Master’s thesis at UT Austin under the guidance of Renato Zanetti. His research interests encompass SLAM navigation between satellites and Reduced Order Models.
Jack joined the group in Fall 2024 and is co-advised by Dr. Ryan Russell. He graduated in 2023 with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is a NASA Pathways intern at JSC, where he has mainly focused on linear covariance analysis for Artemis II.
Wren joined the group in Fall 2025. She graduated in 2024 from Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Minor in Aerospace Engineering. Her research interests include nonlinear estimation, attitude determination, and aviation.
Cole joined the group in Fall 2025. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in Summer 2025. Before coming to the lab, he interned at Astranis Space Technologies on their attitude determination sub-team. His interests include nonlinear estimation and control, especially their applications to the cislunar domain.