People & Awards

R&D engineer at Marchesini Group s.p.a.

Luca received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees (both with Honors) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bologna in 2017 and 2020, respectively. He completed his Ph.D. in Mechanics and Advanced Engineering Sciences at the University of Bologna in 2024 (with Honors). In 2023, he was a visiting researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation in Stuttgart for four months. Since 2023, he has been a full-time employee with the Research and Development Department at Marchesini Group, where he works on developing new industrial robots used in the packaging machines produced by the company.

Mechanical Engineer at MORC2

Federico received both his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bologna in 2017 and 2020, respectively, with a specialization curriculum in Mechanics of Automation and Robotics. Federico completed his Ph.D. in Mechanics and Advanced engineering Sciences at the University of Bologna and in Engineering and Systems Sciences at the Ecole Centrale de Nantes in 2023. Its research topics included industrial robotics and continuum parallel robot robots, focusing on design, modelling, workspace analysis, performance assessment of flexible parallel manipulators, but also including equilibrium stability and singularity analysis. Since 2024, he has been a full-time employee as a mechanical engineer at MORC2 Srl

Assistant professor at SUSTech

Dr. Wu received his Ph.D. degree in Mechatronics from the School of Mechanical Engineering of Shanghai Jiaotong University in 2009. From 2009 to 2014, he was first appointed as a research assistant and later research associate at the Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. From 2014 to 2019, he was appointed as a researcher at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Bologna. He started his assistant professorship at SDIM of SUSTech in May 2019 where he runs the robotics lab.

R&D engineer at Marchesini Group s.p.a.

Alessandro received the M.Sc.degree in Mechanical Engineering (with honors) at the University of Bologna. In 2015 he received both the Ph.D. degree In Mechanics of machines and in Computer Science. He continued his work on parallel robots at the University of Bologna during two years of Post-Doc. Since 2017 he is a full-time employee in the R&D department at Marchesini Group S.p.A.. His main activities are related to automation and robotics for packaging machines.

Pilot plant manager at BI-REX

Francesco received the M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering (with honors) at the University of Bologna in 2012. He collaborated with Professor Carricato at the University of Bologna until 2019, while receiving his Ph.D. degree in automation and robotics in 2017. His main research topics were servomotors, energy efficiency, and robotics applied to automatic and packaging machines. Now he is the Pilot Plant Manager at BI-REX, the Italian Competence Center on Big Data, where he works on the integration of innovative technologies in an industrial environment

R&D engineer at DataSensing S.r.l.

B.Sc. degree in Automation Engineering (with honors) at the University of Bologna, M.Sc. degree in Robotics, Systems, and Control at the Institute of Technology (ETH) of Zurich, and Ph.D. degree in Mechanics and Advanced Engineering Science at the University of Bologna. After a couple of years working abroad as a software developer at GoPro Switzerland AG, he returns to the academy focusing his research as a Ph.D. student of Mechanics and Advanced Engineering Science degree on computer vision and AI applied to collaborative robotics. After a 3-year long affiliation with IMA S.p.A. R&I department for the ROSSINI EU project, he now works as a consultant with DataSensing S.r.l. R&D office.

Patent specialist at Studio Tortora S.p.a.

Dr. Valentina Mattioni received her B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in 2014, her M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of  Bologna in 2019, and her Ph.D. degree in Mechanics and Advanced Engineering Science at the University of Bologna in 2023. She is currently a Patent Specialist at Studio Torta S.p.a., and deals with intellectual property in mechanical engineering, automation, and mechatronics.

Chief engineer for planetary exploration missions at Airbuss

Dr. Paolo Ridolfi received his M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of  Bologna in 2013, a specialising Master degree in Space Systems Engineering at Politecnico di Torino in 2016, and a Ph.D. degree in Mechanics and Advanced Engineering Science at the University of Bologna in 2023. He spent three years in the industrial automation field, developing automatic machines and robots for packaging lines at IMA T&T. He then moved to the space field in the UK, working in SSTL as optical systems engineer and subsequently in Airbus, where he works since 2017. He is currently chief engineer for planetary exploration missions.

Mechanical designer at IMA Tea & Herbs

Claudio received the M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bologna. In 2016 he received the Ph.D. degree in Mechanics of Machines. In 2016 he started his collaboration with Professor Marco Carricato, working on a project of IMA Research & Innovation department related to packaging-material loading of automatic machines with collaborative robots. Since 2019 he has been working at IMA Tea & Herbs, R&D department, as a mechanical design engineer.

Driveability engineer at Automobili Lamborghini S.p.a.

B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bologna. He was a visiting scholar at the ROAR Lab of the Columbia University of New York (USA) to work with cable-driven parallel robots for rehabilitation applications. He started the activity as a Research Fellow for the University of Bologna regarding the modeling of a dual-clutch gearbox for a high-performance plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in collaboration with Automobili Lamborghini. Since July 2021, he is an internal employee at Automobili Lamborghini, working in the powertrain application and control department as a driveability engineer. His work mainly focused on developing the engine control unit software, other than calibration and vehicle testing.

Mechanical designer at IMA Automation

Bachelor Degree in Mechanical Engineering and Master Degree in Mechanics of Automation and Robotics curriculum at the University of Bologna. After approaching mobile robotics during the master thesis, in particular focusing on the study and the development of collaborative mobile manipulators suitable for industrial environments, he decided to extend his activity as a research fellow at Bi-Rex Competence Center. He is currently working at IMA Automation as a mechanical design engineer. His work is mainly focused on the design of automatic machineries and production lines for assembling of electric motors and batteries.

Mechanical designer at IMA Coffee

B.Sc. and M.Sc. Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bologna. In his research fellowship at the University of Bologna, in partnership with the Competence Center BI-REX, his focus was on the development of Augmented Reality applications to provide to an inline operator suggestions on logistic tasks such as warehouse picking and assembly assistance. He is currently working at IMA Coffee as mechanical design engineer. His main activity is the design and simulation of automatic machines for packaging coffee capsules.

Mechanical designer at IMA Automation

Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bologna. Master degree in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in Automation and Robotics at the University of Bologna. He worked as research fellow at the University of Bologna: his research was focused on the integration between collaborative and mobile robots in partnership with the Competence Center BI-REX. He is currently working at IMA Automation as mechanical design engineer. His work concerns the design and production of assembly lines for automotive and e-mobility markets.

Project Engineer at Calzoni Automation

Giovanni received his B.Sc. degree in Industrial Engineering at the University of Salento and his M.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering (with honors) at the University of Bologna. His master thesis project, developed with Marchesini Group S.p.A., concerned the optimization of an automatic machine both from a mechanical and a software point of view. In his research fellowship at the University of Bologna he cooperated with L3 Harris | Calzoni on the design and optimization of an electric auxiliary propulsion system for naval applications, with particular regard to magnetic and acoustic signatures. He is currently working at L3 Harris | Calzoni as a project engineer.