Rate My Professor Umberto Montanaro

Dr. Umberto Montanaro serves as Senior Lecturer in Autonomous Systems and Control Engineering within the School of Mechanical Engineering Sciences at the University of Surrey. He is a member of the Centre for Automotive Engineering, where his lecturing focuses on control systems for automotive engineering. Montanaro joined the University of Surrey in 2016 initially as a Research Fellow before advancing to his current academic position. Previously, from 2010 to 2013, he was a Research Fellow at the Italian National Research Council’s Istituto Motori. During that time, he also held temporary lecturing positions at the University of Naples Federico II, delivering courses on Automation and Process Control and Control for the Postgraduate Master in Automotive Engineering.

Montanaro earned his Laurea (M.Sc. equivalent) degree cum laude in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Naples Federico II in 2005. He further obtained PhD degrees in Control Engineering in 2009 and Mechanical Engineering in 2016 from the same institution. His research interests lie in system and nonlinear control theory, particularly adaptive control algorithms applied to mechatronic and automotive systems. Specific areas include adaptive control of discontinuous systems, multiagent systems control, optimal control, enhanced Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) and its automotive implementations, integral and switching MRAC, as well as autonomous and connected autonomous vehicles, and vehicle platooning. He has participated in funded projects such as the GPR for Localisation of Autonomous Vehicles (Innovate UK, 2018-2019) and the Cloud-Assisted Real-time Methods for Autonomy (CARMA, EPSRC-JLR, 2016-2021). Montanaro supervises postdoctoral fellows, PhD candidates like Shilp Dixit on autonomous overtaking, and undergraduate projects on topics such as adaptive controllers for electronic throttle bodies and direct yaw moment control. As an associate editor for the International Journal of Powertrains, he contributes to the academic community. His teaching responsibilities encompass the Control and Dynamics module (ENG3611) and supervision of BEng/MEng projects. With over 60 peer-reviewed publications, notable works include “Towards Connected Autonomous Driving: Review of Use-Cases” (Vehicle System Dynamics, 2018), “Trajectory Planning and Tracking for Autonomous Overtaking: State-of-the-Art and Future Prospects” (Annual Reviews in Control, 2018), “A Gain Scheduled Robust Linear Quadratic Regulator for Vehicle Direct Yaw Moment Control” (Mechatronics, 2018), “Model Predictive Path Tracking Control for Automated Road Vehicles: A Review” (Annual Reviews in Control, 2023), and “Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for Integrated Energy-Efficient Torque-Vectoring and Anti-Roll Moment Distribution” (IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 2021).