Work experience

• Dates

October 2012 to now

• Name and address of employer

ESTEC (European Space Research & Technology Centre), Noordwijk (The Netherlands)

• Occupation or position held

Research Fellow in computer science and applied mathematics at the Advanced Concepts Team (TEC-SF).

• Main activities and responsibilities

Responsibilities:

- Follow, monitor, propose and perform high-level research in the field of computer science and applied mathematics both within the team and together with universities of ESA member states, supervise internal students, publish results in peer reviewed journals. Lead and contribute to interdisciplinary research projects.

Main activities:

- Research on constrained evolutionary optimization, with application to interplanetary trajectory design.

- Research on Exploratory Landscape Analysis: extracting knowledge from the definition of the optimization problem as pre-analysis to improve the performances of the optimization techniques used.

-  Research on Extreme Learning Machine algorithms for ordinal regression, as new learning paradigm with interesting applications to theanalysis of large data sets and real time processing of data. 

• Dates

June 2009 to December 2009

• Name and address of employer

ESTEC (European Space Research & Technology Centre), Noordwijk (The Netherlands)

• Occupation or position held

PhD student in the Dynamics and Mathematical Analysis Unit of the Control Systems Division of the Electrical Engineering Department, Directorate of Technical and Quality Management (TEC-ECM).

• Main activities and responsibilities

Internship as part of the PRESTIGE PhD activity on Multidisciplinary Design Optimization. Development of the software architecture and selection of the most promising multi objective optimization techniques for the arising MDO mixed integer non linear programming problem.

• Dates

May 2008 to October 2008

• Name and address of employer

ESTEC (European Space Research & Technology Centre), Noordwijk (The Netherlands)

• Occupation or position held

Trainee in the Dynamics and Mathematical Analysis Unit of the Control Systems Division of the

Electrical Engineering Department, Directorate of Technical and Quality Management (TEC-ECM).

• Main activities and responsibilities

- Supporting the development of STA software GUI using Qt libraries. STA software suite is conceived as a research tool to support the analysis phase of a space mission having the ability to analyze, determine, simulate, and visualize a wide range of space trajectories.

-Development of the Cowell propagator, to be integrated in STA. 

• Dates

January 2009 to September 2012

• Name and type of organization providing education and training

University of Bremen - Zentrum für Technomathematik, Bremen (Germany)

• Study course

PhD in Mathematics, working group “AG Optimierung und Optimale Steuerung”

• Mark

Magna Cum Laude

• Principal subjects/occupational

skills covered

Subject: Multi-disciplinary optimization techniques applied to space launch vehicles design. Research performed in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano under ESA (European Space Agency) contract for the PRrogram in Education for Space, Technology, Innovation and knowledge (PRESTIGE).

• Dates

September 2005 to February 2008

• Name and type of organization providing education and training

University of Milan, Milan (Italy)

• Study course

MSc in Mathematics

• Mark

110/110 with honors

• Level in national classification

2 years degree.

• Thesis

Subject: Approximation methods.

Title: Analysis of the advection-diffusion problem discretized with the SUPG method.

• Principal subjects/occupational

skills covered

Subjects:

- Approximation methods for the solution of partial differential equations

- Numerical methods for unconstrained optimization and no linear equations.

- Game theory and decision making

- Image elaboration, computational graphics, computational geometry and digital images analysis.

- Scientific parallel computing.

- Dynamic systems, periodicity and chaos in dynamic systems, pperturbation theory,Poincaré and KAM Theorems.

• Dates

September 2002 to December 2005

• Name and type of organization providing education and training

University of Milan, Milan (Italy)

• Study course

BSc in Mathematics

•Mark

107/110.

• Level in national classification

3 years degree.

• Thesis

Subject: Topology.

Title: "The Jones polynomial as knot invariant."

Analysis of the Jones polynomial  as a classifier for trivial and not trivial knots.

• Principal subjects/occupational

skills covered

-Basic subject:

- Mathematical Analysis I, II, III, IV; Physics I,II,III,IV; Geometry I,II,III,IV; Algebra I, II,III; Mathematical Physics I,II; Statistics and Probability Calculation I (with laboratory); Numerical methods; C and Matlab Programming.

-Specialized subject:

- Object-oriented programming.   

- Scientific computing: development and simulation of mathematical models for Maths, Physics, Biology and Computer Science.

• Dates

4 March 2013 to 6 March 2013

• Name and type of organization providing education and training

ESTEC (European Space Research & Technology Centre) and University of Southampton

• Principal subjects/occupational

skills covered

ESA training lectures on “Basic of Space System Engineering”.

Subjects: the course was intended for personnel without an engineering background. The basic of spacecraft engineering are presented in three days of lectures focusing on: spacecraft operational environment, orbital mechanics, launch vehicles, system reliability, attitude control,, subsystems, ground control and operations, assembly integration and testing of a spacecraft.

• Dates

25 August 2008 to 29 August 2008

• Name and type of organization providing education and training

ESTEC (European Space Research & Technology Centre), Noordwijk (The Netherlands)

• Principal subjects/occupational

skills covered

ESA Student training workshop “System Engineering and Technology for Space Missions”.

Subjects: The Space Environment, Technology development, Electromagnetic compatibility, ECSS standards, Mission Analysis, Propulsion system, The Launch system, Spacecraft structures, Future Science technologies, Spacecraft Data Handling, Satellite telecom System, Attitude and Orbit control system, Spacecraft software, Project reviews, Thermal design, Power system.

• Dates

18 June 2008 to 20 June 2008

• Name and type of organization providing education and training

AGI, Astos Solutions, ESTEC (European Space Research & Technology Centre), Noordwijk (The Netherlands)

• Principal subjects/occupational

skills covered

- STK training course: STK (Satellite Tool Kit) is a software to design, analyze, visualize and optimize land, sea, air and space systems.

- ASTOS training course: ASTOS (AeroSpace Trajectory Optimization Software) is an aerospace optimization tool for launcher and reentry missions.

- GESOP training course: GESOP (Graphical Environment for Simulation and Optimization) is the software system for trajectory analysis of dynamic systems governed by a set of nonlinear differential equation associated boundary conditions, path constraints and cost functions.

Personal skills

and competences

Mother tongue

Italian

Other languages

Common European Framework of Reference (CEF) level

English

• Reading

Proficient user (C1)

• Writing

Proficient user(C1)

• Verbal

Proficient user (C1)

Exam:

July 1999 at the Plymouth University,

Trinity exam (grade 6)

German

• Reading

Independent user(B1)

• Writing

Basic user(A2)

• Verbal

Independent user(B1)

French

• Reading

Basic user(A2)

• Writing

Basic user(A1)

• Verbal

Basic user(A1)

Computer skills

and competences

- Operating Systems: Windows, Linux.

- Applications: Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint), Internet Explorer, LaTex.

- Programming codes: C, C++ (Qt libraries), Java, Python.

- Simulation codes: Matlab, Cabri, Maple, Alberta (an adaptive hierarchical finite element toolbox).

- Parallel computation tools: MPI (Message Passing Interface), PETSc (Portable Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation), OpenMP.

- Astrodynamic tools: STK, STA, ASTOS, GESOP.

- Optimization tools: PyGMO/PaGMO (Parallel Global Multiobjective Optimization), SNOPT, WORHP.

Social skills

and competences

I use to work in team. I think that comparison with other people helps you to grow professionally. I am motivated to work in a multicultural environment.

Organizational skills

and competences

Very good team player. Very good organization skills. Attention to details.

Personal interests

I like running (I run an half marathon in spring 2013), cycling and climbing (I climbed Kilimanjaro in summer 2013), walking (I run a 100Km charity walk in spring 2014).

Hobbies: traveling and photography.

Additional Information

Extra Curricula Activities

- Supporter of the ESA Humanitarian Relief Fund.

- Organizer of the weekly seminar named “Science Coffee” at the Advanced Concepts Team.

- GSoC 2013: mentor for the Google Summer of Code 2013 for the PyGMO/PaGMO project, supervising 3 students.

List of Publications

Journal papers:

- Francesco Castellini, Michèle R. Lavagna, Annalisa Riccardi, and Christof Büskens, "Quantitative Assessment of Multidisciplinary Design Models for Expendable Launch Vehicles," Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, 2014.

- Riccardi, A., Fernandez-Navarro, F., and Carloni, S., Cost-Sensitive AdaBoost Algorithm for Ordinal Regression Based on Extreme Learning Machine, IEEE Transaction on Cybernetics, 2014.

- Fernandez-Navarro, F., Riccardi, A., and Carloni, S., Ordinal Neural Networks without iterative running, IEEE Transaction on Neural Networks and learning systems, 2014.

Conferences proceedings:

- Castellini F., Riccardi A., Lavagna M., and Bueskens C., “A First Step Towards Svago: The Space Vehicles Analysis And Global Optimization MDO Tool”, 4-th International Conference on Astrodynamics Tools and Techniques, Madrid, Spain, May 2010.

- Nikolayzik T., Riccardi A., and Bueskens C., “Tortuga: a C++ Library for Dynamic Global Optimization Problems Using Interval Analysis”, 4-th International Conference on Astrodynamics Tools and Techniques, Madrid, Spain, May 2010.

- Castellini F., Riccardi A., Lavagna M., and Bueskens C., “Multidisciplinary Design Optimization models and algorithms for space launch vehicles”, AIAA/ATIO/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference, Fort Worth, TX, September 2010.

-  Castellini F., Riccardi A., Lavagna M., and Bueskens C., “Global and Local Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of Expendable Launch Vehicles”, AIAA Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Specialists Conference, Denver, CO, April 2011.

- Castellini F., Riccardi A., Lavagna M., and Bueskens C., “Global and Local Optimization Approaches for Launch Vehicles Ascent Trajectory Design”, International Astronautical Congress, Cape Town, October 2011.

- Castellini F., Riccardi A., Lavagna M., and Bueskens C., “Launch vehicles multidisciplinary optimization, a step from conceptual to early preliminary design”, International Astronautical, Congress, Cape Town, October 2011.