ESR13: Using truck sensors for road pavement performance investigation

Hi crew, I hope that you are all doing well, that (as I did) you had the chance to spend some time on holidays and that, if you have been away, you enjoyed your time far from your work place, computer, e-mails, etc. Tomorrow (28th August 2018) TRUSS ITN is holding at UCD (in Dublin) the last management meeting of the project in which all ESRs will be asked to present their latest achievements, results of their research, etc. For this reason, I thought that today it was good to share with you some updates on my project. Specifically, in this blog post, I am going to talk about the current situation of my studies, recent outreach activities that I have been involved in and I will conclude by giving you a summary and some updates in regards to the outcomes of my research. So, first things first. In regards to my studies, on 1st October 2018 I am going to start my 4th (yes, FOURTH and LAST) year of studies here at the University of Nottingham. I will start my "Thesis Pen...

Hi crew, How are you doing? I know that for most of you it is time for holidays but I hope that under the umbrella, on a beach, somewhere at the seaside, in the mountains, at home or (unlucky) at work in the office (as I am) you find the time to read this very brief post. Today I will talk with you about "Project Management". Since I started my studies in civil engineering one of my career goals was to manage a big project, taking responsibility for delivering beautiful constructions and valuable consultancies to international clients, having the possibility to work in various places around the globe and being able to use the mix of my personal, interpersonal and technical skills to meet customer expectations and overcome challenges that in a project can happen. Well, these are just some of the things that Project Managers (PM) do but, you know, I was a kid and my idea of project management was vague but somewhat exciting. Motivational. A few weeks ago, tha...

Hi crew, I hope that you are all doing great. First of all, today, I would like to thank you all for the fantastic achievement that this blog reached last week: 10,000 views from all over the world!!! How cool is that??!! It is just awesome and you are awesome that you keep visiting and reading my blog. Thanks a lot for that. But lets focus on today's topic. Today I am going to share with you another of my great experiences. A few weeks ago, I have been invited by Dr. Davide Lo Presti and Dr. Ana Jiménez del Barco Carrión, respectively Coordinator and Project Managers of SMARTI ETN , to share with their fellows my experience about the use of social media and blog for communicating Science. Honestly, in my experience, I never had the possibility of lecturing to a proper classroom and I thought that this was another massive opportunity, which I could not miss. I was honoured and excited about being invited for sharing my own perspectives with other researchers, and i...

Hi crew, It has not been a long time since I published my latest post on the blog but many things happened in the meantime. I have fantastic, wonderful news, that today I would like to share with you. If you follow me through social media (check links on the left hand side of the blog) you are probably already aware of the fantastic achievement obtained at the past TRA 2018 in Vienna in April. Aren’t you? Well, let me explain. Every two years the Transport Research Arena (TRA) conference takes place. It is one of the largest events in transportation in Europe (a sort of European TRB). The conference recalls researchers and experts from all around the world and, this year, it was attended by over 3,500 delegates. It is a really big and important event. Peculiarity of the TRA is that every two years (when it happens) the best researchers at Senior and Young level are selected (in Europe) based on results of their research. This is called ‘ TRA VISIONS ’ and is sponsored b...

Hi crew, Today, 8 th March, is the International Women Day and I feel like it's time to tell you a story. Many are the women that in the past had an impact on Science and our lives and, of course, many are the women currently involved in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) related projects and that work for improving our quality of life and take care of our planet. From the past, I may mention a few Italians such as Rita Levi-Montalcini or Margherita Hack, or international ones as Rosalind Franklin, Gertrude Elion or Barbara McClintock (just to mention a few). Really, I would list them all, but probably the list would be just too long for this post. However, today I would like to tell you the story of a woman. A story full of dreams, adventures, determination and, as in most of the best stories that I know, love. The story that I am going to tell you today is the story of Maria Skłodowska-Curie. Her story is really interesting. I learnt...

Hi crew, How are you doing? I am good thanks and I hope that it is the same for you. In fact, it has been long since I wrote for you last time and lots of things happened in the meantime. In my latest post I told you that I was planning to go in Washington for another conference. This was the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting that this year celebrated its 97th edition and represents probably the biggest event for engineers and professionals in transportation at international level. Just imagine that this year they received around 6000 papers and for a conference this is just huge. They also have their own journal that publishes only the best papers submitted to the conference. Figure 1 – The White House, home of the president of the USA, and symbol of the USA. Unfortunately, this year my paper did not manage to be published in the journal of the TRB but I was honoured to be able to present part of my research in the poster session dedicated to “Truck E...