PhDTalks
PhDTalks is a series of seminars and discussions between PhD students. The events are self-organized by PhD students of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DICA). The speakers are chosen on a voluntary basis among the candidates enrolled in the PhD courses in Structural, Seismic and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSG) and Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (IAI).
The events take place every two weeks in the late afternoon and are followed by a light refreshment funded by the DICA Department. The initiative aims to provide an informal and relaxed ground for PhD students to discuss ongoing research projects and share knowledge and expertise, enhancing networking with other candidates.
Rules and Prizes
Starting with this year’s edition of PhDTalks, there are prizes for each cycle of seminars, one for the IAI PhD and one for the ISSG PhD.
Participation is free and each participant can compete with a single presentation every two cycles of seminars. The best presentation for each course will be awarded the “PhDTalks” Award from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, which consists of a budget of 1,000.00 Euros available to the winner for participation in conferences or open access scientific publications.
For more information and to download the registration form, consult the PhDTalks Regulations.
Events Calendar
Talks
Investigation of channel aggradation due to sediment overloading
Hasan completed his master’s degree in “Civil Engineering for Risk Mitigation” at Politecnico di Milano in 2021. He is currently pursuing his PhD program (37th cycle) at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. His research focuses on the ” Investigation of channel aggradation due to sediment overloading.”
In his leisure hours, Hasan enjoys traveling and listening to music.
Integrating optical and radar imaging to enhance river drought monitoring
Stefano is a PhD Student in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering, within the Geodesy and Geomatics section. In 2021 he obtained the Master degree in Civil Engineering for Risk Mitigation at Politecnico di Milano. Currently he is part of the Innovazione project supported by Politecnico and Regione Lombardia, for which he collaborates with the Operative Unit for management and preservation of Biodiversity.
Stefano likes to spend his free time travelling, attending live concerts and baking.
A Mixed-dimensional solver for the geoelectrical analysis of highly resistive liners in landfills
Lorenzo is a PhD Candidate in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (37° cycle) at Politecnico di Milano with an interdisciplinary scholarship between the Department of Civil and Envirnomental Engineering and the Department of Mathematics.
Lorenzo has a Master of Science in Civil Engineering For Risk Mitigation obtained in 2019. In his free time, Lorenzo loves playing football and doing trail running.
Managing (micro-)pollutants contamination in integrated urban wastewater systems: risk assessment and mitigation strategies
Jessica is a PhD student in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (37th cycle) at Politecnico di Milano. She has a Master of Science in Environmental and Land Planning Engineering obtained in 2021 at Politecnico di Milano.
Jessica works in the safeWATER research group and her research activity focuses on modelling fate and transport of micropollutants in urban water, assessing the environmental risk and evaluating proper mitigation strategies.
In her free time she loves enjoying nature, playing the piano, and travelling..
Healing capacity of Ultra High Performance Concrete under sustained through crack tensile stresses and aggressive environments
Bin is a PhD candidate in the 36th cycle of SSGE at Politecnico di Milano. He holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from Shenzhen University, China. His current research focuses on the realms of self-healing and durability within the context of fiber-reinforced concrete. Outside the academic sphere, Bin is passionate about exploring new horizons. Traveling and hiking are his preferred avenues for relaxation and personal enrichment.
Integrating Probabilistic Hydrogeological Reconstruction and Groundwater Flow Modeling for the Po Plain Aquifer System: A Data-Driven Approach Supporting Physics-Based Modeling
Andrea Manzoni is a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, with a Master of Science in Energy Engineering, specializing in oil and gas production from the same institution.
His research covers a diverse range of topics. This includes complex models, groundwater flow, contaminant transport, large-scale models, stochastic inverse modeling, sensitivity analysis, multiphase flow, data mining, remote sensing and on-site data analysis, applied machine learning, and computer vision.
His Ph.D. thesis focuses on developing a stochastic inverse modeling technique for a large-scale groundwater flow model applied to the groundwater system of the Po River watershed, as well as a deep learning technique for contaminant transport through porous media.
In 2023, Andrea Manzoni further enriched his expertise as a Visiting Scholar for 5 months at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, US). During this time, he focused on contaminant transport, the cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence techniques in computer vision and image processing, and uncertainty quantification applied to machine learning models.
In addition, Andrea Manzoni has held the position of Vice-President of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Student Chapter at Politecnico di Milano since 2021.
Severe spalling in heated concrete
Ramin Yarmohammadian is currently a PhD student of the DICA 36th cycle, titled “Severe spalling in concrete exposed to fire”. He is interested in both experimental and numerical analysis of fire-induced spalling and fracture behaviour of concrete material. As a graduate student, he investigated spalling using Neutron radiography (NR) techniques to verify the role of moisture in such an event which was also confirmed by the thermo-hygro-mechanical model.
In his PhD research, new experimental tests were designed not only to rank different concrete mixes (screening tests) but also to shed light on the real mechanism engaged in this event. He also investigated the fracture behaviour of concrete using a new direct tensile test setup (3ACTION) which can control crack opening not to have secondary bending.
In his free time, he likes to travel and spend time with friends and family.
Flood Risk Mitigation through Smart Levee Solutions based on Fiber Optic Sensors: An Applied Case Study in Emilia-Romagna
Manuel is a PhD student in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (37th cycle) at Politecnico di Milano. He got his MSc Degree in Environmental and Land Planning Engineering in 2019 at Politecnico di Milano.
Manuel’s research activity deals with the conceptualization of innovative monitoring solutions based on Fiber Optic Sensors for critical hydraulic infrastructures.
In his free time, Manuel loves travelling and hiking.
Innovative methodologies to support the implementation of sustainable wastewater reuse in agriculture: risk and impacts assessment
Luca is a PhD student in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (37th cycle) at Politecnico of Milan. He has a Master of Science in Environmental and Land Planning Engineering obtained in 2020 at Politecnico of Milan.
Luca works in the safeWATER research group and his research activities focus on the impacts modelling of wastewater reuse in agriculture practices, emphasizing risk assessment procedures as a key focal point.
In his free time, Luca loves playing sports and travelling.
A fracture mechanics approach for fatigue life prediction of Ni-Ti peripheral stents
Alma is a PhD student in Structural, Seismic, and Geotechnical Engineering (38th cycle) at Politecnico di Milano. She has a Master of Science in Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering obtained in 2022 at Politecnico di Milano through a Double Degree Programme.
Her current research mainly addresses experimental characterization and numerical modeling of the fatigue behavior of cardiovascular devices made by Nickel-Titanium shape memory alloys, focusing on the development of integrated predictive tools to assess fracture.
In her free time, Alma enjoys hiking and reading.
Why should we recover P from sewage sludge? How can we get it?
Gaia is a PhD Candidate in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (36° cycle) at Politecnico di Milano. In 2020 she got a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering, and she is currently working on nutrient recovery from waste, in particular phosphorus from sewage sludge ash. In her free time, she loves swimming, surfing, and traveling.
Bio e-methane from CO2 and green H2
Anna is a PhD student in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (36th cycle) at Politecnico di Milano. She has a master of science in Environmental and Land Planning Engineering obtained in 2019 at Politecnico di Milano. Her research activities are focused on anaerobic digestion processes and biological biogas upgrading. In her free time, Anna loves playing soccer and hiking.
Sediment transport monitoring and Smart-Sed, a new sediment erosion and transport model
Monica graduated in Geological Sciences and Technologies at University of Milano-Bicocca in 2019. She has collaborated with Politecnico di Milano working on topics related to engineering geology since 2019, and she is currently enrolled in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering PhD program (37° cycle) at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Politecnico di Milano. Her research deals with shallow processes related to sediment erosion and transport. In her free time, Monica enjoys hiking and travelling.
Hazard and risk assessment in urban areas based on 3D Phisics-Based ground shaking scenarios
Jiayue Lin is a PhD student at Politecnico di Milano within the H2020-Marie-Curie Project, and she has been working on different aspects related to the incorporation of ground shaking scenarios from physics-based numerical simulations in seismic risk models, with application to the Thessaloniki case study.
Jiayue is simply loving her life with respecting her inner voice, and at this present, she is missing Traditional Chinese Calligraphy very much, which is her habit that she enjoyed when she was in China.
Effects of stimulated autogenous self-healing of Ultra High-Performance Concrete slabs under repeated impact loading
Niranjan Prabhu, an enthusiastic and committed Ph.D. student, is dedicated to exploring the characterization of self-healing concrete performance in extreme loading scenarios. He is currently enrolled in the joint doctoral program at Politecnico di Milano (36th cycle) and Ghent University, where he is also a valued researcher in the Self-healing concrete group of the Smartincs network. Niranjan’s primary objective is to contribute significantly to the field through his research endeavors. In addition to his research pursuits, Niranjan actively participates in scholarly discussions, attends conferences, and collaborates closely with fellow researchers, fostering a dynamic academic community.
Assessment and retrofitting of deep foundations of existing bridges
Matteo is PhD candidate in Structural Seismic and Geotechnical Engineering and has a Master degree in Civil Engineering – Geotechnics. His mainreserach interest is the interaction between soil and critical infrastructures (bridges, emnbankments and tunnels).
He is now focused on the assessment and retrofitting of deep foundations of existing bridges.
He spends his free time playing tennis, skiing and honing his photography skills.
Acceleration of high-resolution simulations of pollutants dispersion in atmosphere performed with a Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model
Daniela is a candidate of an Executive PhD in Environmental Engineering and Infrastructure (35° cycle) at Politecnico di Milano in collaboration with ARIANET s.r.l., of which she has been an employee since 2019, after obtaining a Master of Science in Environmental And Land Planning Engineering at Politecnico di Milano.
ARIANET is an Italian consultant company in the field of atmospheric environment and Daniela is involved both in carrying out atmospheric impact studies and in the development of the used models, in particular Lagrangian Particle Dispersion models.
In her free time, Daniela enjoys reading books and travelling.
Numerical simulation of 3D Concrete Printing: challenges and opportunities
Giacomo is a PhD Candidate in Structural, Seismic and Geotechnical Engineering (37° cycle) at Politecnico di Milano. He has a Master of Science in Structural Engineering obtained in 2021 at Politecnico di Milano. Currently, he is in the second year of his PhD and he is involved in the development of new computational tools to simulate 3D Concrete Printing. In his free time Giacomo enjoys hiking, reading and watercolor painting.
Timber for Hybrid Structures: an innovative perspective from numerical modeling to environmental assessment
Laura graduated with a Master in Civil Engineering for Risk Mitigation (CERM) in Politecnico di Milano in 2021. She is currently enrolled in the second year of the PhD programme in Structural, Seismic, and Environmental Engineering (XXXVII cycle) at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Politecnico di Milano. She is involved in the modeling, testing and development of timber-concrete hybrid composites, with a special focus on sustainability. In the free time Laura enjoys going to the theater, hiking and swimming.
The role of Social Hotspot analysis in waste management: assessing sectoral social impacts for a better understanding of social risks
Giuseppe is a PhD Candidate in Environmental and Infrastracture Engineering (37° cycle) at Politecnico di Milano. Since 2020, he has been working with the AWARE research group. For his PhD project, he is working on the application of Life Cycle Thinking methodologies to the waste management sector. He holds a Master’s degree from the University of Padua and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Naples ‘Federico II’.
A methodology to assess the evolution of mechanical performance of UHPC as affected by autogenous healing under sustained loadings and aggressive exposure conditions
Marco is a Ph.D. Candidate in Structural, Seismic, and Geotechnical Engineering (38th cycle) at Politecnico di Milano. He has BSc and MSc in Building Engineering. Marco is currently developing carbon capture and uptake strategies for cementitious materials to reduce the environmental impact of the concrete construction industry. He is also cooperating with international companies such as Cemex and Energy Vault for the experimental fatigue characterization of Steel Fibre Reinforced Concretes.
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