Curriculum studiorum

I graduated in Electronic Engineering in 1996 at the University of Ferrara, Italy. My final dissertation, whose title is "Visual motion and structure estimation", developed at the VIS.I.T. laboratory of the CINECA of Casalecchio (BO) (coordinated by Prof. Sergio Beghelli and Dr. Maurizio Forte), was in design, construction, modeling and validation of a software program in order to estimate the 3D structure of an object observed by means of a mobile camera.

The work consisted in three main parts.

Mathematical calculation of the motion equations for a system composed of an object moving in a three-dimensional space with respect to a mobile observer. Approximation and linearization of the model obtained.
Design and set up of different Extended Kalman Filters in order to estimate the parameters of the model under investigation. Development of an automatic software procedure in order to obtain the final parameters of the model and the real measurements of the object under observation from the noisy images taken by a mobile camera. Final interfacing of the system to a computer, a digital video recorder and an analog camera.
Development of a C language software application (approximately 10000 lines) for the conditioning of the input/output signals, the calibration of the camera and the processing of the measurements from the analog camera. Final design of an visual interface for the whole system.

These three parts gave rise to an experimental validation of the model by comparison of simulated and measured data. The final procedure was applied to a real problem: the recontruction of the 3D structure of the skull of a prehistoric man from raw images taken by a mobile camera. The skull of the Altamura Man in the Altamura grotto, Italy.

My study curriculum has been focused mainly on system and control theory. In particular, I have just been finishing my third year as a PhD student in System and Control Engineering at the University of Ferrara, Department of Engineering (Italy). In these years as a PhD student, I have been mainly involved in the following topics:

'Fault detection and isolation of faults regarding sensors of linear dynamic systems', working with Prof. Beghelli and Dr. Fantuzzi.
'Modeling and identification of linear systems', working with Prof. Beghelli.
'Fuzzy modeling, identification and control of linear and non-linear algebraic and dynamic models', working with Dr. Fantuzzi.

In the past years I attended the following postgraduate short courses:

'Modeling and identification of linear systems' (July, 1997. DEIS - Bologna, Prof. Guidorzi).
'Multidimensional system theory' (May, 1997 DEI - Padova, Prof. Bisiacco).
'Feedback models and automatic control history' (May, 1997. DEIS - Bologna, Prof. Lepschy).
'Regulation by using pre-knowledge and pre-action' (March, 1997. DEIS - Bologna, Prof. Marro).
'Regulation in geometric terms' (June, 1997. DEIS - Bologna, Prof. Marro).
'Dualism of regulation and estimation problem' (July, 1997. DEIS - Bologna, Prof. Tibaldi).
'Technological aspects of control' (June, 1997. DEIS - Bologna, Prof. Tonielli).
'Combinatorial optimization' (April, 1997. DEIS - Bologna, Prof. de Werra).
'Filtering problems using state-variable models', held at the Politecnico di Milano (Italy) on May 27-28, 1997, Proff. Bolzern-Colanieri.
'Industrial automation, neural networks, fuzzy control and genetic algorithms', International Summer School held in Bertinoro (Forlì, Italy) on July 14-19, 1997
'Subspace method identification' (May, 1998 DEI - Padova, Dr. Lovera).
'Semiglobal stabilization by output feedback of non-minimum phase uncertain nonlinear systems' (June, 1998. DEIS - Bologna, Prof. Isidori).
'Modeling and identification of flexible structure. Non-linear control theory', International Summer School held in Bertinoro (Forlì, Italy) on July 14-19, 1998.
'Fuzzy logic control: advances in methodology', International Summer School held in Ferrara (Italy) on June 16-20, 1998.
'Fuzzy logic for automatic control Internet Course' (March-July, 1997. DTU - Prof. Jan Jantzen).
Tutorial Workshop 'Knowledge-Based Fault Detection and Diagnosis Systems'. August 30 - September 3, 1999. Organized by ECC'99.
'Iterative Identification and Control Design', International Summer School held in Valencia (Spain) on September 8-11, 1999.

I am currently involved in a joint project regarding fault diagnosis on a single-shaft industrial gas turbine, together with ATSOM Ltd. (UK), The University of Hull (UK) and The University of Strathclyde (UK). Because of such a project, from January 1999 I am working and collaborating with Prof. Ron J. Patton in the Control Systems Engineering Laboratory of Faculty of Mathematics & Engineering at The University of Hull (UK).

In February, 25th 2000, I was awarded the Ph.D. in ``Automatic Control'' at the Department of Engineering of the University of Ferrara, Italy.

From September to December, 2000, I obtained a Postdoctoral Position on Quantitative and Soft Computing Methods for Fault Diagnosis in the "EC RTN DAMADICS" at the Faculty of Mathematics & Engineering at The University of Hull (UK).

I am currently collaborating with Department of Engineering at the University of Ferrara and working on several national and international projects regarding the field of fault detection and diagnosis in dynamic systems, dynamic system identification, fuzzy logic, neural networks and nonlinear system identification for fault diagnosis (hybrid systems).

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