Stefano Brizzolara received his Master and Ph.D. degrees in naval architecture and marine engineering. He is currently a professor and graduate program director at the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering of Virginia Tech (USA). He founded and currently directs the VT innovative Ship design (iShip) Lab, and co-Directs the Center for Marine Autonomy and Robotics, advising a research group of 13 graduate students, all funded on research projects. He has served as a Peabody Visiting Associate Professor with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, at MIT (USA). He is the author of more than 250 peer reviewed papers, and a designated inventor of nine patents (with two pending) for innovative ship designs or ship systems. His research interests include computational fluid dynamics (CFD); the design of advanced underwater and surface marine vehicles; the hydrodynamics of high-speed crafts; and the design of high-performance ship propulsors. Dr. Brizzolara is the recipient of the Kevin Crofton Faculty Fellow award at Virginia Tech (2020-2023), the 2018 Calder Prize for Best Paper on high-speed crafts, and the 2015 Mandel’s Prize for Excellence in Hydrofoil Research advising.