People

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA USA. Senior member of the Vision Group, 6/99 - Present: (Unix-Linux/VxWorks/C/C++) I develop vision systems for space and unmanned ground vehicles. Member of the Mars Science Laboratory landing site selection team where I developed a novel method to assess rover traversability on the Martian Surface, allowing the project to select a landing site where all science targets could be reached within the vehicle capabilities and mission success criteria.
Currently I am part of the Activity Planning and Sequencing Subsystem team as a Rover Planner (=Rover Driver) and of the Mobility/IDD downlink report team for the MER (Mars Exploration Rover) project as well as part of the SSTB (Surface System TestBed) test lead team. I was the Rover Planner Team Lead for ingress, egress, and operations inside Victoria Crater of the Rover Opportunity. Past projects include engineering team lead for ST9 suborbital flight and Mars Focused Technology Subsonic Parachute Testing. Developed, designed, and built an image acquisition system installed on the payload, two-stage suborbital rocket and a high altitude (120,000 feet) flight test where downlook imagery is collected and GPS-time tagged for subsequent testing of pin-point landing algorthms. I have designed the image acquisition system, procured the COTS equipment, electronic fabrication, environmental testing, installation on payload and successfully completed one suborbital flight and three flight tests. MSL-HDA (Mars Science Laboratory - Hazard Detecion and Avoidance) where I was responsible for software/hardware system design, components selection and SW development of the HDA testbed system. Other past projects include Demo III, an unmanned scouting vehicle funded by ARL, and PerceptOR a ground robot perception system prototype, funded by DARPA. For these, I was responsabile for system design, efficient implementations of terrain classification and stereo vision algorithms as well as design and implementation of machine vision algorithms for water hazards detection. Additional responsibilities include the system administration of the various computing platforms for our HMMWV robotic testbed which include Solaris, Linux and VxWorks OSs.
Cellomics, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Imaging Algorithmist, 6/98 - 6/99: (WinNT/VB/VC++) Part of the Software Development and Screen Development teams. Developed four novel image processing algorithms for High Content Screening using fluorescence microscopy for which provisional patent applications have been filed. Duties included early feasibility studies, complete algorithm design, implementation, testing and documentation. Part of the team that defined the Cellomics Screen Development Process, contributed in the definition of the various stages of product development.
Intelligent Medical Imaging, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, USA. Software Engineer, 7/96 - 5/98: (Os/2/C/C++) Development of several new procedures to analyze blood, urine, and other body fluids samples with IMIs an automated microscope. Design of a new neural network architecture for classification of cells, development of software for computing several new shape/color/texture features. Development of a library of very efficient image processing and vision algorithms which reduced by 17% the manufacturing cost. Technical lead (5 vision engineers, including myself) for a project which allowed the system to do a fully automated "normal" cell classification. I became one of the major experts of the automated microscope system, in particular of the optics. Product development process included analysis of marketing requirements, definition engineering schedules, algorithm development, documentation, testing and clinical validation, as well as FDA 510(k) approval process.
Centro Materiali e Biofisica Medica, Trento, ITALY, Research Consultant at the Medical Biophysics group, 7/94 - 6/96: (Unix/C) Analysis of commercial and experimental systems for interdisciplinary telemedicine. Definition of HW/SW requirements and technologies in imaging and telecommunications.
Biomedical Information and Communication Center of the Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR, Research Associate, 3/92 - 6/94: (NextStep/C) Developed a prototype of a system for dermatology to accurately asses size, shape, color, presence and absence of skin lesions and diseases which are of clinical interest. Developed and tested algorithms for camera color calibration, accurate isolation, measurement and model of the color and shape of lesions; also designed and built a Skin Lesions Scanner for optimal image acquisition. The color segmentation algorithm used pyramidal representation of the image and a cascade of two neural networks.
Istituto per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, Trento, ITALY, Research in Computer Vision, 9/1987 - 2/92: (Unix/C) Development, implementation, and testing of several algorithms for general image processing (BW and color edge detection, polygonal approximation) and more robot vision specific algorithms (localization of VP, 3D info from a single camera, trinocular stereo vision). Design of a HW/SW system integrating video devices and image processing HW for motion analysis. Developed and implemented two navigation algorithms based on dynamic vision, while designing and coordinating the activities for the development of a small robot used in conjunction with other mobile platforms.
Engin Soft, Trento, ITALY, Software Engineer, 5/1985 - 8/1987: (Vax/VMS/Fortran) Software development for CAD applications in civil and mechanical engineering; pre- and post- processing programs for FEM packages; system administration of a small network (VAX, Unix workstations, PCs).
Cooperativa Delta, Trento, ITALY, Software Engineer, 10/1983 - 4/1985: (UCSD/Pascal) Software development, for CAD applications mainly for civil engineering. The largest project (10.000 lines, 9 months), a CAD system for the design and computing all the parts and machining for chalets. Development of various libraries for different peripherals.