Dr. Marco Ciarcià earned his M.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering, graduating magna cum laude from Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy, in 2001. He then completed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Rice University, Houston, Texas, in 2008. From 2010 to 2015, he was a research associate at the Spacecraft Robotics Laboratory at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. 

Between 2016 and 2023, Dr. Ciarcià served as an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota, before joining the Mechanical Engineering department at CSU in 2023. Since 2021, he has been an active member of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Technical Committee. Dr. Ciarcià is also the CTO and co-founder of AeroFly LLC, a company specializing in UAV design and development. His research interests include robotics, mechatronics, UAV design, optimal and nonlinear control, spacecraft guidance, navigation and control, and small satellites.