ESR13: Using truck sensors for road pavement performance investigation

Hi crew! Today an amazing post introducing the Random Forests method is waiting for you to be read! Yep, I know, I promised this post a long time ago but seriously crew: I had no time for it! Random Forest is a machine learning method mainly used for classification and regression purposes. These kind of statistics basically learns from a training set of data and gives answers associated to new data based on what the algorithm learnt. Yep crew it sounds very similar to what Artificial Neural Networks do. In fact, also Artificial Neural Networks is a machine learning method used for regression analysis. However the two methods are based on slightly different concepts. From the historical point of view, the first concepts behind the theory of "Random Forests" are introduced for the first time by Ho in 1995 [2][3], but it is only in 2001 that they are defined as we currently know them by Breimann [1]. The algorithm itself is based on the theory of Decision Trees … ...

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! 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...

Hey crew! I’m sorry for not writing sooner but I was quite busy with work first and then I finally went on holidays for a while. But finally, here we go: I’m back! Today I’m not going to talk about any technical stuff (I have some news about that, but I will share it someother time ;)). I guess that a more relaxed topic is probably much better to catch your attention after holidays. I hope you all are doing well and that you had the opportunity to spend some time at home with your family, in the mountains, or at the seaside as I did. You know, sometimes we deserve some relax! We need to spend some time with friends, with our family, go for holidays, and also why not, we could play Pokemon GO… Are you telling me that you haven’t ever heard about Pokemons (short for pocket monsters) and Pokemon GO? Are you kidding me, or what? It is the phenomenon of the moment! It is basically a free augmented reality game for smartphones (it is available for both iOS and Android operat...

Hey crew! I have great news for you: I published my first scientific paper! Yep, guys that’s amazing! It happened last week, during the 8 th RILEM International Conference on “Mechanisms of Cracking and Debonding in Pavements” in Nantes (7-9 June, 2016) . It is about part of the work I did in EMPA for my Master Thesis. For this reason, I’d like to say thanks to my ex-Supervisors Prof. Gabriel Tebaldi - who was my Professor in Italy when I was studying at the Universit à degli Studi di Parma – and Dr. Martin Arraigada, Dr. Christiane Raab and Prof. Dr. Manfred Partl - who were supporting me during the internship. The title of the paper is “Influence of SAMI on the Performance of Reinforcement Grids” and you can find it here if you want to have a look on it. The paper was presented by Dr. Christiane Raab at the beginning of the afternoon session during the first day of the Conference. What about the first real academic conference I participated to? ...

Hey crew! I hope you all are doing well and welcome back to my blog! Today I’d like to give you feedback about my experience at Microlise Transport Conference (just Conference in the following). It is a conference about road transport organized every year by Microlise Ltd and its sponsors in order to spread knowledge about the issues and solutions that nowadays affect the industry. No, I haven't presented any article and I hadn’t any presentation there. Come on crew, there were people like Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal presenting at the Conference – and I don’t know what about you but, at least for me, it was the first time in my life I saw a member of the Royal Family in person. Actually, it was the first time for my Supervisor too. However, the Conference was really good and it was basically the opportunity for me to deeply understand the issues nowadays faced by the road transport industry. Personally, I think that the most impressive thing I got f...