Unibo Edition 2018

Giulia Favaretto, PhD in Architecture, tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide her research on the historical and constructive events of some architectures in Forlì that are emblematic in the redefinition of a territory deeply marked by the Fascist epic.

Ulisse Montanari, Phd in Chemistry, is the finalist in the Three minute Thesis Competition 2018. Ulisse tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide his research thesis on novel polymers from terpenes, molecules present in a variety of plants and discarded as waste. The objective of the research? Improve the sustainability of many industrial processes and valorize waste streams in order to transition into a greener society.

Andrea Fasolini, PhD in Chemistry, tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide his research on hydrogen production from natural gas or bio gas in membrane reactors to employ it in both automotive and civil fields in the quite near future, in order to develop a sustainable production of energy and goods.

Francesco Cavazza, PhD in Agricultural, Environmental and Food Science and Technology, tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide his research on the use of satellite images and Information and Communication Technologies to forecast long term crop water requirements and to plan preventive actions against climate shock effects.

Francesco Decataldo, PhD in Physics, tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide his research on innovative ways to employ a versatile and promising conducting polymer in the field of bio-electronics where biocompatible electronic nanomaterials are developed for directly interfacing living cells (tissues, organs) to state of the art electronic sensors and actuators.

Elisa Pederzoli, PhD in Literary and Philological Cultures, is the runner up in the Three minute Thesis Competition 2018. Elisa tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide his research thesis on the strategy of Angelo Fortunato Formiggini to diffuse Italian culture and books abroad, particularly in the United States. The objective? Find new commercial outlets and increase the prestige of Italy trough a network of relationships with Italian colonies abroad, newspapers and magazines for immigrants, professors and scholars of Italian disciplines in American universities.

Michele Azzarone, PhD in in Earth, Life and Environmental Sciences tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide his research on surges in trematode prevalence linked to centennial-scale flooding events in the Adriatic due to the ongoing global warming and sea-level rise and with serious repercussions on benthic organisms’ fecundity, marine ecosystems and ecosystem services.

Francesco Barbano, PhD in in Geophysics tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide his research on the interaction between vegetation and atmosphere in urban environment and particularly on the estimation of the role of green infrastructures in modifying wind ventilation and turbulence and so pollutants transport.

Andrea Vassoi, PhD in Chemistry, tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide his research on the demonstration of the techno, economic and environmental sustainability of a first-of-kind value chain where low input and underutilized cardoon’s oil are exploited for the extraction of vegetable oils to be converted into bio-monomers as building blocks for high added value bio-products, bio-lubricants, bio-cosmetics, bio-plastics.

Luigi Asprino, PhD in Computer Science and Engineering tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide his research on how people could converse with robots. Robots have to know the concepts people refer, understand how they are verbalised, display an adequate version of common sense in every conceptual interaction. How it is possible? Through the development of a cognitive model and a computational system, that is the aim of the research.

Chiara Marzi, PhD in Biomedical, Electrical and System Engineering, tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide her research on fractal geometry, a mathematical tool able to describe very complex structures such as the human brain, for the analysis of cerebral complexity in magnetic resonance imaging to identify indices capable of allowing early diagnosis of the main neurological diseases.

Michael Lodi, PhD in Computer Science and Engineering, is the people’s choice in the Three minute Thesis Competition 2018. Michael tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide his research thesis on the investigation of the mindset of pre-service primary school teachers before and after a “creative computing and computational thinking course” to analyze and to change their specific “computer science mindset”.

Federica Barletta, PhD in Mechanics and Advanced Engineering Sciences tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide her research on the design and optimization of processes assisted by atmospheric non-equilibrium plasma for the co-deposition of bio composite coatings for drug delivery system.

Greta Goracci, PhD in Statistical Sciences, tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide her research on the probabilistic and statistical properties of a class of nonlinear series models called TARMA (Threshold Autoregressive Moving Average) that could be applied to interpret phenomena that to date are just seen as purely random and without structure in several fields from finance to physics, from biology to medicine.

Samantha Bruno, PhD in Oncology, Hematology and Pathology, tells us in just three minutes and with the support of a single slide her research on the role of Cdc20 in Acute Myeloid Leukemia by treatment of primary cells and cell lines with targeted drugs.