PhDTalks

PhDtalks is a series of seminars and discussions among PhD candidates. The events are self-organized by doctoral students from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DICA). Speakers are selected on a voluntary basis from candidates enrolled in the PhD programs in Structural, Seismic and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSG) and Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (IAI).

The events take place every two weeks in the late afternoon and are followed by a small reception funded by the DICA Department. The initiative aims to provide a relaxed and informal setting for PhD students to discuss ongoing research projects, share knowledge and skills, and enhance networking among fellow candidates.

Rules and Prizes

Starting from this year’s edition of PhDTalks, prizes will be awarded for each seminar cycle—one for the IAI PhD program and one for the ISSG PhD program.

Participation is free, and each candidate may give only one presentation every two seminar cycles. The best presentation from each PhD program will be awarded the “PhDTalks Prize” by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, consisting of a €1,000.00 budget that can be used by the winner for conference attendance or open access scientific publications.

For more information and to download the registration form, please refer to the PhDTalks Regulations.

Event Calendar

Presentations

A Unified Open-Source Framework for Geospatial Data Management in the Built and Natural Environment

Federica holds an MSc in Environmental and Land Planning Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, which she obtained in 2020. She is currently completing her visiting semester in TECNE – Autostrade per l’Italia as part of her PhD in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (38th cycle). Her research focuses on designing and implementing open-source geospatial solutions for efficiently managing data in real-world scenarios, with applications in bridge inspections, cultural heritage valorisation, and glacier monitoring. Passionate about open science culture, she is an active member of the Italian and international FOSS4G and OpenStreetMap communities.

In her free time, she enjoys cinema, listening to Beyoncé music, playing padel and swimming in her beloved Lake Maggiore.

**FROM SH*T TO GOLD: exploring novel opportunities for agricultural waste bioconversion into valuable products**

Francesca holds an MSc in Environmental Sciences from Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, awarded in 2022. She is currently a PhD candidate in Environmental and Infra structure Engineering (38th cycle) at Politecnico di Milano. Her research focuses on the valorization of agricultural by-products to enhance the su stainability of waste-to-resource processes. Specifically, she is inve stigating bacteria-based biorefineries for the bioconversion of anaerobic digestion by-products into proteins for animal feed applications, with an emphasis on circular economy principles.

In her spare time, Francesca enjoys singing and playing the piano, hiking in the mountains, and perfecting the art of turning food into happiness.

Numerical Methods for Fluid-Structure Interaction Problems Involving Lightweight Structures

Daniele holds an MSc in Mathematical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano in 2022. He is currently a PhD candidate in Structural, Seismic, and Geotechnical Engineering (38th cycle) at Politecnico di Milano. His research focuses on advanced Fluid-Structure Interaction methods and multiphase techniques within the Finite Element framework. In particular, he is developing novel algorithms to address Finite Element mesh distortion and submerged lightweight structures.

In his free time, Daniele enjoys reading, swimming, and travelling around the world.

Towards Faster Earthquake Decisions: Advances in Real-Time Earthquake Response Systems

Ileana holds a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering with a specialization in Earthquake Engineering from Politecnico di Milano (2023), and a Civil Engineering degree from UNAM in Mexico. She is currently a PhD candidate in Structural, Seismic, and Geotechnical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. Her research focuses on near real-time earthquake impact assessment using high-fidelity 3D physics-based simulations. In particular, she is working on the development of an automated workflow for the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, aiming to support emergency decision-making through urgent computing and realistic ground motion modeling.

Outside of research, Ileana enjoys hiking, running, watching films, and is proudly obsessed with her dog, Akela

Exploring fused silica properties for innovative microdevices: the case of a toroidal resonator gyroscope

Davide graduated in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology at Politecnico di Milano in 2022 and is currently pursuing a PhD in Structural, Seismic and Geotechnical Engineering (37th cycle). In his PhD, funded by STMicroelectronics, Davide focuses on the design, optimization and characterization of silicon-based microelectromechanical (MEMS) gyroscopes. During his time at the University of California, Irvine, Davide worked on fused silica gyroscopes, exploring how the properties of this material can enhance the performance of MEMS gyroscopes.

In his free time Davide enjoys reading, walking in nature, drinking coffee and spending time with friends.

Uncertainty quantification and spatial biases assessment in precipitation forecasts: a methodology for real-time flood forecasting applications

Enrico holds a M.Sc in Environmental and Land Planning Engineering, obtained at Politecnico di Milano in 2021. He is currently a PhD candidate (37-th cycle) in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering, in his PhD he is collaborating with the civil protection of Lombardy Region (CFMR) doing research on the enhancement of regional flood early warning system. His research is mainly focused on the use of machine learning algorithms for flood forecasting, nowcasting and flood warning applications, as well as uncertainty quantification of meteorological predictions.

In his spare time, he enjoys playing chess (with poor results), hiking, climbing and skiing.

Towards the realization of Submerged Floating Tunnels

Stefano is a PhD Candidate in Structural, Seismic and Geotechnical Engineering (38° cycle). He holds a Master of Science in Structural Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, obtained in 2022, and is currently enrolled in the third year of the PhD program. His research focuses on developing a multiscale approach to address the nonlinear dynamic behavior of slender offshore structural elements and to describe fatigue damage accumulation under hydrodynamic loading conditions, by means of both numerical and analytical tools.

In his free time Stefano enjoys traveling, hiking, playing tennis and padel.

Simulating the effect of Nature-based Solutions as a mitigation tool for Urban Heat Islands

Angelly is a computer scientist from Universidad del Norte (Colombia) and a Geoinformatics Engineer from Politecnico di Milano (Italy). Her projects consisted of the development of a QGIS plugin for location privacy and the application of deep learning to classify deforestation leveraging open satellite imagery, respectively. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Environmental Engineering focused on Geomatics. Her current research regards the application of artificial intelligence to produce the susceptibility models and maps of climate change related hazards in urban areas. Furthermore, the models can be used to evaluate the impact on the susceptibility introduced by simulated nature based solutions.

During her PhD studies, she has been a consultant for the World Bank, specifically developing geospatial applications currently focused on GeoAI as a service.

In her free time, she enjoys doing exercise, dancing, connecting with nature, and reading a good book, mostly from Colombian authors.

Accelerating Materials Design with Deep Learning: Multiscale Modeling and Inverse Design Strategies

José Pablo completed his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Universidad de Costa Rica, where he earned a scholarship to pursue postgraduate studies at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. In July 2020, he graduated with a Master’s degree in Materials Engineering and Nanotechnology. Shortly after, in November 2020, he began his Ph.D. studies in the Structural Seismic and Geotechnical Engineering program.
His research focuses on applying deep learning (DL) strategies to tackle challenges in the modeling and design of microstructurally heterogeneous materials, such as polycrystalline solids and composites. By utilizing advanced architectures like Convolutional Neural Networks and Generative Adversarial Networks, his work aims to accelerate material discovery, optimize structural responses, and predict effective properties across multiple scales. Additionally, his research investigates the generalization capabilities of data-driven models in complex systems, with a particular emphasis on exploring the potential of DL to effectively address out-of-distribution scenarios José Pablo’s Ph.D. studies are funded by Universidad de Costa Rica as part of a program dedicated to enhancing the academic qualifications of its teaching staff. After completing his Ph.D., he will return to Costa Rica as a full-time professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department, where he plans to contribute to academic excellence and foster research in computational materials science.

In his free time, José Pablo enjoys hiking, exploring nature, and reading.

Material Flow Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment in Policy Making for Waste Management: the Case Study of Textile Waste in Lombardy

Samuele obtained the master’s degree in environmental engineering at the University of Bologna in 2021, with a thesis about the application of life cycle assessment to carbon capture from flue gas. Then he spent one year as research fellow focusing on flue gas treatments for waste to energy plants. In 2022 he started his phd journey at Politecnico di Milano (38^th cycle). His research project, in collaboration with Regione Lombardia, is focused on textile waste management in the context of Lombardy region, with the aim to develop analyses to support policy making and public policies at the regional scale about waste management.

In his free time, he loves playing (and watching) basketball, he is interested in culture and politics, and in a lot of other things that we do not have the time to list here.

Study on toppling resistance of trees and of their effects as Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems: experimental tests at small-scale and at real-scale & hydrologic probabilistic modelling

Giacomo holds an MSc in Civil Engineering for Risk Mitigation from Politecnico di Milano, in 2021. He is currently a PhD candidate in Structural, Seismic and Geotechnical Engineering (38th cycle). His scholarship is interdisciplinary and it is co-founded by the Doctoral Program in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering. His research focuses on the numerical and experimental study on toppling resistance of trees in urban areas and of their role as sustainable drainage systems for flooding control.

Outside academia, he is a non-professional basketball player and he plays for the club “Asm70 Pezzini Basket Morbegno”.

A downscaling method based on wet spell and analysis of future climate variation under CMIP6 Scenarios in Upper Yangtze River Basin, China

My name is Xu Han (Name Surname), my hometown is in Handan, northern China, not far from Beijing. I came to Italy to study in 2021. My research is mainly related to meteorology and hydrology, specifically climate change, model evaluation, downscaling methods, extreme weather, etc.

I like traveling, music, movies, running.

Innovative Inertial MEMS: Micro-Systems for Motion Detection for New Fabrication Process

Yassine holds an MSc in Civil Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, in 2020. He is currently a PhD candidate in Structural, Seismic and Geotechnical Engineering (38th cycle). His research focuses on the design and numerical simulation of innovative MEMS(Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) sensors and actuators for a new fabrication process.

In his free time, he enjoys reading, traveling with friends and eating pasta.

AQUA-LIDAR: A novel and open source semi-automatic workflow for LiDAR DSM reconstruction in aquatic scenarios

Erika holds an MSc in Environmental and Land Planning Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, in 2020. She is currently a PhD candidate in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (37th cycle) and has recently completed a four-year research fellowship with the Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment, part of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IREA). Her research focuses on a range of Earth Observation applications for monitoring wetlands and aquatic environments at different scales. Specifically, she is mainly working on addressing ultra-high resolution UAV radiometric and geometric distortions on aquatic vegetation.

In her free time, she enjoys watercolour painting and hiking up in the mountains with friends, always fueled by her passion for polenta

Playlist PhDTalks 2023/24