Daniel “Dani” Selva is an Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, where he directs the Space Systems Engineering, Autonomy, and Knowledge (SEAK) Lab. His research is at the intersection of artificial intelligence, space systems, and systems engineering, with a particular focus on autonomous and human-agent collaborative decision making for automated design and operations of complex systems, especially space systems. He is particularly interested in new space mission concepts that leverage autonomy and distributed architectures based on small satellites for Earth observation, communications, and navigation. Before doing his Ph.D. in Space Systems at MIT, Dr. Selva worked for four years in Kourou (French Guiana) as an avionics specialist within the Ariane 5 Launch team, where he had 21 successful Ariane 5 flights. Dr. Selva has a dual background in electrical engineering and aerospace engineering, with degrees from MIT, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, and Supaéro in Toulouse, France. Dr. Selva’s research has been funded by NASA, NSF, JPL, DOD (DARPA, SERC, AIRC), the Ford Motor Company, and Lockheed Martin among others. He has co-authored over 110 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Selva received the 2025 Texas A&M College of Engineering Teaching Impact Award, and the 2023 Texas A&M Engineering Young Faculty Fellow Award. His papers have received Best Paper Awards at the 2026 IEEE Aerospace Conference (Diagnostics, Prognostics, and Health Management Track), 2013 IEEE Aerospace Conference (Best Paper Overall), 2018 Design Computing and Cognition, and 2020 AIAA Scitech Forum (Intelligent Systems Track). Dr. Selva served in the European Space Agency’s Advisory Committee for Earth Observation, which advises the Director of Earth Observation in strategic matters including but not limited to the selection of Earth Explorer missions (~400 million Euro decisions). He has also provided input to the White House Office of Science and Technology on the capabilities of CubeSats for Earth Observation. Dr. Selva is an AIAA Associate Fellow, and is currently serving as an Associate Editor for the AIAA Journal of Aerospace Information Systems, a Deputy Director of the AIAA Information Systems Group, and the Chair-Elect of the AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee. Ultimately, Dani is most inspired by two things: everything space, and the Systems scientists of the 1970’s such as Herbert Simon who conducted multi-disciplinary research at the intersection of artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, economics, statistics, and decision analysis.
Full CV (last updated March 2026)