Thematic Session 34

THEMATIC SESSION #34

Valentina Bello

University of Pavia, Italy

• valentina.bello@unipv.it

Patrizia Lamberti

University of Salerno, IEEE WiE Italy Section, Italy

• plamberti@unisa.it

Loredana Cristaldi

Politecnico di Milano, Italy

• loredana.cristaldi@polimi.it

As the world tries to face pressing environmental challenges, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with sustainability has emerged as a critical strategy for mitigating these issues. The potential of AI has a great potential in driving the progress toward a more sustainable future, from optimizing resource usage to predicting environmental disasters.

This thematic session explores the transformative role of AI in enhancing sustainability across different environmental domains. In this context, AI can be applied in a variety of situations, for instance to protect marine ecosystems, mitigate pollution, preserve endangered habitats, and improve the living conditions of local communities. On the other hand, it is also crucial to examine the environmental footprint of AI itself, including energy consumption and e-waste generation, and discuss strategies for making AI systems more sustainable.

This session is sponsored by IEEE Women In Engineering (WIE) Affinity Group of the IEEE Italy Section: hence, a key objective is also to highlight innovative research conducted by women working in research, engineering and STEM disciplines. Indeed, a more sustainable world is inextricably linked to a more equitable and inclusive one, where everyone has the opportunity to thrive and contribute to the environmental protection.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• AI for conservation of marine ecosystems
• AI for climate change prediction
• AI-driven sustainable agriculture, farming and animal breeding
• AI for air, water, soil pollution monitoring and reduction
• AI for biodiversity conservation
• AI-enhanced renewable energy systems
• AI for optimization of energy and water consumption
• AI for sustainable urban planning
• AI for prediction, mitigation and management of environmental risks
• Environmental footprint of AI model training and usage
• Regulatory framework for sustainable AI

Valentina Bello was born in Tortona (Italy) in 1994. She received the B.Sc. degree in Bioengineering and the M.Sc. degree (summa cum laude) in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pavia (Pavia, Italy), in 2016 and 2018, respectively. In 2022, she received the Ph.D. degree in Electronic, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the University of Pavia, discussing a dissertation on innovative micro-opto-fluidic sensing platforms for biochemical and medical applications. In 2018, she was visiting thesis student at KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) within the Erasmus+ Traineeship program. In 2019, she was visiting researcher at Boston University Photonics Center (Boston, MA, USA). In 2024, she was visiting scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA, USA). She is currently Assistant Professor in the field of Electrical and Electronic Measurements at University of Pavia. Her research interests include optoelectronics, optical instrumentation and measurements, opto-fluidics, optical sensing and artificial intelligence. She is a member of IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Society, IEEE Photonics Society, IEEE Professional Communication Society, IEEE Young Professionals, IEEE Women in Engineering, and Italian GMEE (Gruppo Misure Elettriche ed Elettroniche). She is currently serving as Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurements and as Secretary of the IEEE Professional Communication Society Italy Chapter.