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Jacob Spagnolli

Jacob Spagnolli had a plan when he started at ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ. Get an aerospace engineering degree. Graduate. Find a job at a big aerospace company. It was a reasonable plan. It just wasn't the one that stuck.

Now in his seventh year at CU (spanning an undergraduate degree, a COVID-era extension, and two years of graduate school) Spagnolli is finishing a master's in bioastronautics while managing research contracts with some of the largest names in the defense and aerospace industry. The detour, as it turns out, was the destination.

"I found a passion in research" he said. "It allowed me to get my hands on things that otherwise I would not."

The pivot began simply enough. Spagnolli was a junior sitting in Dr. Dennis Akos' electronics course when Akos mentioned, almost in passing, some of the research happening in his lab. Spagnolli was captivated. After class, he walked up and asked if he could get involved.

Akos pointed him toward ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ's Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR) program. With support from both Akos and Director of UG Research,Ìý Sharon Anderson, Spagnolli secured a spot in the lab that summer. He never really left.

"He liked me enough to keep me around," Spagnolli said, "and I've been working there ever since."

The lab focuses on GPS, GNSS, and broader positioning, navigation, and timing research,Ìý work that runs across a wide range of contracts with partners including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, the Air Force Research Lab, and Boeing. For Spagnolli, the work sits at what he describes as "the razor edge" of human technological knowledge — the kind of research too novel or too risky for most companies to pursue on their own.

Like many students stepping into a research lab for the first time, Spagnolli encountered imposter syndrome early. He is now philosophical about it.

"When you first start in research, you feel like you know a lot less than you do," he said. "The research you're doing is the cutting edge of human knowledge. The people who share your knowledge base might number less than a thousand on the entire planet."

What got him through it, he says, was the culture of the lab itself, researchers who were genuinely enthusiastic about their work and generous with their time.

"It's completely normal to have that imposter syndrome at first, and when I say at first, I could really mean the first three, six, eight months," he said. "At some point it clicks, and you start to feel comfortable."

Now on the other side of that experience, Spagnolli mentors the undergraduates who cycle through the lab. He draws an analogy that surprises him a little every time he uses it: scouting.

An Eagle Scout, Spagnolli remembers the way knowledge flowed in his troop, not primarily from scoutmasters down, but from older scouts to younger ones, peer to peer. Graduate research, he says, works the same way.

"I didn't stop learning when I started teaching; I just got to learn more, learn more in-depth, learn things in different ways," he said. "I feel like I'm learning at a much accelerated rate."

It is a philosophy that shapes how he thinks about the value of undergraduate research more broadly. The programs, he argues, are not just resume builders. They are environments where students discover what they are actually capable of, and where mentors are quietly sharpened by the act of explaining what they know.

Connections That Last

Perhaps the most concrete evidence of research's value, in Spagnolli's view, is what happened when he started looking toward graduation. The contrast with his earlier job-search experience as an undergrad is stark.

"In undergrad, I had gone through tens of dozens of applications, sometimes with only one response," he said. "Going from that, where you feel so isolated, alone, cold, to somewhere where someone says, 'I really appreciate what you can do, I really want you on with us,' is a very big refresher."

At least one of his lab's industry partners, he says, has already asked when he graduates and requested his resume. He did not have to ask.

After completing his master's in May 2026, Spagnolli continued to work in the lab but plans to step into industry rather than pursue a PhD, at least for now. A doctorate, he says, is never fully off the table, given his love of teaching and mentorship. But for the moment, he is ready to take what he has built and use it.

"Knowing that you have the skills to succeed, knowing where to turn if you feel like you don't, and having a network that will support you," he said, "is immensely important when it's done right."Ìý