Faculty
Renato Zanetti
Renato obtained a Laurea degree from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin (UT). Prior to returning to UT to join the faculty he held professional engineering roles from 2007 to 2017 at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory and at the NASA Johnson Space Center.
Renato is a Fellow of the American Astronautical Society, an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a Senior Member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the recipient of numerous NASA awards, including the 2015 Software of the Year Award for his work on Orion GN&C.
Curriculum Vitae (Last Updated 10/08/2024).
PostDocs
Alberto Fossà
Alberto obtained his Ph.D. and a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse, France. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Università degli Studi di Padova in Padova, Italy. During his Ph.D., Alberto focused on the development of multifidelity techniques for nonlinear uncertainty propagation and their application to astrodynamics problems. His research interests include uncertainty propagation, navigation, and spacecraft trajectory optimization. Alberto joined the group in Spring 2024 to work on autonomous space domain awareness in cislunar space.
Students
Kristen Michaelson
Kristen is a Ph.D. student who joined the group in Fall 2018. She graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Brown University and in 2020 with a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from UT Austin. Prior to joining the group, Kristen worked as an R&D Engineer at Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics for two years. Her research interests include nonlinear estimation, terrain-relative navigation, and particle filters. Kristen is affiliated with the Robotics Portfolio.
Rachel Mamich
Rachel is a Ph.D. student who 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 Durant
Dalton is a Ph.D. student who 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 Giraldo Grueso
Felipe is a Ph.D. student who 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 D’Onofrio
Fabio is a Ph.D. student who 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 Rigato
Andrea is a Ph.D. student who 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 Joshi
Jack is a Ph.D. Student who joined the group in Fall 2024 and is co-advised by Dr. Ryan Russell. He graduated in 2023 with a B.S. 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.
Ph.D. Graduates
Corey Marcus
Corey graduated with a Ph.D. in Aerospace engineering in Summer 2024. He graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Ohio State University and in 2020 with a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from UT Austin. His research focus centers on guidance, navigation, and control of spacecraft with an emphasis on machine vision, descent and landing, and hardware in the loop testing. Corey is the recipient of a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity fellowship. Upon graduation, Corey joined Blue Origin in Kent, Washington.
Arjun Ram S.P.
Arjun graduated with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in May 2023. He graduated in 2016 from BITS Pilani, India, with a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and in 2019 from UT Austin with a Masters in Aerospace Engineering. His research focuses on heterogeneous robot coordination and planning, with interests in control and navigation of quadrotors. Arjun completed the Graduate Portfolio Program in Robotics Portfolio. His Ph.D. dissertation is titled: “Onboard Control, Tracking, and Navigation for Autonomous Systems”. After leaving the group, Arjun joined Apple Maps in Cupertino, California.
Sehyun Yun
Sehyun graduated with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in May 2021. From June 2021 until April 2022 he continued his work in the group as a PostDoc. He graduated from Handong Global University, South Korea, with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical and Control Engineering in 2012 and from Seoul National University with a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering in 2014. His Ph.D. dissertation is titled: “Sequential Monte Carlo Filtering with Gaussian Mixture Models for Highly Nonlinear Systems“. For his paper titled: “Kernel-Based Ensemble Gaussian Mixture Filtering for Orbit Determination with Sparse Data” Sehyun received the John V. Breakwell Student Travel Award at the 2021 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference. His research focuses on integrated navigation systems with particular interest in image processing and Bayesian filtering. After leaving the group, Sehyun joined Hyundai autonomous driving group in Seul, South Korea.
Rahul Moghe
Rahul graduated with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in May 2021. His dissertation is titled: “Adaptive Algorithms for Identification of Symmetric and Positive Definite Matrices“. He joined the research group in Summer 2017, prior to that he graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India, with a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering in 2015 and from The University of Texas at Austin in 2017 with a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering. His field of interest lies in using control theory and blending different fields in robotics with real world applications. Together with his Ph.D., Rahul completed the Graduate Portfolio Program in Robotics Portfolio. Upon graduation, Rahul joined Amazon‘s Scout robot team in Seattle, WA.
Simone Servadio
Simone graduated with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in May 2021. His dissertation is titled: “New Developments In Nonlinear Filtering Using Differential Algebra“. He joined the research group in Summer 2018. He graduated from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, with a Bachelor degree in Aerospace Engineering in 2015 and with a Master degree in Space Engineering in 2017. His research focuses on nonlinear filtering for GN&C applications, with particular focus on relative pose estimation between satellites. At UT, Simone worked on the development of nonlinear filters using polynomial approximations. For his paper titled: “Estimation of the Conditional State and Covariance with Taylor Polynomials”, Simone received the John V. Breakwell Student Travel Award at the 2021 AAS/AIAA Space-Flight Mechanics Meeting. Upon graduation, Simone joined MIT’s ARCLab as a Post-Doc followed by a tenure-track faculty position at Iowa State University.
Kirsten Tuggle
Kirsten graduated with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in August 2020, her dissertation is titled: Model Selection for Gaussian Mixture Model Filtering and Sensor Scheduling. She graduated from Auburn University in 2014 with undergraduate degrees in Aerospace Engineering and in Applied Mathematics and from The University of Texas at Austin in 2016 with a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering. Together with her Ph.D., Kirsten completed the Graduate Portfolio Program in Applied Statistical Modeling. Her research focuses on spacecraft navigation with interests in estimation theory, Bayesian statistical inference, information theory, and prediction. Upon graduation, Kirsten joined Draper in Cambridge, MA.
Former Post-Docs
Andrey Popov
Andrey was a NEAR postdoc from Fall 2022 until Summer 2024, he joined the University of Hawaii at Manoa as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science in August 2024. Andrey obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech (VT), and his B.S. in Mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). During the course of his Ph.D., Andrey has worked on ensemble filtering techniques including work with multifidelity data assimilation and with covariance shrinkage. He has also worked on extending and applying non-linear dimensionality reduction techniques to constructing efficient reduced order models for use in scientific applications. Andrey’s other interests include data-driven science, knowledge-guided machine learning, and time integration. For his paper titled “Are Non-Gaussian Kernels Suitable for Ensemble Mixture Model Filtering” Andrey received the Jean-Pierre Le Cadre best paper award at the 2024 FUSION conference.
M.S. Graduates
Bryan Pogorelsky
Bryan completed a Masters of Science in Engineering in August 2020, his Master Thesis is titled: “Spacecraft Terrain Relative Navigation with Synthetic Aperture Radar”. He joined the research group in Fall 2018. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 2018. His research interest is in guidance, navigation, and control with a focus on terrain relative navigation. Upon graduation, Bryan joined Northrop Grumman in Dulles, VA.
James Bell
James completed a Masters of Science in Engineering in May 2019, his Master Report is titled: “Estimation for Spacecraft Docking with a Known Target”. James joined the research group in Summer 2017, his main research interest is GN&C for spacecraft proximity operations, with other interests in quadrotors and computer vision. Upon graduation, James joined Tau Technologies in Albuquerque, NM.