Project PI
Antonio Palermo is an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering at the University of Bologna. He received his Civil Engineering degree from the University of Bologna (2011), a MSc in Earthquake Engineering from Imperial College (2013), UK, and a Ph.D in Structural Engineering from the University of Bologna (2017). In 2018, he joined the Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering at the California Institute of Technology as a “Cecil and Sally Drinkward Postdoctoral Fellow”. His research interests lie at the intersection between solid mechanics, applied physics, and civil engineering with the aim of designing novel materials and structures for elastic wave propagation control. He is the recipient of the “Claudio Bonivento Thesis Prize for Research and Technological Innovation- ISA” (2018) and the “Medaglia Leonardo Da Vinci-MIUR” (2019)
Full Professor
Alessandro Marzani received a M.Sc. in Structural Engineering from the University of California, San Diego, USA and a M.Sc. (Laurea) in Civil Engineering from the University of Bologna, Italy. In 2005 he obtained the Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from the University of Calabria, Italy. Dr. Marzani research interests include non-destructive evaluation techniques of materials and structures, structural monitoring, linear and non-linear ultrasonic guided wave propagation, structural optimization and structural identification strategies. His recent research looks also at structured materials for wave propagation control (metamaterials). He has been the coordinator of national and European projects, and principal investigator of industrial research contracts. Dr. Marzani is a LEVEL 3 for NDT testing based on guided waves (UNI EN 473 e ISO 9712), holds three patents and actively cooperates with public authorities on the standardization of methodologies and technologies for non-destructive testing and structural health monitoring.
Research Fellow
Masoud Mohammadgholiha is a structural health monitoring specialist focused on ultrasonic guided waves and transducer design. He earned his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Bu-Ali Sina University (2014) and his M.Sc. in Structural and Earthquake Engineering from K.N. Toosi University (2017), working on MEMS accelerometers and vibration-based SHM. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Bologna (2024), funded by the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, developing novel piezoelectric transducers for guided wave inspection. From 2017 to 2020, he was a Research Assistant at KNTU, contributing to SHM, seismic assessment using machine learning, and wave propagation in composites. Since completing his Ph.D., he has been a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Bologna, pioneering meta-transducers for damage detection, acoustic data communication, and energy harvesting. His interests include SHM, guided waves, signal processing, and vibration analysis.
Project Co-Pi
Gabriele Cazzulani received the Ph.D. degree cum Laude in Mechanical Engineering in 2012 with a thesis titled “The Active Vibration Control of Smart Structures”. He was Assistant Professor from 2016 to 2022 and is currently Associate Professor of Applied Mechanics.
He is author of more than 100 international publications and 4 patents resulting from both academic research and cooperation with industry.
His main research interests include smart sensors and actuators for control and diagnostics, vibration control and mitigation, metamaterials for novel wave propagation phenomena, underwater acoustics and structural health monitoring techniques, both for mechanical and civil structures.
Assistant Professor
Emanuele Riva received the M.S. degree and Ph.D degree (both cum laude) in Mechanical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano in 2017 and 2020 with a thesis titled “Topological and nonreciprocal wave propagation in stiffness-modulated materials”. He is assistant professor (RTDA) in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Politecnico di Milano since 2021, where he performs research on structural dynamics and wave propagation, with applications to structural health monitoring, metamaterials, vibration control, and energy harvesting. With this regard, particular emphasis in his research is put on the quest for new mechanisms to manipulate elastic waves through active and passive metamaterials, as well as on the possible experimental implementations and industrial implications. His research interest also includes smart materials, mechatronics, and robotics. Concerning the teaching activities, He assisted more than 9 bachelor and master-level courses (among which “Smart structures and devices”, “Mechatronics systems and laboratory”, “Vibration control and monitoring of mechanical systems”, and "Data analytics for mechanical systems") and co-supervised more than 30 M.S. thesis in the Mechanical and Civil Engineering tracks at Politecnico di Milano. Emanuele has co-authored more than 39 journal articles in international journals and conference proceedings, two patents, and he is involved in several research collaborations with a number of top universities in the world.
PhD Student
Stefano Espis is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. He earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the same institution, focusing on mechatronics, robotics, and wave dynamics. His doctoral research centers on elastic metamaterials for advanced wave manipulation, with applications in Structural Health Monitoring, Non-Destructive Testing, and analog signal processing.