Team 2017


Smart dairy farming: innovative solutions to improve herd productivity

Team

Università degli Studi di Milano – Dipartimento di Scienze e Politiche Ambientali​

Marcella Guarino Professore Ordinario (Settore Scientifico Disciplinare: AGR /10 – Costruzioni Rurali e Territorio Agroforestale; Settore concorsuale 07/C1 – Ingegneria agraria, forestale e dei biosistemi) presso il Dipartimento di Scienze e Politiche Ambientali.

He has always directed his study and research activities both on the classic themes of rural buildings and on the more innovative ones linked to the analysis and modeling of biological systems in relation to rural buildings.

Daniela Lovarelli Assegnista di ricerca presso il Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Ambientali dell’Università degli Studi di Milano.

La principale tematica di ricerca riguarda l’analisi della sostenibilità ambientale delle produzioni agro-zootecniche, rivolgendosi in particolare agli aspetti di gestione della stalla e produzione di latte bovino in contesti intensivi, così come a quelli di meccanizzazione, emissione di gas di scarico e coltivazione in pieno campo.

Simona MC Porto, PhD Eng., has a tenure track position as Associate Professor of Rural buildings and agroforestry territory at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A) of the University of Catania, and is a member of the Academic Board of the PhD course in ‘Agricultural, Food and Environmental Science’ of the University of Catania. Furthermore, she is co-PI of a three-year national research project funded by MIUR (Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research) on ‘Smart dairy farming: innovative solutions to improve herd productivity’ by ICT application. She was PI of several research projects funded by the University of Catania on rural buildings and GIS applications. She is also member of the Management Committee of the COST Action CA16106, ‘Ammonia and Greenhouse Gases Emissions from Animal Production Buildings’. Her research interests include GIS analysis for rural land planning, analysis of biomass feedstock production, image classification and feature extraction for rural land planning, LCA analysis of biomass production processes, reuse and rehabilitation of traditional rural buildings. She is author of more than 100 publications. She is fellow of CIGR and AIIA associations.
Giovanni Cascone, Eng., is a Full Professor at the University of Catania and has been Head of the Agricultural Engineering Department from 2004 to 2010 and Head of the Agri-Food and Environmental Systems Management Department from 2010 to 2012. He is involved in research on different subjects related to agricultural buildings such as environmental conditions in livestock buildings; application of ICT for microclimate modelling of breeding environments; analysis of the animal behaviour in intensive livestock farming; application of ICT for modelling greenhouse environment and traceability of certified plants; rehabilitation of traditional rural buildings in the context of land planning. He is author of more than 100 publications on journals and proceedings of national and international conferences. He is in the Board of CIGR and AIIA and member of ISHS and EurAgEng.

Claudia Arcidiacono, PhD, Eng, is Full Professor since 2018 at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A) of the University of Catania. Coordinator of the International PhD in ‘Ingegneria agraria’ (Agricultural Engineering) from 2010 to 2012. Since 2013 is Scientific responsible of the Test Center ECDL-GIS and is Component of the Academic Board of the International PhD in “Agricultural, Food and Environmental Science”. Since 2016 is President of the Master course in “Territorial, Environmental and Landscape Protection” (LM75). Her main research activity includes: Influence of housing environment on animal well-being and production using different accelerometer-based systems and real-time location systems, CFD or models; GIS analysis for rural land planning; methods of image classification and feature extraction for rural land planning; computer-based information systems for plant traceability; microclimate modelling of buildings for agri-food industry; LCA analysis of production processes. Is author of more than 100 papers published in national and international journals and proceedings. Coordinator of the European project Eranet ICT-Agri 2 on “CowBhave: a basic low-cost open-source automated monitoring system for discrimination of dairy cow behavioural activities”.Component of the Network of Proposers, scientific responsible and component of the Management Committee of COST ACTION OC-2016-1-20654 on “Greenhouse gases and ammonia emissions from animal production buildings” (LivAGE).

 

Massimo Mancino PhD, is a post-doc research assistant at the University of Catania, Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Building, Land and Engineering Section. His principal research topic is the application of ICT technics on Precision Livestock Farming. He is expertise on data modeling for the computation of data coming from IoT devices. Actually, he is involved in development of algorithms for cow’s behavioural pattern recognition using system based on open IoT devices and open-source software.

Francesca Valenti, PhD, Eng., is a post-doc researcher at the University of Catania, Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Building and Land Engineering Section and has got the Italian Scientific Qualification for the role of Associated Professor. Her research interests focus on GIS-based analyses, modelling and planning; food security in agro-industrial buildings; building systems and infrastructures for animal breeding; evaluation of the environmental sustainability of innovative production processes through LCA. During her research activity, she was experienced on laboratory activities, chemical analyses, BMP tests and simulation of the continuous anaerobic digestion process, and on GIS models, CFD models, and LCA tools.

 

Nicoletta Tomasello is a Phd student at Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the University of Catania. Her PhD research focuses on the use of new strategies for the design and management of livestock buildings. In particular, she applied modelling methodologies based on Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) to real case studies, simulated the real conditions of the air flow inside the buildings and developed new design solutions in order to improve the well-being of workers and animals.

Monica C.M. Parlato Eng., is a building engineering graduated at University of Catania. Actually, she is a Phd student at Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the University of Catania. Her PhD research program, entitled on “Green Buildings, structural components by agricultural process wastes”, stems from the need to exploit waste materials of agricultural processes and reuse them. In detail, the research aims to analyse building component based on agricultural wastes for the realization of “Green Buildings”.

Patrizia Tassinari, Full Professor of Biosystems Engineering, Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna. She has led and coordinated various research and training activities on agricultural and livestock buildings, with particular attention to environmental and sustainability aspects. She was responsible for various scientific activities in the field of precision livestock farming. She is responsible for the Research Unit of the University of Bologna of the national research project funded by the MIUR PRIN call 2017 "Smart dairy farming: innovative solutions to improve herd productivity". She is President of the 2° Section of the Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering, Coordinator of the Ph.D. Programme of “Health, safety and green systems”, chairman of the SIG SE28 Working Group Rural Buildings and Landscape of the European Society of Agricultural Engineers ( EurAgEng ). She is member of the editorial board of the international "Journal of Agricultural Engineering (JAE)" and Section editor of the International journal "Agricultural Engineering International: CIGR Journal". She is the Rector's delegate as academic representative of the Imola district of the University of Bologna and the representative of the University of Bologna on behalf of the Rector within the UNISCAPE network (European Network of Universities for the implementation of the European Landscape Convention), disciplinary expert and coordinator of Evaluation Boards (CEV) for the National Agency for the Evaluation of the University System and Research (ANVUR).

Daniele Torreggiani, Associate Professor of Biosystems Engineering, Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna. The scientific activities focus on the resilience and sustainability of building and territorial systems, geographic and positioning information systems, smart farming and precision livestock farming systems, innovative lighting systems in protected crops, and analysis and design of agricultural and agroindustrial buildings. He is the scientific responsible for the University of Bologna of international projects PRIMA "Self-sufficient Integrated Multi-Trophic AquaPonic systems for improving food production sustainability and brackish water use and recycling" and Climate KIC pathfinder "AELCLIC: Adaptation of European Landscapes to Climate Change". He is Director of First Cycle Degree of Ornamental plants and landscape protection and member of the Executive Board of UNISCAPE network.

Stefano Benni, Assistant Professor of Biosystems Engineering, Department of Agro-Food Sciences and Technologies, University of Bologna. He has scientific expertise and specialized skills in analysis, modelling and design of livestock buildings, monitoring, analysis and improvement of constructive and environmental conditions of existing farm buildings.

Alberto Barbaresi, Junior Assistant Professor of Biosystems Engineering, Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna. He has gained in-depth scientific experience and skills in design and calibration of environmental monitoring systems, modeling and analysis of environmental parameters in agricultural, livestock and agro-industrial buildings, thermo-acoustic optimization of building envelopes.

Marco Bovo, Junior Assistant Professor of Biosystems Engineering, Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna. He has in-depth scientific experience and skills in the design and calibration of structural monitoring, finite element modelling, structural and architectural analysis, fluid-dynamic behaviour of agricultural buildings for optimization of building envelopes and layouts.

Enrica Santolini, Research Fellow in Biosystems Engineering, Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna; PhD in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, Environmental Engineer. She carries out researches in the field of monitoring, simulation and analysis of rural buildings with particular reference to numerical simulation based on computational fluid dynamics approaches.

Miki Agrusti, PhD student at the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna; graduated with honors in Applied Physics. He deals with big data and numerical modeling using machine learning and deep learning tools in the contexts of biosystem engineering.

Matteo Barbari is Full Professor (Scientific Disciplinary Sector: AGR/10 - Rural Buildings and Agroforestry Territory; Competition sector 07/C1 - Agricultural, forestry and biosystems engineering) at the Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI) of University of Florence. Since the beginning of research activity he studied rural buildings, with particular attention to livestock housing. Subjects related to animal welfare, environmental impact, sustainability and technological innovation have been treated in several national and international projects.

Lorenzo LesoPhD, Research Fellow at the Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI) of the University of Florence. The research activity focuses on housing systems for dairy cows, animal welfare and behaviour.

L’attività di ricerca si focalizza sui sistemi di stabulazione per bovine da latte con particolare interesse verso gli aspetti legati al benessere ed al comportamento degli animali.

Giuseppe Rossi is a fixed-term research assistant (Scientific Disciplinary Sector: AGR / 10 - Rural Buildings and Agroforestry Territory; Competition sector 07 / C1 - Agricultural, forestry and engineering biosystems) at the Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI) of University of Florence. Since 2007, the main research topics concern the study of sustainable building materials for building deconstruction, animal welfare, international cooperation projects in Developing Countries. He is a co-author of 3 patents and co-author of 30 scientific publications.

Stefano Camiciottoli is Technician at the Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI) of the University of Florence. His work focuses on topographic and altimetric surveys with computer application programs. He participates in research and teaching in Topography and Cartography, Rural and forestry construction" and Territory Analysis and Planning.

Leonardo Conti is Assistant Professor (Scientific Disciplinary Sector: AGR/10 - Rural Buildings and Agroforestry Territory; Competition sector 07/C1 - Agricultural, forestry and biosystems engineering) at the Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI) of University of Florence. Since 2001, the main research topics have concerned animal monitoring by means of different technologies (GPS, RFID, camera trap, etc.), rural landscape planning and the study of sustainable building materials for building deconstruction systems. He is author of 65 papers concerning on these topics.

The project is funded within the scope of Research Projects of relevant National Interest - Call for Proposals 2017