Igor Luppi

Software Engineer at Canonical

Igor Luppi

Software Engineer · Linux, flight software & embedded systems

I build software that has to keep working where nobody can reach it: flight software for satellites in orbit, and the Linux packages that ship AMD's ROCm AI stack in Debian and Ubuntu.

Get in touch

São Paulo, Brazil

Portrait of Igor Luppi
years of hands-on Linux
10+
years building NASA cFS flight software
5+
flight software updates shipped in orbit
30+

About

Software engineer with 10+ years of hands-on Linux experience, from kernel drivers and systemd to Debian/Ubuntu packaging. At Canonical I maintain AMD's open-source ROCm AI software stack across Debian and Ubuntu.

Before that I spent five years in the space industry at Visiona Space: I owned the on-board computer of VCUB1, the first nanosatellite designed entirely by the Brazilian industry, from design through launch and in-orbit operations, then led the OBDH subsystem of the SatVHR Earth observation satellite.

Experience

  1. Jul 2025 – Present

    Software Engineer, Silicon Alliances

    Canonical · Remote

    Silicon Alliances team, partnering with silicon vendors to make their software stacks first-class on Ubuntu.

    • Package maintainer for AMD's open-source ROCm AI software stack across the Debian and Ubuntu ecosystems, for GPU-accelerated AI workloads.
    • Linux systems administration, hardware and software testing, bug fixes and patching to keep the stack compatible and the platform stable.
    • Debian packaging
    • Ubuntu
    • ROCm
    • LXC

  2. Feb 2023 – Jul 2025

    Software Engineer, OBDH Subsystem Lead

    Visiona Space · São José dos Campos, Brazil

    Led the on-board data handling (OBDH) subsystem of SatVHR, a very high-resolution Earth observation satellite funded by a FINEP/AEB innovation grant.

    • Took the OBDH subsystem from mission requirements through PDR and CDR, driving flight software development to ECSS standards and starting OBC hardware/software integration.
    • Designed a mission-agnostic, table-driven Autonomous Mission Mode Manager cFS application, so mission rules change through tables instead of software builds.
    • Redesigned the OBC–AOCS interface, cutting command overhead by over 90%.
    • Designed a single-failure-tolerant emergency unit (EMCU) that monitors and recovers the on-board computer, integrated with the power system.
    • Refactored the Ruby ground software for multi-mission support and automated test execution, with self-hosted CI/CD runners.
    • NASA cFS
    • C
    • ECSS
    • FDIR
    • Ruby
    • CI/CD

  3. Feb 2020 – Feb 2023

    Software Engineer

    Visiona Space · São José dos Campos, Brazil

    Owned the cFS-based on-board computer of VCUB1, a 6U CubeSat launched on Falcon 9, from PDR through launch, then operated and sustained it in orbit.

    • Built the end-to-end CCSDS TM/TC chain: the CADU/CLTU synchronization layer in C, a Reed–Solomon FEC encoder/decoder, and the ground baseband protocol and configuration.
    • Designed multi-layer FDIR, from runtime self-checks and systemd watchdogs to an external MCU that power-cycles the OBC over CAN.
    • Shipped 30+ flight software updates in orbit, and kept the satellite alive after two storage failures by migrating cFS to tertiary hardware.
    • Owned the OBC platform: Linux kernel image, drivers and modules, real-time clock and critical EEPROM storage.
    • Built Ruby ground software and a Django/Python telemetry analysis tool with real-time Sinatra APIs.
    • NASA cFS
    • C
    • Linux kernel
    • CCSDS
    • Ruby
    • Python

  4. Feb 2019 – Dec 2019

    Software Engineer Intern

    Embraer · São José dos Campos, Brazil

    Developed an aircraft data collection system for a Corporate Aviation project, focused on appraiser processes, and automated workflows and infrastructure as an IT DevOps intern.

    • Java
    • Spring
    • DevOps

Projects

SatVHR

Small satellite for very high-resolution Earth observation, developed under an AEB/FINEP economic grant for innovation. Led its OBDH subsystem through CDR.

  • Embedded C
  • NASA cFS
  • Ruby
  • Python
FINEP award

VCUB1

The first nanosatellite designed entirely by the Brazilian industry, with a high-resolution optical camera and software-defined radio IoT. Owned its on-board computer from design to decommissioning.

  • Embedded C
  • NASA cFS
  • Linux
  • Ruby
Platform

iLoop32 OS

An operating system written in C-, compiled by my own C- compiler, running on iLoop32, a RISC processor I designed in Verilog and ran on an FPGA.

  • Verilog
  • FPGA
  • Compilers
  • OS
Demo video

Writing & talks

Skills

Languages
  • C
  • C++
  • Rust
  • Python
  • Ruby
  • Bash
  • PHP
  • Java
  • SQL
  • JavaScript
  • MATLAB/Simulink
  • Verilog
Linux & systems
  • Debian/Ubuntu
  • Kernel modules & drivers
  • systemd
  • dpkg-buildpackage
  • Docker
  • LXC/LXD
  • Git
Embedded & interfaces
  • UART
  • SPI
  • I2C
  • GPIO
  • CAN/CSP
  • FPGA
  • HAL design
  • FDIR & watchdogs
Space standards
  • NASA cFS
  • ECSS
  • CCSDS (SPP, TM/TC Sync & Channel Coding, SDLP, CFDP)
Data & tooling
  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL/MariaDB
  • Redis
  • Grafana
  • GitHub Actions
  • CI/CD

Education

  • 2015 – 2019

    BSc (Hons) Computer Engineering

    Federal University of São Paulo · First-Class Honours, first in class (9.4/10)

Awards

  • 2020 Outstanding Student of Computer Engineering · Brazilian Computer Society
  • 2019 Outstanding Internship Project · Embraer Internship Program
  • 2016 First Place, Programming Competition · Federal University of São Paulo