Prof. Roberto Furfaro named director of SSA-Arizona

Prof. Roberto Furfaro has been named the new director of SSA (Space Situational Awareness)–Arizona.

SSA–Arizona is an extension of the UA's Space Object Behavioral Sciences initiative and encompasses SOBS, Space Domain Awareness, and Space Traffic Management. SSA–Arizona leverages the UA's unique expertise to provide academic research contributions to these critical space issues. 

Prof. Furfaro has 17 years of experience in research and development in space systems engineering, GNC, intelligent algorithms for remote sensing, space exploration, and space situational awareness. In the 2011-2016 timeframe, he was the Systems Engineering Lead for the Science and Processing Operation Center for OSIRIS-REx.

He has brought to the UA over $5M in R&D grants and has published more than 180 research papers. He is a member of the AAS Spaceflight Mechanics Committee and has served as technical chair of the AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Conference. Recently, he has been pioneering the application of deep learning for Space Situational Awareness and he is the PI of the AFRL Cooperative Agreement.  Prof. Furfaro will bring a highly interdisciplinary and bridge-building approach and we are very excited to have him on board.