Francesco holds a Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering and a Master's degree in Space and Astronautical Engineering from the University of Rome La Sapienza. During his thesis, he completed an internship at CERN, where he designed and tested an unmanned aerial vehicle for flying and mapping CERN's detector environments. After graduation, he joined EP-R&D on behalf of the School of Aerospace Engineering in Rome, focusing on developing robotic systems for inspection and maintenance of the next generation of particle detectors. He is currently a PhD student at CERN where he is developing guidance, navigation and control systems for autonomous lighter than air robots.