BlueLab Team

Tutors

Chiara Petrioli - Director R&D, WSense S.r.l.

PhD in Computer Engineering, University of Rome La Sapienza (1998). Chiara Petrioli has extensive experience in designing, developing, optimizing and evaluating in field novel wireless, embedded and cyber physical algorithms, with a particular focus on underwater monitoring and control algorithms, 5G technologies (for which she contributed writing the initial white papers), sensing algorithms and the Internet of Things. Prof. Petrioli has published over a hundred fifty papers in prominent international journals and conferences (h-index 37, i-10 index: 98, 4800+ citations). She is member of the steering committee of ACM SenSys, and of the editorial board and organizing committees of some of the most well established journals and conferences in the networking field. She serves as program co-chair of IEEE INFOCOM 2016, workshop co-chair of ACM MobiCom 2014, general chair of ACM WUWNET 2014, track chair of UCOMMS 2014 and UCOMMS 2016, and was general chair of ACM SenSys 2013. She has been member of the steering committee and associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, member of the executive committee of the ACM SIGMOBILE, and has been program co-chair of leading conferences in the field such as ACM MobiCom and IEEE SECON. She has been PI of over twenty national and international research projects, and is serving as coordinator of two EU projects (FP7 projects GENESI and SUNRISE – the EU FIRE project devoted to building the Internet of Underwater Things). She regularly serves as reviewer for the European Commission and other funding agencies (VINNOVA, NWO, Belgium and Norway National Research Councils). She has collaborations with several US research labs including Sandia National Labs, Northeastern University, UCLA, MIT, Penn State University, WHOI, UMASS, University of Central Florida. Prof. Chiara Petrioli was a Fulbright scholar.  

Ernesto Montaldo - CEO at WSense S.r.l.

Italian Technical High School degree with a major in Electronics Attended technical and managerial Course organized by IBM and COREP at Politecnico of Torino.  Series of Sales training courses from Acclivus: The New BASE for Sales Excellence; Base for Strategic Sales Presentations; Sales Negotiation. Series of management courses from Holden International. Professional with 30 years of organisational experience, possessing a wealth of business development experience and proven business management skills. Instrumental in identifying and generating new business opportunities and expanding client base.  Able to identify areas of strength and weakness and implement company policies, standards, changes in operation and systems that optimize productivity.
Working experience:
Current:  CEO, WSense S.r.l.
Previous experience:
March 2012 - December 2013: Sales Executive at Nexin Technologies
September 2011- February 2013: Sales Executive at MC Engineering
September 2011 - March 2012: Channel Developer Manager at MC Link
2009 -December 2010: Sales Executive at Infracom Spa
January 2006 -2008: Director of Sales and Marketing at Gruppo Stratos
January 2000 -December 2005: Director of Sales at AT&T Global network Services Italy.
February 1990 – 2000: Sales Manager in IN.TE.S.A. S.p.A.. – joint venture between FIAT/IBM.
January 1985 - February 1990: Engineering Engegneria Informatica  Spa: Coordinator of a team of functional analysts and IT developers from 1985 to 1987, then Sales Manager for North-Western Italy from 1987 to 1990.

Andrea Vitaletti

Ph.D. in Computer Science.
Assistant professor (Ricercatore confermato) at DIAG, the Department of Computer, Control, and Management Engineering Antonio Ruberti at Sapienza.
Founder of WSENSE, a spin-off of Sapienza. He has 15 year of experience in the ICT industry and he has been involved in a number of industrial projects. His current research interests concern the design and the analysis of efficient algorithms and protocols for resource constrained networks (mainly distributed and localized algorithms) and their application to wireless sensor networks. He has been involved in a number of EU projects as researcher and PI and he has been the coordinator of the FET OPEN project PLEASED (http://pleased-fp7.eu/).
The most recent projects related to the topic of this proposal in which he is involved are:

• CHIRON (https://artemis-ia.eu/project/17-chiron.html): in which he coordinated the activity for the design and implementation of the middleware capable to interface a number of heterogeneous health care devices
• VITRO(http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/necs/docs/events/20100602/20100602-08-ct-vitro_en.pdf) : in which he contributed to the development of the architecture to manage virtual sensor networks
• FRONTS (http://fronts.cti.gr/): in which he contribute to the implementation of the demonstrator for the network of tiny devices.  

Luigi Cinque

Full Professor at Sapienza Department of Computer Sciences. Laurea degree in Physics from the University of Naples, 1983. From 1984 to 1990 he was with the Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence (Alenia S.p.A), working on the development of expert systems and knowledge-based vision systems. In 1990, he joined the Department of Computer Science of the University “La Sapienza” of Rome, where he is currently a Full Professor. His first scientific interests cover image processing, shape and object recognition, analysis and interpretation of images and their applications, with particular emphasis on content-based retrieval in visual digital archives, and advanced man-machine interaction, assisted by computer vision. His current main interests involve distributed systems for analysis and interpretation of video sequences, target tracking, multisensor data and information fusion. Some of the techniques he has proposed have found applications in the field of video-based surveillance systems, autonomous vehicles, road traffic control, human behavior understanding, and visual inspection. He is author of more than 200 papers in national and international journals, and conference proceedings. He currently serves as reviewer for many international journals (e.g. IEEE Trans. on PAMI, IEEE Trans. on Circuit and Systems, Trans. on SMC, Trans. on Vehicular Technology, Trans. on Medical Imaging, Image and Vision Computing, etc.). He served in the scientific committees of international conferences (CVPR, ICME, ICPR, etc.) and symposia.
He serves as a reviewer for the European Union in different research programmes. He is Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and member of the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR).

Benedetto Allotta

Benedetto Allotta is currently Head of the Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF) of the University of Florence (UNIFI) where he serves as Full Professor of Robotics and Mechanical Engineering. From 2001 to 2005 he served as an Associate Professor within the same university. From 1993 to 2001 he was an Assistant Professor at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA), Pisa, Italy. In 1992 he received the Ph.D. degree in Robotics from SSSA. In 1987 he graduated in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pisa. He teaches Robotics, Mechatronics, and Mechanism Design within various Engineering programs. His current research interests are: marine and industrial robotics, sensor-based navigation of vehicles. Allotta was a co-founder of Scienzia Machinale S.R.L., Pisa http://www.smrobotica.it, as well as founder and shareholder of MDM Team S.R.L.
http://www.mdmteam.eu/. Prof. Allotta was the Coordinator of the FP7 project ARROWS (ARchaeological RObot systems for the World's Seas, 2012-2015), funded by the EU under grant agreement no. 308724 http://www.arrowsproject.eu. He is also Co-ordinator of project SUONO (Safe Underwater Operations iN Oceans, 2014-2017) funded by the Italian Ministry of University, Education, and Research in the framework of the competitive Call Smart Cities, challenge Sea Technologies. He is also Coordinator of the Erasmus+ ROSE project http://www.roseproject.eu aiming at increasing the attractiveness of STEM disciplines, in particular among female pupils; promoting a balanced representation of the society among students choosing a technology/science-oriented HE.

Researchers

Daniele Spaccini

Daniele Spaccini is a Postdoc researcher at the Computer Science Department of the Rome University "La Sapienza," Italy. In 2011 he received the master degree in Computer Science from the university of Rome “La Sapienza” with summa cum laude. Between 2009 and 2010 he worked at the Italia Ministry for University and Research (MIUR) in Rome as a system administrator. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in from “La Sapienza” in 2015.
He is currently coordinating the UWSN (Underwater Wireless Sensor Network) Group experimental activities of the University of Rome team. His research interests include underwater communications, networking and underwater vehicles localization, to which he has contributed with over a dozen papers published in leading venues and several demos, two of which received the best demo award (ACM WinTech 2013 and ACM WUWNET 2014).
He has contributed to the design of the SUNSET framework, of which he is currently the main designer, developer and maintainer. He participated in several EU-funded projects including the FP7 STREP CLAM project and the FP7 SUNRISE project. In SUNRISE, he is in charge of coordinating all underwater experimental activities. In the last four years he has participated in over twenty experimental campaigns at sea where innovative underwater systems have been extensively tested. He is author of two filed patents on adaptive underwater communications.

Luigi Picari

Luigi Picari is a Postdoc researcher at the Computer Science Department of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and an Underwater Sensor Network designer at WSense S.r.l.
He received the master degree in Computer Science from University of Rome  "La Sapienza" summa cum laude in 2012 and the PhD in Computer Science from University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 2017.
From 2008 to 2011 he worked  as system administrator at two (architecture and biology) Departments of La Sapienza.
His research interest focus on the design, implementation and in-field evaluation of novel MAC and routing protocol solutions for Underwater Acoustic Wireless Sensor Networks.
He also collaborated on the innovative design of the WSense underwater sensor network that enables the cooperation and collaboration between underwater static and mobile nodes.
He has been part of "La Sapienza" team involved in the SUNRISE project (http://fp7-sunrise.eu/) and in the FP7 CLAM project. In the last four years he has participated to several experimental campaigns at sea where innovative underwater systems have been extensively tested. He has filed as co-author two patents on underwater comms in 2015.

Daniele Cipriani

Daniele Cipriani received the M.Sc. degree in Computer Science cum laude from “Sapienza University of Rome”, Italy, in September 2012. In the period from May 2008 to July 2016, he worked as Software Developer/Software Engineer by world renowned companies, like: IBM Italia S.p.A, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of National Research Council (ISTC CNR) and Fraunhofer-Institut für Kommunikation, Informationsverarbeitung und Ergonomie (FKIE). Since August 2017, he is working by WSense S.r.l. as Software Engineer in the field of the Internet of Things (IoT). His job consists in developing a highly innovative IoT Platform to collect, visualize and analyze in real-time huge amounts of data coming from several wireless sensor networks and to send commands for the setup and control of the nodes.

Fabrizio Gattuso

Fabrizio Gattuso obtained a master’s Degree in computer science with honors at Sapienza University of Rome, in July 2017. In October 2014, he got a bachelor’s Degree in computer science with a grade of 108/110. From October 2006 to June 2011 he worked by the Tecnovideo Srl firm as home automation technician and developer for both domestic and professional enviroments; during this period, he realized audio and video control softwares for several ministries, among which are the Ministry of Interior and the Foreign Ministry, and for different police stations. From September 2011 to September 2012 he was employed with the same role by the All Solutions Srl firm, serving clients as the Italian Air Force. While attending the university, he took part to research activities at the Computer Science department of Sapienza, University of Rome, and winning three paid internships regarding the following topics: development, implementation and testing of communication protocols for IoT using Energy Harvesting (2015-2016); development of monitoring solutions for buildings and museums (January 2017- July 2017 in Rome, and from August 2017 to November 2017 in the university of Palermo). From 2017 he is a R&D engineer for WSense Srl; his activities consist of creating and developing back-end and mobile softwares for WGate.

Marco Bernardi

Marco Bernardi received the B.Sc and the M.Sc. (cum laude) in Computer Science from Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy, in 2012 and 2016, respectively.  
Since 2016 he is a Ph.D. Student in Computer Science and he is a member of the Computer Vision Laboratory in the Department of Computer Science at the same University. From 2018, Marco is a R&D engineer at WSense S.r.l.
His research interests include Underwater Image Processing, Data Fusion, Human Activity Recognition, Pattern Recognition, Machine Learning, Human Computer Interaction. Marco Bernardi is a member of the IAPR and CVPL.

Danilo Avola

Danilo Avola received the M.Sc. degree in Computer Science from Sapienza University, Rome, Italy, in 2002 and the Ph.D. degree in Molecular and Ultrastructural Imaging from University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy, in 2014.
Since 2015 he is post-doc researcher at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science (DIMI), University of Udine, Udine, Italy, and member of the AVIRES Lab at the same University. Previously, he was research engineer at the Department of Computer Science, Sapienza University, at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Rome, Italy, and at the Multimodal & Multimedia Lab of the National Research Council, Rome, Italy.
His research interests include Human Computer Interaction, Computer Vision, Signal Processing, Machine Learning, Image and Video Processing, Multimodal Systems, and Pattern Recognition. He serves in the Steering Committee of selected International Conferences and is an Editorial Board member of different International Journals.
Danilo Avola is author or co-author of more than 60 papers in International Journals, refereed International Conferences and International Book Chapters. His publications have appeared in Elsevier, ACM, IEEE and Springer. Since 2011, Danilo Avola is a member of the IEEE, IAPR, GIRPR and IAPG.

Lorenzo Marini

Lorenzo Marini is currently CEO of MDM Team Srl (http://www.mdmteam.eu/).
From 2012 he performs a consultant role for MDM Team Srl. In 2014 he received the Ph.D. degree Industrial Engineering from University of Florence (UNIFI). In 2010 he graduated in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Florence.
He has skills in Vehicle Dynamics, especially in railway field, from running dynamics and braking components simulation viewpoint and also relative to online tests campaign and their sensors equipment.
His current research interests are contact and wear mechanism in railway field.
In particular, he cooperates with Hitachi Rail in running dynamics simulations of railway vehicles. Further, he performed collaboration with Italcertifer S.p.A. for support activities in preliminary acceptance test for the approval of test rigs for railway brake systems components.
He has collaborated in the development of Running safety on-track Test Plan for Railcar OÜ a private limited company in Republic of Estonia related to a Railway locomotive and subsequently he managed the online test for homologation and verified the accelerometer data obtained from the on-track tests.
He had has a consultant for MDM Team Srl in a study to optimization the wheel-rail wear evolution in an Italian critical metro scenario.

Niccolò Monni

Niccolò Monni is currently working for MDM Team S.R.L. as person in charge for underwater robotics hardware and software. In 2016 he received the Ph.D. degree in Industrial Engineering from University of Florence (UNIFI). In 2011 he received the Master Degree in Automation Engineering at UNIFI.
His Ph.D. thesis focused on guidance, navigation and control of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. Niccolò Monni was involved as a researcher in the FP7 project ARROWS (ARchaeological RObot systems for the World's Seas, 2012-2015), funded by the EU under grant agreement no. 308724 http://www.arrowsproject.eu.

Alessandro Ridolfi

Alessandro Ridolfi is currently a Research Fellow (Assistant Professor) of the Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF) of the University of Florence (UNIFI). He is also Adjunct Professor at Syracuse University in Florence, since 2015, teaching Dynamics. In 2014 he received the Ph.D.degree in Industrial Engineering from UNIFI. In 2010 he graduated in Mechanical Engineering at UNIFI. At the beginning of his PhD he worked on railway vehicle localization and wheel-rail adhesion modelling. His current research interests are: underwater and industrial robotics, sensor-based navigation of vehicles, vehicle dynamics and bio-robotics. Alessandro Ridolfi worked as a Researcher and Assistant of the Coordinator within the FP7 project ARROWS (ARchaeological RObot systems for the World's Seas, 2012-2015), funded by the EU under grant agreement no. 308724 http://www.arrowsproject.eu . He is also working on project SUONO (Safe Underwater Operations iN Oceans, 2014-2017) funded by the Italian Ministry of University, Education, and Research in the framework of the competitive Call Smart Cities, challenge Sea Technologies, and on FP7 project BRUCE within "SUNRISE - Open Call 2 for new beneficiaries";, under grant agreement no 611449 http://fp7-sunrise.eu/ . He is co-author of many journal and conference papers on robotic and mechatronic topics, with particular focus on underwater robotics. Alessandro Ridolfi is the Contact Person for the University of Florence (UNIFI).

Jonathan Gelli

Jonathan Gelli is a Postdoc researcher of the Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF) of the University of Florence (UNIFI). He is also high school teacher at the technical institute of San Marcello Pistoiese. In 2017 he received his Ph.D. Degree in Industrial Engineering at UNIFI. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering at UNIFI in 2012. His Ph.D. and Master's thesis focused on Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), especially the development and mechanical design of MARTA (MArine Robotic Tool for Archaeology) AUV, in the context of the European Project ARROWS (ARchaeological RObot systems for the World's Seas, 2012-2015), and Tifone AUV, for the THESAURUS Project (TecnicHe per l'Esplorazione Sottomarina Archeologic mediante l'Utilizzo di Robot aUtonomi in Sciami, 2011-2013). His current research interests include the design of underwater vehicles, both AUVs and ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles).

 Francesco Fanelli

Francesco Fanelli is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Florence (DIEF), working on the topics of guidance and navigation techniques for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). He received his Master Degree in Automation Engineering at the University of Florence in 2014, with a thesis focused on control and manipulation for Intervention-AUVs. His current research interests include autonomous navigation, control, and path planning strategies for underwater vehicles.

   Daniele Nocciolini

Daniele Nocciolini received the Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2013 at University of Florence (Florence, Italy) and the Ph.D. Degree in Industrial Engineering in 2017 from University of Florence. His Ph.D. thesis focused on development and validation of an efficient TEHD model of Tilting Pad Journal Bearing, mainly, focusing on mechanical design and structural verification of the various components subject to thermal and elastic loads due to the various fluid dynamics effects acting in the bearing. The research was carried out at the Department of Industrial Engineering, where he was involved in design and simulation of mechatronic systems, collaborating with relevant industrial partners. He is currently an employee of MDM Team S.R.L. http://www.mdmteam.eu/.

 Emanuele Galardi

Emanuele Galardi is currently a Mechatronic Engineer at MDM Team S.r.l., an official Spin-Off company of University of Florence (http://www.mdmteam.eu/). In 2017 he received the Ph.D. degree in Industrial Engineering from University of Florence. In 2012 he received the Master Degree in Electric and Automation Engineering from University of Florence.
His Ph.D. thesis focused on modelling, Real Time control and Hardware In the Loop testing of industrial systems. In particular, he focused on the development of plant models and of software devoted to Real Time control and test management in many industrial contexts. The research was carried out at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Florence, in collaboration with several industrial partners (e.g. GE Oil & Gas S.p.A. and Velan ABV S.p.A.).

User Club

Bridget Buxton

Dr. Bridget Buxton, Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Rhode Island. She holds degrees from Victoria University (M.A. with distinction) and a Ph.D from the Graduate Group in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her areas of specialization are underwater archaeology, and Hellenistic and Roman history and archaeology. Bridget has conducted fieldwork and led expeditions all around the Mediterranean, most recently in Israel with the IAA Maritime Unit at Akko and Caesarea. She collaborates with other EU and American colleagues to apply new robotic technologies in underwater archaeology, and is an archaeological advisor for Oceangate Foundation.

 Lorenzo Nigro

Prof. Lorenzo Nigro is the Coordinator of the Oriental Section of the Department of Sciences of Antiquities of Sapienza University of Rome. He has participated in several archaeological expeditions in the Near East and the Mediterranean (among which Tell Mardikh/ Ebla in in Syria1989-1997, and Tell es-Sultan/Jeruco in Palestine as co-director, in years 1997-2000). He is the Director of Rome "La Sapienza" Expedition to Motya, a Phoenician city in Western Sicily and the Director of Rome "La Sapienza" Expedition to Palestine & Jordan. Since 2015 he started the archaeological exploration, with the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, of the site of Tell es-Sheikh Abu Zarad, ancient Tappuah. He has 13 monographs on the archaeology of Palestine, Syria, and the reports of excavations at Motya, Khirbet al-Batrawy and Jericho; more than 150 articles on Levantine, Phoenician, Mesopotamian and Egyptian archaeology and history of art. He has been the Curator of the Near Eastern Department of the Vatican Museums (1998-2005).

 Barbara Davidde

Dr. Barbara Davidde is the Director of the Underwater Archaeological Operations Unit of the Department of Archaelogy at the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro. Since 2010 she is adjunct professor at Roma Tre University where she teaches Underwater archaeology. Her research focuses on the study, conservation and restoration of cultural heritage, with particular attention to the ancient roman coastal settlements and infrastructures and underwater cultural heritage.

 Mario Mazzoli

Dr. Mario Mazzoli is Founder and Director General of A.S.S.O. (Association of Underwater Archeology, Speleology and Organization). Expert of underwater archeology, speleologist, and underwater speleologist. He has directed and performed research studies and underwater archeology excavations, explorations, research and surveys in underwater and underground environments. He is instructor and manager in charge of communications of the Permanent Commission on Underwater Speleology of the Italian Society of Speleology; member of the Technical-Scientific Committee of the National Association of Underwater Instructors (A.N.I.S.); special member of the Italian Association of Diving Archaeologists (AIA SUB) and member of the Technical and Scientific Committee of “Hypogea – research and exploitation of artificial cavities”. He is lecturer of underwater speleology in the training courses for scuba-divers of the Provincial Headquarters of Rome of the National Fire Department and serves as consultant for the subsurface and underground cavities for several organizations.