Research experience
Learning-based vision for map-relative navigation of aerial and landing platforms under challenging illumination and over unknown terrain. Project Manager of LunarAssembly (FNR, with TU Wien) and Project Coordinator of AI4SPACE-XPLORE (ESA, with DLR).
Deep learning for map-relative localization of future Mars rotorcraft on long-range flights under challenging illumination. Conceived Geo-LoFTR, a geometry-aided deep image matcher, and MARTIAN, a framework that renders pose-annotated aerial imagery of Mars. More
Science forward model and signal extraction pipeline for the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope, a NIAC concept to detect the 21-cm signal of the Cosmic Dark Ages. More
Assembled and operated a payload from Université Libre de Bruxelles to test artificial droplet morphogenesis in low gravity, over three days of flight aboard the Airbus A310 ZERO-G.
Research on graphene-enhanced loop heat pipes for space thermal management.
Education
Doctoral research conducted at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2021 to 2024). Thesis: Vision-based Geo-Localization of Future Mars Rotorcraft in Challenging Illumination Conditions using Deep Learning.
Grants
ESA Invitation to Tender 1-12786. Awarded EUR 200k; completed in September 2026.
Awards
- Workshop Best Poster Award, ICRA 2026, Vienna. Awarded by the IEEE-RAS Technical Committee on Space Robotics for MARTIAN: A Rendering Framework for Aerial Mars Imagery from HiRISE Orbital Data.
- NOVA Award, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2024. Notable Organizational Value Added award from the Mobility and Robotic Systems Section, for the science pipeline of the Lunar Crater Radio Telescope.
- AIAA Spacecraft Structures Best Paper Award, AIAA SciTech 2023, for Kilometer-Scale Parabolic Reflector for a Radio Telescope in a Lunar Crater.
- 1st place, Lab2Moon Global Challenge, Team Indus, Bangalore, 2017, for the lunar experiment concept Radio-Shield.
- 1st place, NASA Space Apps Challenge, Naples edition, 2016, for the Mars surface mobility concept SRS Explorer.
Mentoring
- Christos Kyriazis, PhD advising, University of Luxembourg, 2025 to present. Teleoperated robotic navigation for lunar assembly and deep learning hazard segmentation.
- Lakshmikanth Nageswar, MSc thesis advising, IIT Kharagpur, 2025 to 2026. Robust state estimation in GPS-denied, perceptually degraded environments, fusing map-relative localization with visual-inertial odometry.
- Ariane Marongiou, MSc internship supervision, University of Luxembourg, 2026. Contribution to the ESA-funded AI4SPACE-XPLORE study.
Peer review
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA); International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR); International Conference on Space Robotics (iSpaRo).
Skills
- Programming: Python, C++, MATLAB/Simulink
- Machine learning: PyTorch, TensorFlow, ONNX; embedded deployment with TensorFlow Lite and the Qualcomm Neural Processing SDK
- Tools: Blender, OpenCV, Git, LaTeX
- Expertise: map-relative localization, image registration, multimodal deep learning, feature matching, camera pose estimation (PnP, RANSAC), synthetic data generation, image processing
Certifications
- Space Resources Professional Course, ESRIC, Luxembourg, 2026
- NASA Transform to Open Science (TOPS), Open Science 101, 2024
- Licensed Professional Engineer, University of Naples Federico II, 2021