The research activity has been carried out in the field of information processing technology and systems, with reference to distributed, massively-parallel and adaptive approaches, from the points of view of hardware, computational paradigms, and intensive-computing applications. In particular, the following areas have been addressed.
Theoretical, architectural, and application aspects of artificial neural networks have been studied for implementing optimized solutions, with particular reference to identification, prediction, control, signal, and image processing applications. Design methodologies have been developed for designing embedded composite systems and fault tolerance systems. Advanced industrial applications have been realized for production process and environmental monitoring, quality certification, and biomedical analysis.
Biometrics technologies and systems, including multi-modal approaches, have been studied for person verification, identification and recognition as well as for behavioral analysis, with specific reference to security applications. Biometric technologies and systems have been evaluated from different points of view to support a comprehensive design methodology. Privacy issues in biometrics have been analyzed.
Modeling approaches have been studied for concurrent processes and communications in distributed and multiprocessor systems. Methodologies have been defined for evaluating process parallelism and system dimensioning, including fault tolerance capacity. The virtual FPGA management and an innovative agent-based distributed file system have been proposed.
Algorithmic and structural characteristics of arithmetic units and systems have been studied. New architectural solutions have been defined, with specific reference to high computational performance, high modularity, regularity of the integrated implementation, and fault tolerance by using codes.
Techniques and design methodologies have been studied for information processing systems with high performance and fault tolerance characteristics. In particular, innovative solutions have been proposed for array processors, and digital systems for signal and image processing applications.
Researches performed in these areas are strictly related since they focus on advanced performances and characteristics, even if they consider different abstraction levels. The main goals have been the development of highly adaptive functionalities and systems, the definition of structures and computational approaches having high computational performance, and the definition of advanced fault tolerance capabilities. Studies and implementations have been carried out with the purpose of integrating the theoretical analysis with the definition of methodologies and tools to achieve practical results efficiently.
These researches have been carried out within national and international projects, in cooperation with Italian universities (University of Bologna, Brescia, Genova, Modena, Pavia, Padova, Salerno, Trento, Udine, Politecnico di Bari, Politecnico di Torino), foreign universities (Austin - TX-USA, Berkeley - CA-USA, Boulder - CO-USA, Erlangen - Germany, Karlsruhe - Germany, Massey - New Zealand, Minsk - Belarus, Singapore), research centers (Academy of the Sciences of the Belarus - Belarus, Academy of the Sciences of the URSS - Moscow-URSS, ASI - Italian Space Agency, CNR IEIIT - Istituto di Elettronica e di Ingegneria dell’Informazione e delle Telecomunicazioni - Sezione di Milano, Consorzio Crema Ricerche, Consorzio Padova Ricerche, CSELT-Torino-Italy, IRST-Trento-Italy, CERN-Switzerland), and industries (C.R.F. - FIAT, ENEL, Gilardoni, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Italtel S.I.T., Philips, Selenia, ST Microelectronics, Tecnogamma, Trumpf, Alenia Spazio, Laben, Planetek, Space Sofware Italia, IMAL).
Main research projects: EU I-PAN, EU PrimeLife, EU PRIME, EU COST IntelliCIS, ASI COSMO-SkyMed, ASI GUTTER, EU IMS-BRITE SLAPS, EU CRAFT TRACKS, EU META, CERN FERMI, EU Esprit PATRICIA, EU Esprit ARTS-IP, EU CVT CAD VLSI for Telecommunications, MURST-MPI projects - Italian Ministry of Higher Education and Research, CNR Progetto Finalizzato MADESS II, CNR Progetto Finalizzato MADESS, CNR Piano Nazionale Microelettronica, CNR Progetto Finalizzato Informatica.