Postdoctoral Researcher

• May 2023 - Present

Researcher PHD Student

• Dec 2019 - Mar 2023

My thesis research is in the scope of the 80 | PRIME CNRS project RHiPAR, whose aim is to investigate the link between offline reactivations in Reinforcement Learning and the reactivations of the place cells in the hippocampus during the immobility phases of rodents learning a navigation task. This research involves one part on behavioural modelling of the free and conditioned explorative behaviour in mice, starting from experimental data, and a second part on the evaluation of these models in simulations and on a robotic platform. These last experiments could be the inspiration for new behavioural predictions and the design of new experimental tasks. Supervisors: Dr. Benoît Girard, Dr. Mehdi Khamassi Show less

Research Assistant

• Sep 2018 - Dec 2019

Working in the Brain-Inspired and Humanoid Robotics Group at the BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. The research work is mainly developed in the framework of the European flagship Human Brain Project where I work on the combination of evolution-based strategies and bio-inspired control architectures for adaptive robotic locomotion. The main parts of the controller are a Central Pattern Generator and a Cerebellar inspired module for learning the inverse dynamics of the robot. From January 2019, I have also taken part in the European project GrowBot, where I am giving my contribution to the design of a reactive and collaborative control strategy for a new growing robot, inspired to climbing plants. Supervisors: Prof. Cecilia Laschi, Dr. Egidio Falotico Tools: ROS, Gazebo, NEST, Python, MATLAB, Neurorobotics PLatform (NRP) Show less

Master Thesis Intern

• Nov 2017 - May 2018

Working in the Center for Playware in the Automation and Control (AUT) department of DTU thanks to an Erasmus + scholarship. My master thesis concerned the design and implementation of a bio-Inspired locomotion control architecture for a modular robot, Fable. The control architecture is composed of a Central Pattern Generator, which is implemented as a spiking neural network and combines some machine learning techniques to represent a biologically plausible cerebellar circuit to learn the dynamics of the system. The project is developed in the framework of the Human Brain Project, with the collaboration of the University of Ghent and the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. Supervisors: Prof. Jens Christian Andersen, Prof. Henrik Hautop Lund, Dr. Silvia Tolu Tools: ROS, Gazebo, NEST, Python, MATLAB, Neurorobotics Platform (NRP) Show less

Bachelor Thesis Intern

• Mar 2015 - Oct 2015

Working on the implementation of a reusable and adaptable control algorithm to control in real-time the anthropomorphic robotic UB-Hand. The control algorithm is executed on a National Instrument FPGA myRIO board which is remotely and wirelessly control from a MATLAB Simulink GUI. This helps the user to calibrate and move the robotic hand in all its possible configuration sending dedicated data packages through a transceiver to the Dynamixel motors controlling the hand. Supervisors: Prof. Claudio Melchiorri, Prof. Gianluca Palli, Dr. Umberto Scarcia Tools: C, MATLAB, LabVIEW Show less