Visitors

Today we welcomed at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) a group of 41 students and 3 accompanying teachers from the '3rd Lyceum of Koropi' from Greece.

It was an extra pleasure for me for two reasons. 

First, because one of the accompanying teachers was my cousin Ioanna. 

Second, because together with my colleague Germana, I had a chance to give a short overview about the research conducted in the state of the art Vehicle Emissions Laboratory (VELA) labs which are part of the European Interoperability Centre for Electric Vehicles and Smart Grids.

Research conducted in these facilities provide scientific support for the development of new EU Directives and the revision of older ones, as well as for the assessment of new measurement techniques and procedures. 

Inside VELA 9, a chamber designed for electromagnetic compatibility testing of light-duty vehicles and light commercial trucks

Inside VELA 9, a chamber designed for electromagnetic compatibility testing of light-duty vehicles and light commercial trucks

In front of VELA 8, the JRC Electric and Hybrid Vehicles Testing Facility

Four and a half years (and 36h) later

Earlier today I participated in a workshop on AI and connected and automated mobility that was held in the Joint Research Centre in Seville. The workshop brought together representatives from the autonomous vehicles & smart mobility industry to discuss policy and technology challenges with JRC researchers.

I gave two presentations, the first on the Transport Research and Innovation Monitoring and Information System (the project I work for at the JRC) and the second on the Transport chapter of the State of Play on Digital Transformation in Selected Policy Areas report. The latter came 24 hours after a presentation in a workshop held yesterday in Ispra, focusing on input from experts on the draft chapter.

The first time I visited Seville was in February 2014, when I was interviewed for a position in the Economics of Climate Change, Energy and Transport Unit. I did not take the position.

The workshop was very successful since it allowed us to provide info on the work performed by the JRC, on the policy context on the road to connected and automated mobility, and to explore synergies with start-up companies that work in the field.

TRA 2018 Commission Stand

From April 16 to April 19 I took part in the TRA 2018 Exhibition (https://www.traconference.eu), supporting the Joint Research Centre and the European Commission. My involvement was in the promotion of TRIMIS (https://trimis.ec.europa.eu), the EC's Transport Research and Innovation Monitoring and Information System. Within this I had the chance to present TRIMIS to different stakeholders, including EC authorities. 

At the European Commission TRA 2018 Stand

With my colleague Anastasios Tsakalidis, European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc, and DG Move Officer Dimitrios Vartis

Presenting TRIMIS to Ms. Signe Ratso, DG RTD Deputy Director General

Presenting TRIMIS to Ms. Signe Ratso, DG RTD Deputy Director General

Presenting TRIMIS to the French organization of Automotive Industry & Mobilities (PFA)

Malerba

Since the past 4 months I have the privilege to collaborate at the Politecnico di Milano with Prof. Pier Giorgio Malerba, serving as teaching assistant for the course of Bridge Theory and Design. The course, taken by second year Master of Science students in Civil and Transportation Engineer, is one of the few that require as partial fulfillment a compulsory final project.
The project focuses on the structural design of a prestressed concrete box girder bridge and I assisted 5 teams of 7-8 students over the entire Fall Semester. My teams did an excellent job: we finished the last revision yesterday and I am looking forward to them delivering the projects and taking the final exam in January and February.
For me it was an exciting experience which fits perfectly with my current job as a Programme Officer in the European Commission and specifically in the Sustainable Transport Unit of the Joint Research Centre.  

Workshop on Identification of Future Emerging Technologies in the Wind power sector, 5th December 2017

I was happy to meet with old friends at the workshop on identification of future emerging technologies in the wind power sector, held yesterday at the JRC in Ispra.
In particular, Francesco Petrini from the University of Rome with whom I worked together for more than 10 years (including a close collaboration in the period 2013-2016 for an ESA funded Energy Harvesting project), Gianni Bartoli (from the University of Florence) with whom together with Francesco we ran several sessions of wind tunnel tests, Nafsika Stavridou (who I know from my past in Civil Engineering), Michael Muskulus (from NTNU) who I know from my past research in offshore wind energy, and Prof. Lampis Baniotopoulos (University of Birmingham), a great person.
Very happy to meet in person also Prof. Flemming Rasmussen (from DTU) a guru in wind turbine design, and so many other experts on the wind energy sector.

The complete list of the workshop participants:

Participant	Affiliation
Charalampos Baniotopoulos	University of Birmingham
Stephan Barth	Centre for wind energy research ForWind
Gianni Bartoli	University of Florence
Elisa Boelman	JRC, European Commission
Dennis Bosse	RWTH – Aachen
Alessandro Croce	Politecnico di Milano
Marco Fontana	Università degli Studi di Trento
Adrian Gambier	Fraunhofer IWES
Konstantinos Gkoumas	JRC, Ispra, European Commission
Christopher Golightly	Independent researcher
Peter Jamieson	University of Strathclyde
Andrew Macdonald	Offshore Renewable Energy ORE Catapult
Alberto Moro	JRC, Ispra, European Commission
Jimmy Murphy	University College Cork
Michael Muskulus	Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU
Francesco Petrini	Sapienza Universita' di Roma
Luca Pigolotti	University of Florence
Flemming Rasmussen	Technical University of Denmark
Vera Reis	JRC, Ispra, European Commission
Philippe Schild	DG RTD, Bruxelles, European Commission
Nafsika Stavridou	University of Birmingham
Nigel Taylor	JRC, Ispra, European Commission
Simon Watson	Delft University of Technology

 

post DCEE 2016 - pre DCEE 2017

Last October in Rome, together with Franco Bontempi, I organised the 5th Design in Civil and Environmental Engineering workshop (DCEE 2016). But time flies.
In view of the DCEE 2017 workshop that this year will take place in Cagliari Sardinia on November 9-11, we uploaded the DCEE 2016 papers in the workshop website, together with a brief editorial.
We are looking forward to a successful DCEE 2017 workshop!

team building | Alpe Devero

team building

noun

noun: team building; noun: teambuilding

1. the action or process of causing a group of people to work together effectively as a team, especially by means of activities and events designed to increase motivation and promote cooperation.