When : Thursday, November 27, 2014 - 15:00
Speaker : Luigi Colangeli
Affiliation : Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration European Space Agency
Where : Aula Magna "A. Lepschy"
Short Bio :
Present appointment: Head of the Coordination Office for the Scientific Programme Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration European Space Agency Education: Graduated in Physics with full marks and honours at Univ. of Lecce (Italy), 1982. Ph.D. in Physics (area: Astrophysics) at Univ. of Bari (Italy), 1986. Career: 1987-1988: Research Fellow in the Space Science Department at ESA-ESTEC (Noordwijk, NL). 1988-1993: Researcher in Physics at Engineering Faculty, University of Cassino (Cassino, I). 1993-2001: Astronomo Associato at Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte (Napoli, I). since 2001: Astronomo Ordinario at INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Napoli. Nov. 2005 – March 2010: Director INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Napoli. April 2010 – Sept. 2013: Head, Solar System Missions Division - Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration - ESA Since Oct. 2013 Head of the Coordination Office for the Scientific Programme - Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration - ESA Main research areas: Study, design and realisation of instruments for space missions dedicated to the exploration of the solar system. Laboratory simulations and analyses of cosmic dust and planetary materials. Principal Investigator of the GIADA experiment - ESA "Rosetta" mission (2001-2010) – now CoI Co-Principal Investigator of the SIMBIO-SYS experiment - ESA "BepiColombo" mission (2004-2010) – now CoI Team Coordinator of the MEDUSA experiment - ESA "ExoMars" mission (2002-2009) Co-Investigator of the VIRTIS experiment - ESA "Rosetta” mission (since 1999)
Abstract :
Rosetta is the ESA cornerstone mission to chase, go into orbit around, and land on a comet. It will study the Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with a combination of remote sensing and in situ measurements. The spacecraft will orbit the comet and release the Philae lander, which carries a suite of instruments for imaging and sampling the comet nucleus. The mission will track the comet through perihelion, examining its behaviour before, during and after. The spacecraft was launched from Kourou aboard an Ariane 5G+ on 2 March 2004. It required four gravity assists for its journey, one by Mars and three by Earth. Rosetta had already flown by the asteroids 2867 Steins (in 2008) and 21 Lutetia (in 2010), before entering deep space hibernation in June 2011. Following the exit from hibernation on 20 January 2014, the spacecraft’s instruments will be checked as it continues on its journey to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta’s main goals will be reached in 2014. The spacecraft is expected to arrive at the comet in August 2014, and deploy the lander in November 2014. I will present the main features of the Rosetta mission and the highlights of the scientific objectives achieved so far.
When : Friday, November 14, 2014 - 15:00
Speaker : Josè A. Cobos
Affiliation : Technical University of Madrid (UPM)
Where : Aula Magna "A. Lepschy"
Short Bio :
José A. Cobos is a Full Professor at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), and Director of the “Centro de Electrónica Industrial, CEI-UPM”, Spain. His contributions are focused in the field of power supply systems for telecom, aerospace, industrial, automotive and medical applications. His research interests include energy efficiency, magnetic components, piezoelectric transformers, transcutaneous energy transfer and dynamic power management. He also works on the influence of EM fields on water supercooling and biomedical effects. He has been Principal Investigator in contracts with ABB, Agere Systems, Airbus, Alcatel, Ansoft, Ansys, Astrium-Crisa, Boeing, Cochlear, EADS, Enpirion, Fagor, General Electric, Indra, Intel, Philips Hearing Implants, Premo, Sedecal, Sener, Siemens and Tecnobit
Abstract :
Energy efficiency aims at “reducing the amount of energy required to provide products and services”. Power electronics provides the capability to “control” the electrical energy, and therefore it is a key enabler to reduce the required energy, at different levels: adoption, power management at system level, power conversion efficiency, and power management at load level. The talk will give an overview of recent technology and research development in the field of high-efficient power electronics systems used in telecom, aerospace, transport and medical applications, based on ultra-high bandwidth power supplies, homogeneous power, magnetic components modeling and design, Power Supply on Chip and contactless energy transmission. An overview of how these technology barriers are addressed in several industrial research projects at the Center of Industrial Electronics (CEI) at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) is also presented. The talk will address how power supply systems help replacing a combustion engine by an electric motor supplied by a fuel cell in a plane; how to increase the autonomy of deaf people with cochlear implants and how to power remote devices wirelessly; how to reduce the size and weight of power converters, and how to reduce the energy needed by RF amplifiers and digital systems. Bi-directional and multi-port power converters, combined with high frequency rectifiers and inverters, are essential instruments for energy storage and for the deployment of Distributed generation, renewable energy and DC grids.
When : Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - 15:00
Speaker : Niels Birbaumer
Affiliation : University of Tubingen, Germany
Where : Aula Magna "A. Lepschy"
Short Bio :
Prof. Niels Birbaumer, Ph.D, born 1945, Ph.D. 1969, University of Vienna, Austria: Ph.D. in Biological Psychology, Art History and Statistics. 1975-1993 Full Professor of Clinical and Physiological Psychology, University of Tübingen, Germany. 1986-1988 Full Professor of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, USA. Since 1993 Professor of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tübingen and Professor of Clinical Psychophysiology, University of Padova, Italy. Since 2002 Director of the Center of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Trento, Italy. Research topics: Neuronal basis of learning and plasticity. Neurophysiology & Psychophysiology of pain. Neuroprosthetics, Neurorehabilitation. More than 450 publications in peer-reviewed journals. 12 books. Among many awards: Leibniz-Award of the German Research Society (DFG), member of the German Academy of Science and Literature President of the European Association of Behavior Therapy, Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine and the American Association of Applied Psychophysiology. Award for Research in Neuromuscular Diseases, Wilhelm-Wundt-Medal of the German Society of Psychology, and the Albert Einstein Award of the World Cultural Council.
Abstract :
BMIs using EEG or ECoG in the complete locked in state(CLIS) were largely unsucessessful, no proven case learning to communicate with a BMI is documented. We present the first case of a CLIS patient in advanced ALS who learned reliable yes-no communication with a BMI using blood oxygenation measure with NIRS after months of random performance with an EEG-BMI. Reasons for this results are discussed. Secondly, a controlled-double blind trial in chronic stroke without residual movement using sensorimotor rhythm (SMR)- EEG-BMI in combination with behavioral physiotherapy that for the first time a significant improvement upper hand function in this treatment resistant population is possible.The experimental group received contingent feedback of SMR-desynchronization with a hand robotic device fixed to arm and hand, the controls random feedback.In addition to marked behavioral improvement cortical reorganisation was demonstrated in the experimental group only with fMRI: in the course of BMI training activity moved from the healthy hemisphere to the ipsilesional hemisphere.Half a year follow up showed further improvement but reduced differences between the two groups due to long-term effects of the behavioral physiotherapy affecting both groups. We hypothesize that EEG-BMI fails in CLIS while NIRS-BCI works, but EEG-BCI is highly promising in chronic stroke without residual hand movement. Finally, first controlled studies from our lab using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI)-BMI are reported: subcortical brain systems , responsible for emotional disorders are trained to increase or decrease their activity and effects on behavior are assessed : studies involving unconscious emotional processing, nicotine addiction, psychopathy and schizophrenia showed some promising results. Funding Information Supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung(BMBF), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Motorika, Israel, European Research Council (ERC) and NIH, NINDS
