Fabrizio Schiano is a “returning brain” who couldn’t be happier about it. He is an automation engineer and has spent over a decade abroad, living in Switzerland, Germany, the United States, and France—countries where he studied extensively, worked, and even taught. Then, in 2021, thanks to an article published in an Italian newspaper and spotted by his father, a retired researcher from the Italian Aerospace Research Centre, he discovered the existence of the Leonardo Innovation Labs and decided to apply by sending his CV. The result? “I now lead a team of fifteen people as Principal Investigator of the Autonomous Systems Laboratory and Leonardo Innovation Labs” at the Cascina Costa (Varese, Italy) site.
“Seventy per cent of my team,” he explains, “holds a PhD. It’s a fantastic group of young professionals between the ages of 29 and 34—none of them shy away from tackling complex problems. Those who join the team want to stay, and as for the atmosphere, I can honestly say I’d go for a beer with them every evening.” It’s easy to believe, given the enthusiasm and passion with which Fabrizio talks about his work. “I’m doing exactly what I dreamed of since my university days—designing, together with my team, functions that enable different types of systems (such as drones, helicopters, and fixed-wing aircraft) to operate autonomously. Doing this for my country, and within an international company like Leonardo is an additional source of pride.”
Through his ten years around Europe and the United States, Fabrizio has strengthened his ability to adapt and his resilience, qualities he finds valuable in people who are part of his team, which will increase in the coming months. After earning his Bachelor's and Master's degree at the University of Naples Federico II under the mentorship of renowned robotics professor Bruno Siciliano, Fabrizio achieved his dream in 2012 by developing his Master’s degree thesis at ETH Zurich. “It was an extraordinary experience,” he recalls, “where I worked on a project using drones for a Walt Disney light show. It was thrilling.”
At 24, he moved to Bavaria, Germany, to work on projects related to small satellites and renewable energy. The following year, he embarked on a four-year PhD at the Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique (Inria), France, specialising in GPS-free multi-drone systems. In 2017, he spent six months at Boston University—“a wonderful experience,” as he describes it—before spending another four years in Switzerland as a post-doctoral researcher at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). “This last role was completely different from my previous ones—I found myself supervising PhD students and managing laboratory resources, including financial ones. It was a period in which I truly learned what resilience means.”
In 2021, he decided to return to Italy, in Milan: “Leonardo offers the opportunity to be part of an international environment, broaden one’s horizons, and collaborate with highly specialised professionals in various fields. Just think of helicopters—one of the sectors in which our company is a global leader.”