FISR and FISA projects
Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics

During phase 2 of the Covid-19 emergency, the need to sanitise museums and in general all historical and ecclesiastical environments open to the public has arisen. The MIC currently suggests the use of mixtures based on water (20%), ethanol (75%) and a quaternary ammonium salt, benzalkonium chloride, (5%) with an antimicrobial-bacterial function. With repeated sanitisation, alcohol and water in vapour form may concentrate in museum environments, while benzalkonium chloride can deposit on surfaces, interacting with the material and changing its chemical and physical characteristics. In the absence of specific studies on the risks linked to possible contact between silk-based fabrics and aqueous and alcoholic solutions, this project aims to verify the impact of sanitising methodologies in relation to the frequency of their use and the way in which the products (i.g. in the liquid phase or the various components in the vapour phase) are absorbed, and possibly to propose new sanitising methods. The scope ISMEE project is to evaluate any chemical, physical and/or mechanical changes to silk fabrics placed in indirect and direct contact with sanitising solutions. If a significant impact is detected by one of the components of the mixture, the possibility of using alternative solutions capable of minimising such impacts will be evaluated.

The EPIDOC project will develop a reliable decision support system for short-term forecasting (1-3 weeks) of the spatiotemporal spread of COVID-19 in Italy. The project aim is twofold: it will produce a platform that automatically updates the epidemiological forecast as soon as daily data are available (first stage) and it will assess the optimality of a portfolio of control actions for the containment of disease transmission (second stage). Model projections will be made directly accessible online on a dedicated platform. These objectives will be achieved using a multidisciplinary approach combining epidemiological modeling, dynamical systems analysis, numerical analysis, optimal estimation and control techniques.

The project aims to investigate the usability and acceptability of a socio-technical solution for a participatory approach to the production of community services in response to post-lockdown restrictions. In particular, the management of childcare activities in the 3-11 age group will be considered. The project intends to “verticalize” the results of the European Families_Share project coordinated by us on the specific post-lockdown problems. The original and innovative research results that we intend to achieve are: An analysis of the administrative-regulatory problems related to the involvement of groups of parents as volunteers for support activities for accompanying children in a sustainable way (e.g. piedibus ); an analysis of the impact of a social innovation tool based on the creation of "circles of trust" and on the support of an app to facilitate organizational aspects; an analysis of portability on different types of companies of a welfare model based on the involvement of employees who are also parents; an analysis of security issues (security, privacy, DoS) in the large-scale adoption of social innovation apps.

The LivePass project aims to automate the inefficient process of selecting and sorting agricultural products by developing a methodological and software infrastructure. At its core is the creation of a "Digital Deep Copy" (DDC), a real-time digital model of the product, based on an intelligent perception system. The DDC is built by fusing data from multiple sensors to describe the object's three-dimensional shape and its appearance, represented by the surface's spectral and thermal response. This advanced digital model allows for the use of Machine Learning tools to autonomously identify pathologies, anomalies, or quality grades. Furthermore, its structural information will be able to guide robots and automation hardware with extreme precision to perform physical tasks such as cutting, sorting, and manipulation. The project will culminate in the creation and validation of an industrial prototype in a real operational environment.