The Centre of excellence EX-EMERGE (Centre of EXcellence on Connected, Geo-localized and Cyber-secure vehicles) of the University of L’Aquila was founded in 2019 and it represents a major goal of the broader EMERGE (Light Commercial Vehicles & Emerging Technologies for dual-use in “everyday operations” and “emergency”) research program: that program had been formerly selected and approved by the Inter-ministry Committee for Economic Planning (CIPE) of Italy with act n. 70/2017 in the frame of RESTART, an initiative of the Italian Government that relies on research and technology advances as a driver for the economic and social development of L’Aquila and Abruzzo region after the earthquake of 2009.
The main objectives of the Centre are as follows:
- To promote research initiatives in the broad area of ICT that are targeted to produce scientific and technology advances for the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) of the future;
- To setup laboratory facilities and test-beds for experimental activities and field trials, that includes smart infrastructures (roads, railways, …) and vehicles;
- To develop and validate advanced applications and services for “smart mobility”, with particular emphasis on light commercial vehicles for dual-use (last mile good delivery and emergency operations);
- To enrol and educate students in university programs from bachelor to Ph.D., with the goal of developing state-of-the-art knowledge and skills in 5G communications and beyond, software architectures for on-board units and back-end, accurate and reliable navigation, cyber-security and every future ICT enabler for “smart mobility”;
- To design and develop prototypes of on-board units for smart mobility services: it includes synergies between the automotive and rail domains according to a modern multi-modal paradigm that refers to both user mobility services and integrated smart infrastructures;
- To closely cooperate with industries and institutions to jointly promote technology, economic and social developments, that are envisioned to provide benefits to the citizens and qualified job opportunities at all levels.
The main research lines are as follows: 1) wireless technologies for vehicles-to-everything (V2X) and in-car communications, 2) accurate and reliable positioning solutions for vehicles through fusion of multi-sensorial inputs), 3) architectures and algorithms for security and privacy in on-board and vehicle-to-infrastructure operations, 4) dynamic and collaborative navigation that relies on advanced frameworks (namely machine-learning and Artificial Intelligence) and also addresses machine ethics, 5) HW/SW architectures for on-board platforms and back-end.
The Centre has been launched with a seed funding provided by CIPE (first leg) and the support available from a companion industry-targeted project (second leg), that is jointly funded by the Ministry of Economic Development (MiSE) of Italy and the Government of Abruzzo Region under the auspices of the national initiative denoted as Agreements for Innovation: that project is also participated by Radiolabs Consortium (coordinator), Leonardo Company spa, Telespazio spa ed Elital srl. That second project, along with other projects that the Centre has joined at both national and european levels, expresses a solid partnership with the Abruzzo Automotive District (Polo Automotive Abruzzo, IAM) and many companies of the ICT/Aerospace domain, and fulfils the expectations of major institutions and agencies, among others MiSE, ASI, ESA, GSA: indeed, there is concrete need to consolidate/develop industrial assets in the major field of technologies for mobility in a rather long value chain, that encompasses the “more traditional” car makers, along with chip-makers and telecom manufacturers, integrators of on-board devices, satellite operators for telecom and navigation, telecom operators and a broad set of emerging “third parties” like insurance companies, owners of road and rail infrastructures and enablers/providers of several novel services.
Executive Committee:
Prof. Vittorio Cortellessa
Prof. Alessandro D'Innocenzo
Prof. Gabriele Di Stefano
Prof. Norberto Gavioli
Prof. Costanzo Manes
Prof. Patrizio Pelliccione
Prof. Marco Pratesi
Prof. Fortunato Santucci
Address | Edificio Renato Ricamo, via Vetoio, Coppito - 67100 L'Aquila |
Phone 1 | +39 0862434604 |
Phone 2 | +39 0862434445 |
Web | http://exemerge.disim.univaq.it/ |
Prof. Fortunato Santucci | |
Phone 1 | +39 0862434604 |
Phone 2 | +39 0862434445 |
Fax | +39 0862434403 |
fortunato.santucci@univaq.it |
Prof. Gabriele Di Stefano | |
Phone | +39 0862434416 |
Fax | +39 0862434403 |
gabriele.distefano@univaq.it |