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, 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, After a long while, here I am back with a new post for you ladies and gentlemen. Today I would like to talk with you about my experience at the ROSE workshop 2017 in Copenhagen. This that I attended was  the 5 th  edition of the workshop sponsored by the ROSE project that every year involves about 30 experts from different institutions working on low rolling resistance and greener road pavements around the world. The workshop is a two days event that this year took place in Copenhagen on Thursday 23rd November and Friday 24th November, 2017. Yes guys, it was just last week. I am pretty quick in giving you news and updates on my project. The experience overall was just great and gave me the opportunity of sharing results of my research and make some networking for  future collaboration. At the end of my presentation I received some very interesting questions that opened discussion within the attendees and that made me proud of the work done so far. You...

Hi crew, I hope you are doing great! After this long weekend in England, here I am with a new post for my blog. Today I want to share with you the amazing experience of attending the 1 st TRUSS ITN Workshop (24 th May 2017, London). Honestly, it was a success. International experts with different backgrounds joined the event and introduced their perspective on the topic of risk assessment and associated decision-making process related to structural safety and management of infrastructure. It was another chance for all the ESRs to learn from top managers, engineers, researchers, and professors in the field. A chance to discuss innovative methods and solutions developed nowadays in industry and academia to tackle the latest challenges in engineering. A chance to meet old and new friends and start collaboration on common concerns. A beautiful day spent in a magnificent venue as the offices of Lloyd’s Register . Please,  for more information about this and next e...

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! Are you ready for a new post?! Here we go then! Today I’m going to introduce you to a more technical topic. In fact, we are going to talk about machine learning and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) in particular. Machine learning is a subfield of computer science which aims to give computers the ability to do something without being explicitly programmed for doing that. Originally, it comes from the study of pattern recognition and computational learning theory in artificial intelligence. Exploring the study and construction of algorithms that can learn from experience (historical data), the algorithm operates by building a model from example inputs in order to make data-driven predictions or decisions. ANN is just a branch of Machine Learning. They are data processing paradigms inspired by the way the biological nervous system process information in human beings (Biological Neural Networks, BNNs). Usually they are used to estimate or approximate functions t...