On June 11, 2026, a NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) delegation visited the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Lab to learn how Penn Engineering researchers are advancing robotics and autonomous systems with applications spanning disaster response, infrastructure and national security.
Together with Marco Di Gabriele, President of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), the delegation joined senior officials from the Italian Air Force and NATO, led by Deputy Commander ACT (DSACT) General Aurelio Colagrande and including Colonel Rosario D’Auria and Lt. Colonel Ivano Pennacchio. The visit introduced the delegation to the breadth of research underway at GRASP and highlighted the Delaware Valley’s growing role as a hub for defense innovation.
CJ Taylor, Director of GRASP and Raymond S. Markowitz President’s Distinguished Professor in Computer and Information Science, opened the visit with an overview of the Lab’s interdisciplinary approach to robotics research, highlighting collaborations across engineering disciplines and examples of Penn technologies that have successfully spun out into industry.
During the tour, GRASP faculty and students showcased research spanning autonomous aerial and ground robotics, swarm intelligence, search and rescue, underwater systems and AI-enabled decision-making.
