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, Are you alright? Today I want to talk with you one more time about Machine Learning (ML). In fact, last week I attended an interesting seminar about possible applications of these techniques. The seminar has been given by the TRL Academy, here in TRL, and for me, it was a good opportunity to introduce myself, my project, and to share ideas about possible optimization algorithms and techniques, for a topic which is completely new for road asset management. In my previous posts, I showed you how ML works, giving particular attention to Artificial Neural Networks and Random Forests . As I already mentioned, these techniques are used nowadays in a number of applications in Science, and actually, also lots of apps installed on our mobiles use similar methods to make our life easier. In fact, based on the ability of these techniques to recognize patterns in large datasets, weather forecasts, banks, social media, among many others, use ML to improve precision and reliabil...

Hi crew, I hope you are doing well! Have you noticed that I changed a bit the layout of the blog? Do you like the new style? However, let’s focus now on the topic of this new (and amazing!) post! Today I want to share with you my experience of the first weeks of secondment that I spent in TRL Ltd… moreover, I would like also to discuss with you a bit about Italian food. Tasty?? Ehm, interesting eh? But let’s start from the main topic of the post: my secondment in TRL. As you probably know, this is my second experience in secondment (the first one was in Microlise last year ) and it is part of my PhD project. This experience will be useful for me and my research, for improving my knowledge about road conditions monitoring, road maintenance strategies, road pavements life-cycle assessment, and for the interpretation of the results of my study so far. TRL is the acronym of Transportation Research Laboratory. In TRL engineers, consultants and technical speciali...

Hi crew! Here I am with another post for my blog! I hope you are all doing well, that you spent nice holidays with people you care, and that your 2017 started in the best of ways! So far, the start of 2017 was a quite busy period for me, however, lot of work causes also lots of news for you crew. Therefore  I am sorry for the delay with keep you update but because of meetings, deadlines and holidays, it was really difficult for me to write anything on the blog. My apologies crew! Last week for example I went in Barcelona. Did you know that? … No, crew it was not for holidays… It was because of work! Actually I should say that we went in Barcelona. In fact, it was the 2 nd TRUSS ITN training week organized at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya , and all the ESRs attended the meeting. We presented the latest achievements in our projects and it was also the opportunity to share ideas within researchers and experts. We attended many lectures focused on seism...

Hey crew, Are you alright? Are you ready for reading a new post? Alright, let’s start then! Almost a month ago I started my secondment in Microlise Ltd . As I already mentioned in the past: Microlise is one of the two companies that is involved within my project. They are experts in truck fleet management and they collect and analyse data from large truck fleets for helping their customer in maximising utilisation, increasing efficiency, and improving economy and safety for their fleets. Fig.1 – The Microlise Ltd logo. How is it going here in Microlise? Well, I have to say that working in the company has pros and cons. The cons are mainly related to the timing: I have to wake up at 6:00am every morning and it takes 1 hour-ish by bus to get to  Eastwood, where Microlise is located. Then, I go back home very late (sometimes I come back home after 6:30pm). Fig. 2 – No crew, it is not that terrible! ;) This means that quite often I’m tired, and ...

Hey crew! How are you? I hope you have had a nice Christmas holidays with your family and I wish that a happy new year has started for you! Have you ever been visiting Chatsworth? You will probably say you have never heard about it before. Actually, me neither, I never heard about it till one month ago. Just know that Chatsworth House is a stately home in Derbyshire and it is one hour and a half by bus from Nottingham. It is the seat of the Duke of Devonshire and has been home to the Cavendish family since 1549. Standing on the east bank of the River Derwent, Chatsworth looks across to the low hills that divide the Derwent and Wye valleys. The house, set in expansive parkland and backed by wooded, rocky hills rising to heather moorland, contains a unique collection of priceless paintings, furniture, Old Master drawings, neoclassical sculptures, books and other artefacts. Chatsworth has been selected as the United Kingdom's favourite country house several times. You...