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.
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 received a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy, in 2021, and a Master of Science in Space Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, in 2023. His PhD research interests include Bayesian estimation, particle flow filters, attitude estimation, and nonlinear state estimation for aerospace applications.
Jack joined the group in Fall 2024 and is co-advised by Dr. Ryan Russell. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2023 and a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from UT Austin in 2026. He is a Pathways intern at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity fellow. His research interests include nonlinear estimation, uncertainty propagation, and trajectory optimization.
Botond joined the group in Spring 2026 and is a CSEM Ph.D. student of the Oden Institute. He graduated in 2023 with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University College London in the UK and in 2024 with a Masters of Science in Mathematical Modeling and Scientific Computing from the University of Oxford in the UK.
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.