Thematic Session 2

THEMATIC SESSION #2

Sandra Costanzo

University of Calabria, Italy

• sandra.costanzo@unical.it

Filippo Cavallo

University of Florence, Italy

• filippo.cavallo@unifi.it

The proposed session, organized in the framework of research project “Age-It: Ageing Well in an Ageing Society”, is aimed at highlight recent results on advanced age-friendly sensors and technologies for prevention and health monitoring. Potential (but not limited) related topics are:

• Microwave methods and wearable sensors for advanced healthcare and biomedical diagnostics;
• Innovative AI-based tools for at-home motor and cognitive evaluation;
• Multisensory distributed system for home monitoring of health status;
• New technologies integrating robots and wearable devices.

Sandra Costanzo (Senior Member, IEEE) received the Laurea degree (summa cum laude) in computer engineering from the Università della Calabria, Italy, in 1996, and the Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from the Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Italy, in 2000. She is currently a Full Professor in electromagnetic fields with the Università della Calabria, where she is the Rector’s Delegate for Health Safety. She teaches courses on electromagnetic waves propagation, antennas, remote sensing, radar, sensors, and electromagnetic diagnostics. She has authored or co-authored more than 250 contributions in international journals, books, and conferences. She is Editor of the books Microwave Materials Characterization (INTECH, 2012) and Wave Propagation Concepts for Near-Future Telecommunication Systems (INTECH, 2017). Her research interests include near-field/far-field techniques, antenna measurement techniques, antenna analysis and synthesis, numerical methods in electromagnetics, millimeter wave antennas, reflectarrays, synthesis methods for microwave structures, electromagnetic characterization of materials, biomedical applications, and radar technologies. Prof. Costanzo received the Telecom Prize for the Best Laurea Thesis, in 1996; the Best Academia and Research Application in Aerospace and Defense 2013 Award for the application Software-Defined Radar using the NI USRP 2920 platform; and she was selected in March 2024 as one of the women’s leading role in ‘Excellence in Antennas and Propagation Research’ of IEEE TAP. She is the Vice-Chair of the IEEE MTT-28 Biological Effects and Medical Applications Committee; a member of the IEEE South Italy Geoscience and Remote Sensing Chapter, the Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni (CNIT), the Società Italiana di Elettromagnetismo (SIEM), and the Centro Interuniversitario sulle Interazioni fra Campi Elettromagnetici e Biosistemi (ICEMB); and the Board Member of the IEEE AP/ED/MTT North Italy Chapter. She is an Associate Editor Emeritus of IEEE JOURNAL OF ELECTROMAGNETICS, RF AND MICROWAVES IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY; a Topic Editor of IEEE Journal of Microwave; an Associate Editor of IEEE ACCESS; a Section Editor of Sensors (section Physical Sensors), Electronics (section Microwave and Wireless Communications), and Polymers (section Smart and Functional Polymers Section); and an Editorial Board Member of Radioengineering and International Journal of RF and Microwave Computer-Aided Engineering. She is a Lead Editor of several special issues on international journals.

Filippo Cavallo is Associate Professor in Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics at the University of Florence, Department of Industrial Engineering, Florence, Italy. He received the Master Degree in Electronics Engineering, Curriculum Bioengineering, from the University of Pisa, Italy, and the Ph.D. degree in Bioengineering at the BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy. From 2007 to 2013, he was post doc researcher and, from 2013 to 2019, he was assistant professor and head and scientific responsible of the Assistive Robotics Lab at the BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, leading a group of 16 people, among which Ph.D. students, Post doctorate and assistant researchers. Since 2020, he is associate professor with the University of Florence in Biomedical Robotics and Bio-Mechatronics and affiliate professor at the BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna. He was also visiting researcher at the the EndoCAS Center of Excellence, Pisa, Italy working in Computer Assisted Surgery (2005-2007); at the Takanishi Lab, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan working on wireless sensor network (2007); at Tecnalia Recerch Center, Basque Country, Spain working on wearable sensor system for AAL (2012). The objectives of his research activities are to promote and evaluate novel service robotics for active and healthy ageing, to identify and validate disruptive healthcare paradigms for neurodegenerative and chronic diseases, focusing on prevention and support for physical and cognitive declines, to optimize the management of working life for improving efficiency, security and QoL of workers in industrial settings. The main scientific and technological challenges concern social robotics, human robot interaction, wearable sensors, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence for robot companions and healthcare applications. From 2008 to 2014, he leaded the development of Ambient Assisted Living roadmap and strategic research agenda within the AALIANCE coordination action and in 2018 he was expert member at the European Economic Social Committee for the INT/852 communication on Digital transformation in health and care. He participated in various National and European projects, and he is currently principal investigator of the Olimpia Project about Parkinson disease, Pharaon project on pilots for active and healthy ageing, and Spoke coordinator of two PNRR project about Robotics Rehabilitation (FIT4MEDROB) and Ageing (Age-IT); in addition he is scientific responsible of other projects, such as PRIN, POS and MSCA. He is Editorial Board member of different international journals, member of the scientific committees of several conferences and author of more than 220 papers on conferences and ISI journals.