Luís Carlos Affonso
EMBRAER Heritage and Horizon: Helping to shape the Future of Flight
Embraer’s roots trace back to Marshall Casimiro Montenegro Filho, who founded CTA, a research center and ITA, an engineering College, with the conviction that before producing airplanes, we must produce engineers. From this vision, 20 years later, emerged Ozires Silva, who turned ambition into reality through the Bandeirante project and the creation of Embraer—propelling Brazil into the global aerospace stage.
Today, that pioneering culture drives our future. Through innovative programs, we sustain the flow of knowledge between academia and industry while advancing six strategic innovation priorities.
With the Future of Engineering program, we are reimagining how we design and certify aircraft—leveraging digital tools, advanced simulation, and agile methods for greater speed and reliability.
Heritage inspires us as we help shape the future of flight.
Luís Carlos Affonso is currently Embraer Chief Technology Officer, supporting Commercial, Executive, Defense and Services Business Units. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of EVE, a company devoted to the urban air mobility since May 2022.
Affonso joined Embraer 42 years ago as an aeronautical engineer, in January 1983. In 1995, after serving at different positions with increasing responsibilities, he became Embraer Senior Vice President of Engineering and Chief Engineer. Since then, in different roles, he led the launch and development of all civilian – commercial and executive – Embraer new airplane platforms, including EJets, Phenoms and Praetors.
Affonso was President & CEO, Embraer Executive Jets from 2005 to 2011 and was responsible for building it as an independent Business Unit, including business and product strategies, as well as marketing, sales and customer support for this segment.
Affonso graduated in aeronautical engineering at Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA), in São José dos Campos, Brazil, in 1982. Affonso has a Master’s degree in International Business Administration.
Affonso is an airplane commercial pilot with multi-engine and instrument ratings and holds Phenom 100 and 300 business jets as well as EJets commercial jets type ratings.
María Calvo Blanco
Performance. Sustainability. Technology. Clean Aviation Strategy to tackle aviation’s top three challenges
Where does the European Union stand in the global effort to decarbonise the whole aviation system? How is the European collaborative model ensuring that the EU environmental targets for 2050 will be met? Addressing the daunting challenges of this sector, Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking stands as the European Union’s flagship research and innovation Programme aiming at driving the transition towards carbon neutrality in aviation by 2050. As Partnership, by pulling together more than 2.4B€ from the private and the public side, Clean Aviation is at the forefront of the development of breakthrough technologies targeting 30% reduction of CO₂ and GHG emissions from Regional and Short-Medium Range aircraft, and 100% reduction from Hydrogen Propulsion aircraft.
This keynote will present Clean Aviation’s technology and innovation roadmap, designed to support technologies maturation towards new aircraft expected to enter into service by 2035. It will introduce some of the Programme’s most promising projects, and outline the strategy and structure behind the latest selection for funding (Call 3), and the upcoming Call 4 in 2026.
While sustainability goals remain the Programme’s core objective, the presentation will also address how to bridge the critical ‘valley of death’ in innovation deployment. Clean Aviation and SESAR Joint Undertaking co-developed in 2025 the Aviation Research & Innovation Strategy (ARIS) initiative, a strategic roadmap supported by over 100 stakeholders. By collecting input and instances from all categories of players of the European aviation sector, ARIS integrates research, innovation, and market uptake, covering all aircraft segments and advancing the Digital European Sky under a new action framework.
Ahead of the negotiations for the next EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (2028–2034), Clean Aviation and the wider European aviation community call for a strong and decisive leap forward in Europe’s commitment to sustainable and competitive aviation.
María Calvo Blanco is the Head of Unit for Project Management in the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking, a Public-Private Partnership and the European Union’s leading Research and Innovation programme for steering aviation towards a sustainable and climate-neutral future.
María supports the Executive Director in coordinating the Clean Aviation Programme, managing Calls, supervising projects under grant agreements, and reporting to governing bodies. She chairs the Programme Coordination Committee and leads her team in the Project Management Unit to work efficiently towards the JUs’ objectives of the full project portfolio. Since she joined the Joint Undertaking in May 2022, María has led the closure of the previous Programme Clean Sky2 and she acts also as Leader of the Short-Medium Range (SMR) thrust in Clean Aviation.
María has over than 20 years of professional experience in the aeronautic industry. Prior to her current role in Clean Aviation, she was Transnational Domain Leader of the Team of Static Loads and Powerplant Interface (2016-2022) at Airbus Defence and Space. María also worked for Airbus in the UK, where she was responsible to develop Flight Control Loads for A330 and A380, and provide in-service support for Single Aisle and Long Range in Bristol (2011-2013).
She started at CASA, in Getafe, where she focused on Flight Physics and Overall Aircraft Design. She has been involved in several military programs, including A400M, Eurofighter, C-295 versions, Unmanned Air Vehicles and Air Refuelling.
María holds a Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain.
Connect with María on LinkedIn.
Patrizia Caraveo
Entrepreneurs’ occupation of low-Earth orbital space and its environmental impact
Our planet is surrounded by satellites that do extraordinary work in studying climate change, saving lives and mitigating the consequences of natural disasters, providing global communication and navigation services, and helping us answer important scientific questions.
Certainly, rapid technological developments have been accompanied by innovative applications that benefit society. However, as discussed in my book Space Ecology (Springer, 2025), the explosive growth in the number of objects in orbit poses global risks that cannot be ignored. Indeed, negative impacts are already emerging. They range from light pollution, the danger of collisions, and the deposition of toxic gases in our atmosphere to the risk of accidents caused by free-falling debris.
Patrizia Caraveo is associated with INAF at the Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica in Milano, where she was Director from 2011 to 2017. She is also Professor of “Introduction to Astronomy” at the University of Pavia, representative of INAF within the CTA Collaboration, and Associate Editor of the Journal of High Energy Astrophysics. Since March 2025, she has been President of the Società Astronomica Italiana (SAIt).
A world leader in the study of high-energy emission from neutron stars, she is well known for her seminal work on Geminga, the first gamma-ray pulsar with no radio emission. Indeed, her career has been based on interdisciplinarity in astronomy, both from space and from the ground.
For the Geminga results, she won the Premio Nazionale Presidente della Repubblica in 2009 and the Enrico Fermi Prize of the Società Italiana di Fisica (SIF) in 2021.
Moreover, she shared the Bruno Rossi Prize of the American Astronomical Society in 2007, 2011, and 2012 with her Swift, Fermi, and Agile colleagues.
In 2014, she received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Women in Aerospace European Society and was included by Thomson Reuters in the list of Highly Cited Researchers for Space Science.
In 2017, she was awarded the title of Commendatore dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.
Walter Cugno
Past, Present and Future of Space Pressurized Module
Pressurized modules have played a central role in enabling human presence and activity in space. From the early space stations of the 20th century—such as Skylab, Mir, and the first generation of International Space Station (ISS) modules—to today’s advanced habitats supporting long-duration missions, their evolution reflects major technological, scientific, and mission-driven advancements. This presentation explores the historical milestones that shaped current pressurized module design, including structural innovations, life support systems, and international cooperation. It also highlights current achievements in orbital laboratories and commercial space stations, demonstrating how modular architecture supports research, sustainability, and crew well-being. Looking ahead, the talk examines emerging concepts for lunar and Martian habitats, reusable commercial modules, and novel materials and manufacturing methods that aim to enhance reliability and autonomy. By understanding the past and present, we can better anticipate future requirements and design principles that will expand human capabilities deeper into the solar system.
Born in Avigliana (Turin) on April 7, 1955, he has built a career of more than fifty years dedicated to the development of human and robotic space exploration programs. Since joining the company on February 13, 1975, he has taken on roles of increasing responsibility within Aeritalia, Alenia Spazio, Alcatel Alenia Space, and Thales Alenia Space, contributing to the evolution of some of the most important European and international space initiatives.
In the years preceding the creation of the joint venture between Leonardo and Thales, he served as Operations and Program Manager at Alenia Spazio, gaining deep expertise in engineering, development, manufacturing, assembly, integration and testing, and in the advancement of innovative space technologies. His leadership progressively expanded across strategic industrial and technical domains.
Throughout his career, he has played a key role in major scientific and exploration missions, including Spacelab, Tethered Satellite, IRIS, Lageos, Hipparcos, and BeppoSAX. In these programs, he served in critical positions such as Product Assurance Manager, Assembly, Integration and Test Manager, Launch Operations Manager, and Project Manager, helping shape Europe’s long-term presence in space.
From 1997 to 2013, he was Program Manager for several cornerstone elements of the International Space Station, including the Node 2 (Harmony) and Node 3 (Tranquility) modules, the Cupola observatory, the Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules (MPLM), the Pressurized Multipurpose Module, the Cygnus Pressurized Cargo Module, as well as next-generation NASA exploration programs. These achievements significantly strengthened the company’s role as a global leader in orbital infrastructure.
In 2013, he was appointed Director of the ExoMars program, the European mission dedicated to Mars exploration, a role earned through decades of technical mastery and managerial excellence. From January 1, 2016 to July 31, 2025, he held a dual leadership position as Vice President of the Exploration and Science Domain at Thales Alenia Space and Head of the company’s Turin site, guiding major strategic initiatives and strengthening industrial and institutional partnerships.
He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of ALTEC, a joint venture between Thales Alenia Space and the Italian Space Agency dedicated to advanced logistics, operations, and ground segment support for space missions. Since 2025, he has also served as Vice President of the Piedmont Aerospace District, contributing to the growth and innovation of the regional aerospace ecosystem.
Luciano Demasi
Aerodynamics and Aeroelasticity of Innovative Wing Systems
Traditional configurations have been adopted for many decades in both civil and military applications. Their design has reached high levels of efficiency due to the progress in both computational and experimental aspects of engineering tools and capabilities.
However, this is also an indication of a limit of the current systems: only incremental enhancements in terms of performance, fuel consumption, and operative costs can be obtained, unless a dramatic departure from the layout of airplanes is introduced.
This talk presents aerodynamic and aeroelastic preliminary design tools/theoretical frameworks tailored for innovative non-planar wing systems, such as Joined Wings, Box Wings, and Truss-Braced Wings.
The challenges and opportunities brought by aeroelastic nonlinearities will also be discussed.
Luciano Demasi received his PhD in Aerospace Engineering in 2004 from Politecnico di Torino, Italy, and is currently a professor at San Diego State University (Department of Aerospace Engineering).
He is also an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and author of more than 100 publications in the areas of Aerodynamics, Structures, and Aeroelasticity, including the recently published book Introduction to Unsteady Aerodynamics and Dynamic Aeroelasticity (Springer, 2024).
Luciano Demasi is ranked among the top 2% of authors worldwide in the subfield of Aerospace & Aeronautics. He received the AIAA San Diego Section “Outstanding Contribution to Aerospace Research” award (2023) and the “Northrop Grumman Excellence in Teaching Award” (2025).
Scott Drennan
Laminar Flow – Reducing the Energy Required for Flight
Although Laminar Flow has long been considered as the Holy Grail of aerodynamicists, most recent efforts to improve aircraft system efficiency have been focused on propulsive power and weight improvements. At Otto Aerospace, our mission is to unlock the physics of laminar flow to radically reduce the energy required for flight. With laminar flow, we significantly improve drag performance versus traditional turbulent flow fields, and the effect of that improvement creates an exponential improvement on overall aircraft system efficiency.
We will discuss the journey of Otto Aerospace to achieve our mission. One of our most interesting perspectives on laminar flow has become a mantra for the development team: we must design in laminar flow; we must build in laminar flow; and we must keep in laminar flow. These phrases represent different parts of our product development life cycle: engineering, manufacturing, and operations. We will discuss these three important and interrelated concepts today as the main thrust of our presentation.
Scott Drennan is currently the president and COO of Otto Aviation. The Otto Team is using a concept called super-natural laminar flow to create more capable and affordable aircraft platforms. Otto’s new development program aims to improve aerodynamic efficiency by 30%: targeting fuel burn reductions of 60%, emissions reductions of 90% using SAF, and cost reductions of up to 50%. Scott has always been passionate about sustainable aviation, and this latest project is no exception.
Scott founded Drennan Innovation LLC in 2020. Drennan Innovation empowers clients through the design, development, and deployment of complex systems-of-systems in aerospace and defense. The Future is Behind Us®.
Scott started his 30-year career with Bell Helicopter. His last role at Bell was vice president of Innovation and Advanced Concepts, where he worked on bleeding-edge technologies for future military and commercial platforms, such as HSVTOL and eVTOL.
Before founding Drennan Innovation, Scott was the Chief Research & Development Officer of Hyundai’s $1.5 billion advanced air mobility division, now called Supernal.
Scott serves as an advisor to REGENT, Elroy Air, Radius Engineering, and to New Vista Capital. He is a member of the Board of Directors for Electric Power Systems.
From 2009-2015, Scott was a designated engineering representative (DER) for the FAA, and from 2018-2020, Scott was a member of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Aeronautics Committee.
Markus Fischer
Hydrogen as future energy source for aviation – DLR´s approach
Hydrogen is a highly versatile energy carrier with the potential to transform multiple sectors — from clean mobility and efficient power and heat supply to energy storage and industrial processes. When produced sustainably, it plays a crucial role in significantly reducing carbon emissions and combating climate change.
The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is driving innovation across the entire hydrogen value chain — from large-scale production using electrolysis and solar-thermal methods to efficient storage, transport, and application. DLR’s researchers develop fuel cells, hydrogen tanks, and low-emission combustion technologies for use in vehicles, aircraft, ships, and power plants.
In addition to DLR’s advanced assessment capabilities, its aeronautics research and world-class infrastructure — including the UpLift flying testbed and ground facilities — are crucial to developing, investigating, and advancing hydrogen technologies through to validation, testing, and certification in aviation. With decades of experience, DLR is helping to pave the way toward a cross-sectoral hydrogen economy and a sustainable energy and transport system.
Markus Fischer is DLR’s Divisional Board Member for Aeronautics. He studied aerospace engineering at the Technical University of Braunschweig, graduating as a chartered engineer in 1990.
From 1991 to 1996, he worked as a researcher at the DLR Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology in Göttingen. In 1994, he received his doctorate in fluid mechanics from the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University of Hanover.
In 1996, he moved into industry. At the companies STN Atlas Elektronik, Rheinmetall Defence and Airbus, Fischer has been involved in many civil and military aircraft developments over the past decades, holding responsible positions in research, development, and engineering. In 2017, he returned to DLR as Director of the Aeronautics Programme.
Since 2021, he has held the position of Divisional Board Member for Aeronautics.
Jinsong Leng
Smart Morphing Materials Structures and Applications in Aerospace
Smart morphing material is defined as a material that can sense and react to environmental conditions or external stimuli (e.g., mechanical, chemical, electrical, and magnetic signals). Due to their large active deformation, enhanced mechanical properties, recoverable features, and controllable remote actuation, these materials have demonstrated significant application potential and practical value in fields such as aerospace, biomedicine, the textile industry, and electronic devices. In this report, we will discuss the development and applications of smart structures in aerospace and biotechnology. We designed a series of space-deployable structures based on shape memory polymers (SMPs) and their composites, which have been successfully applied in the Tianwen-1 Mars probe. A series of SMPs-based skin on morphing aircraft were developed, their deformation behaviors and functional verification were performed. Furthermore, based on 4D-printed SMPs, cardiac occlusion devices and bone tissue structures were developed. In conclusion, shape memory polymers and 4D printing technology exhibit great application prospects in fields such as aerospace structural technology and biotechnology in the future.
Prof. Jinsong Leng is a Professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, China. He is a Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a Foreign Member of Academia Europaea, and a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. He serves as the Dean of the School of Future Technology, Director of the Center for Smart Materials and Structures (CSMS), Director of the International Center for Applied Mechanics at Harbin Institute of Technology, and Deputy Director of the Academic Committee of Harbin Institute of Technology. He currently holds the positions of Vice President of the International Committee on Composite Materials (ICCM), Vice President of the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (CSTAM), Vice President of the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics (CSAA), and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Smart and Nano Materials (IJSNM).
He has been elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Fellow of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP), Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining (IMMM), and Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), among others.
Antonio Moccia
Space It Up: the Italian consortium for space science and technology
In 2022, a proposal, agreed among a large network of Italian universities, research centres and companies, was applied to an open competition issued by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and pursuant to a directive of the Italian Ministry for University and Research on formation of large, interdisciplinary partnerships aimed at basic and applied research and innovation in space science and technology, according to the goals set in the National Research Plan 2021-2027. The total financial allocation for this funding call was €80,000,000.
Following the winning of the tender, in 2024 the limited liability consortium society (SCaRL) Space It Up (SIU) was established among 33 entities from both the research and industrial sectors to formalise the contract with ASI, spanning 2024-2027. This is the first case of formation of such a broad public-private partnership in Italy on space activities and the consortium aims to become a key player in space science and technology innovation, research and development.
In accordance with ministerial guidelines, from the management point of view the project is organised into a hub and several spokes. The hub is the legal entity and prime contractor, it is the interface with ASI and is in charge of overall coordination, monitoring, and reporting, whereas the spokes are the operational arm of the project. They, bringing together national scientific and industrial expertise, are responsible for research and development activities in the nine scientific and technological lines identified jointly with the Agency. Namely, four spokes deal with fundamental knowledge and technologies in interdisciplinary space topics, three spokes are focused on space-based Earth observation and protection and space application to sustainability, the last two spokes are relevant to human and robotic space exploration and space habitats for humans.
This presentation provides an overall description of the project organization and goals, along with an overview of current development status.
Antonio Moccia has been a Professor of Aerospace Systems at the University of Naples Federico II since 1990. His research interests include mission analysis and design of remote sensing systems, and methodologies and instrumentation for dynamics, guidance, navigation, and control of aerospace systems.
He has published over 200 papers in distinguished journals, in international conferences proceedings and as book chapters, he has served as a principal investigator in many competitive national and international research projects and he is among the top 2% of the authors’ career-long ranking in the Aerospace & Aeronautics subfield, published annually by Stanford University and PLOS starting in 2021.
He has served as Coordinator of BS, MS and PhD Courses in the Aerospace Engineering area at the University of Naples Federico II. Antonio Moccia has served as Coordinator of the Aerospace Sector of the Commission of Experts appointed by the Ministry of University and Research for the National Research Plan 2021-2027.
In 2024 he was awarded the title of Professor Emeritus by the Ministry of University and Research. Presently Antonio Moccia is a member of the Board of Directors of the Space It Up consortium.
Susan Ying
Hybrid-Electric Bridging to Sustainable Aviation Future
While most in the aviation industry are researching for revolutionary change solutions to meet the global emissions reduction goals, some are taking a practical approach to developing compelling, hybrid solutions that can be applied effectively today to bridge the gap to zero-emission flight. This presentation will discuss a pioneering hybrid-electric solution from a US start-up, including its meaningful impact and projected future scaled-up product vision.
Dr. Ying was the senior vice president of Global Partnerships, responsible for strategy and international partnerships at Ampaire, a deep tech start-up for electric commercial aircraft. In 2017, she retired from the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China as the Chief Integration Officer. In 2013, she retired from The Boeing Company as Director of the Boeing Research and Technology. Demonstrating success both at individual and team levels, she has been the recipient of many honors, including the 2025 AIAA Wright Brothers Award Lectureship in Aeronautics which commemorates the accomplishment of the Wright Brothers in creating the first practical airplane and recognizes the success of their approach to problem-solving; the Chinese Government’s Friendship Award; and NASA Group Achievement Award to name a few. Before joining Boeing, Ying taught at universities and directed research in the DOE Research Labs at ISU and FSU, and NASA Ames Research Center.
Dr. Ying is currently a board member of ElFly, an electric amphibian aircraft start-up based in Norway, and the immediate past vice president, Aerospace, and board member of SAE International. Ying is an AIAA Fellow and Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. She is a former president of the International Council of Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS). Ying holds a commercial pilot license and is an FAA-Certified Flight Instructor. She received her Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University and B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University.