Research Laboratories
Computer Vision & Multimedia
The CVML (Computer Vision and Multimedia Lab) group has been active since the early 70s. The group’s initial research activities focused on image enhancement and restoration techniques, especially for medical imagery. Subsequently, the group’s main efforts were devoted to more advanced image processing functions, involving scene segmentation and shape characterization; a broad background has been acquired on low-level and intermediate-level vision tasks involving grey-level statistics and structural descriptions.
Since the early 80s, a new stream of research has been actively pursued in the field of parallel architectures for vision and image processing. The group has meanwhile developed skills in high-level image processing domains, such as the management of knowledge description and learning capabilities for vision tasks. New research areas have now been activated on Multimedia, Human-Computer Interaction, Eye Tracking applications, Bioinformatics, Proteomics, Image Synthesis, 3D Vision, Visual Languages and E-learning.
For more information, please visit the lab’s website: vision.unipv.it
Custom Computing and Programmable Systems
The laboratory mainly works on the design and implementation of high-performance computing systems and embedded systems, through the use of general-purpose microprocessors (ARM, Intel, Motorola) and/or custom FPGA, DSP and GPU architectures. Applications where this approach has been employed range from biomedical instrumentation to image processing, automotive engineering, industrial informatics and simulation of physical phenomena (fluid dynamics and physics of matter). In these last cases part of the research carried out in the laboratory is devoted to the exploitation of parallel computing systems (clusters and supercomputers).
For more information, please visit the lab’s website: mclab.unipv.it
Digital Content Analysis
The DCA laboratory carries out research in the field of the analysis and evaluation of multimedia data, both from the algorithmic point of view and from the architectural one, including parallel architectures.
The main research topics are: techniques for parallelization of algorithms for embedded architectures, fine-grained, massively parallel (OpenMP, MPI, OpenCL, CUDA) systems, evaluation of the multimedia user experience, definition of metrics on social networks and gamification. Since 2014, the Laboratory hosts the multidisciplinary Unit on Computational Sustainability, which gathers around the theme of environmental and social sustainability contributions of experts in Economics, Engineering and the Environment, computer Science and Botany. The main issues are the definition of indicators and decision support systems for land use and biodiversity preservation
For more information, please visit the lab’s website: dcalab.unipv.it
Identification and Control of Dynamic Systems
Lab activities focus on innovative methods for simulation and control of dynamic systems. Permanent staff includes four Professors, an Assistant Professor and a Technician. Lab members have a vast experience in Industrial Automation, Process Control, Fault Detection, Model Identification and Data Analysis. Application fields include Robotics, Power Networks, Automotive, Traffic Control, Semiconductor Manufacturing, Systems Biology, Pharmacological Modeling, Artificial Pancreas. During the last ten years, ICDS has participated in several projects funded by the EU and the Italian Research Ministry. The lab has been also involved in several industrial research projects funded by Magneti Marelli, Centro Ricerche FIAT, Toyota, Ferrari, Temis, Logic, Foxboro, CESI, STMicroelectronics, Numonyx, Pharmacia, Nerviano Medical Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline and OctoTelematics.
For more information, please visit the lab’s website: sisdin.unipv.it/lab
Performance Evaluation
The Performance Evaluation laboratory has been active for many years in the field of monitoring, performance evaluation, workload characterization and benchmarking of complex systems and services. These activities, performed in collaboration with academic and industrial partners, focus on application domains, such as Web systems, online social networks, mail servers, parallel and distributed applications.
For more information, please visit the lab’s website: peg.unipv.it
Robotics
The Robotics Laboratory has been established in 1987 by Prof. Ivo De Lotto. The activities carried out in RoBoLab concentrate on real-time systems, microcontroller-based embedded systems, and small robotics applications based on real-time operating systems. The major topics include building automation (domotics), energy efficiency in power systems and smart grid, and the use of real-time scheduling methods to manage power loads. Moreover, research is done on indoor localization, development of software for Linux, applications for Android, smart sensors systems and mobile robotics, including the use of Unmanned Aherial Vehicles (UAD – drones).