Luigi Ceccaroni is a senior member of research staff in personalized computational medicine and environmental sciences at Barcelona Digital Technology Centre (BDigital) (Spain) [http://bdigital.org], and a member of the Knowledge Engineering and Machine Learning group (KEMLg) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech (UPC) (Spain) [http://upc.edu]. He is the principal investigator and coordinator of the Synergy-COPD project, an FP7 5 M€ European project about modeling and simulation for systems medicine. He is also the principal investigator and coordinator of the Citclops project, an FP7 5 M€ European project about a citizens' observatory for coast and ocean optical monitoring. Luigi obtained a BSc degree in Environmental Sciences (first class honors) from the University of Bologna (Ravenna, Italy); an MSc degree in Information-Technology Languages and Systems from UPC; and completed his PhD in Artificial Intelligence (first class honors), with a thesis entitled “OntoWEDSS - An Ontology-based Environmental Decision-Support System for the management of Wastewater treatment plants”, at UPC in December 2001. His main research interests combine: ontologies; recommendation systems; semantic tools; Web services; the semantic Web; personalization; and application of artificial intelligence to healthcare and environmental sciences. In 2001-2003 he has worked as a member of research staff at Fujitsu Laboratories of America. In 2003-2010 he was director of research at TMT Factory (Barcelona, Spain). In TMT Factory, he was the coordinator of the IntegraTV-4all project (2004-2006) (FIT-350301-2004-2), which developed interactive television for blind people, with a total budget of 1.2 M€; the coordinator of the SOPAT project (2007) (CIT-410000-2007-12), which developed a service of personalized and accessible orientation for tourism, with a total budget of 400 k€; and the scientific contact for the ALIVE European project, which combined coordination and organization mechanisms with model driven design to create new software-development tools and services for real systems. In 2003-2011, Luigi was a senior member of research staff of the Software Department (LSI) at UPC. As a member of the Knowledge Engineering and Machine Learning group (KEMLg), he served as lead of technical activities in the @LIS TechNET European project, which developed an advanced technology demonstration network for education and cultural applications in Europe and Latin America, with a total budget of 2.5M €; and in the Laboranova European IP project, which developed a collaboration environment for strategic innovation. In 2005-2009 Luigi was adjunct professor of Artificial Intelligence at UPC. He joined BDigital in January 2010. In 2010 he wrote the winning proposal for Synergy-COPD (2011-2014). In 2011 he wrote the winning proposal for the BackHome project (2012-2015), an FP7 4 M€ European project about brain-neural computer interfaces. In 2012 he wrote the winning proposal for Citclops (2013-2016). He took part in the evaluation of European research proposals submitted in response to the call FP7-ENV-2007-1 for Theme 6 "Environment (including climate change)", specifically on forecasting methods and assessment tools for sustainable development taking into account differing scales of observation. Luigi is the author of 69 publications peer-reviewed and is managing a total of more than 14 M€ as lead researcher in the period 2007-2016.

Come ricercatore, mi occupo d’ontologie e d’agenti. L'ontologia e' una scienza, un ramo della filosofia: la scienza che indica la maniera di rappresentare la realtà al fine di comprenderla e magari processarla con un computer. L'informazione e' il prodotto di questa rappresentazione: un modello, da noi creato, del mondo. Questo modello, in genere, è chiamato un’ontologia, come la scienza, il che può confondere un po' le idee. Ma non tanto quanto la definizione che comunemente si cita: "Un’ontologia e' una specificazione esplicita e formale di una concettualizzazione condivisa". In intelligenza artificiale, per ontologia s’intende generalmente il modello di una parte del mondo, non il ramo della filosofia. Una caratteristica importante di queste ontologie e' il poter essere lette e processate da un computer, ragion per cui rappresentano un elemento importante nella comunicazione dei computer, tra loro e con gli uomini; importante, perché permette ai computer (che oggigiorno, nel mondo, sono quelli che eseguono la maggior parte del calcolo) di capire meglio la realtà. Gli agenti sono pezzi di software, in pratica programmi, più o meno autonomi, che agiscono per conto degli uomini e che interagiscono tanto con gli uomini quanto con altri agenti. Gli agenti sono i principali consumatori d’ontologie, senza le quali e' difficile avere una comunicazione semanticamente ricca.

Come professore, poiché l'università è uno strumento molto potente, sento la responsabilità enorme di chi fa lezione. Deve essere ben chiaro che così come capire è un diritto, essere comprensibili e interessanti è un dovere. D'altra parte, tra gli studenti non c'è una consapevolezza diffusa di questo diritto. Sono in molti a ritenere normale che un professore parli in modo difficile e incomprensibile. Altrimenti, se si fa capire, che persona colta è? Il linguaggio oscuro è ancora percepito come un simbolo di prestigio e potere. Ma è una trappola. Non ci si rende conto che dietro si nasconde o un'incapacità di comunicare o qualcosa di peggio. C'è per esempio una sorta di complesso d’inferiorità nei confronti di certi professori, i quali, parlando in classe, si esprimono in modo oscuro. Ma invece di dire: "Come sono stupido! Non capisco... ", bisognerebbe dire: "Com’è stupido! Non riesce a farsi capire". Bloccare l'interlocutore dicendogli: "Non ho capito" è una dimostrazione di forza che lo mette a nudo, lo costringe a uscire allo scoperto. La colpa non è di chi non capisce, ma sempre di chi non si fa capire. Non ci vuole molto per riuscire a essere incomprensibili. Invece, è più difficile essere facili.

Mis aportaciones más relevantes como profesor asociado e investigador son las siguientes:

1. Contribución, en el área de la inteligencia artificial, al desarrollo de una semántica para agentes informáticos, a través de ontologías y nuevos protocolos de comunicación. Responsable de la participación de la UPC en la Red Temática Nacional de Tecnología de Agentes y Sistemas Multi-Agente 2006-2008.
2. Contribución interdisciplinaria a la aplicación de la inteligencia artificial a la gestión de aguas residuales, a través del desarrollo de un sistema de soporte a la decisión en el dominio ambiental con tratamiento explicito de la semántica.
3. Contribución, en el área de la ingeniería ambiental, al tratamiento de aguas residuales, proporcionando una mayor flexibilidad en la capacidad de gestión y una mejora en la diagnosis del estado de una planta de tratamiento.
4. Contribución, en el área de la geología y tecnología marina, al estudio de la variación de los flujos de carbono orgánico y sílice biogénica en el margen continental antártico en respuesta a los eventos climáticos de los últimos 300.000 años, a través de observatorios submarinos, sensores oceánicos y otros sistemas de instrumentación oceanográfica.
5. Contribución, en el área de las ciencias ambientales, a la gestión integrada de la zona costera en Cataluña, a través de una recogida de datos sistemática y de la elaboración de un índice innovador de calidad para la costa.

Curricula vitae ac studiorum (español)

Facultad de Informática de Barcelona (FIB) > 
    Estudios de Ingeniería en Informática (II) > Inteligencia Artificial, primavera 2009
    Master en Tecnologías de la Información (MTI) > Inteligencia Artificial, otoño 2008
    Estudios de Ingeniería en Informática (II) > Inteligencia Artificial, primavera 2008
    Master en Tecnologías de la Información (MTI) > Inteligencia Artificial, otoño 2007
    Estudios de Ingeniería en Informática (II) > Inteligencia Artificial, otoño 2007
    Estudios de Ingeniería en Informática (II) > Inteligencia Artificial, primavera 2007
    Master en Tecnologías de la Información (MTI) > Inteligencia Artificial, otoño 2006
    Estudios de Ingeniería en Informática (II) > Inteligencia Artificial, otoño 2006
    Estudios de Ingeniería en Informática (II) > Inteligencia Artificial, primavera 2006
    Estudios de Ingeniería en Informática (II) > Inteligencia Artificial, otoño 2005

There is a sharp difference between Harvard and MIT. Although one could safely characterize MIT as a more rightist institution, it is much more open than Harvard. There is a say around Cambridge that captures this difference: Harvard trains the people that rule the world; MIT trains those who make it work. As a result, there is much less concern with ideological control at MIT, and there is more space for independent thinking. This doesn’t mean that MIT is a hub of political activism. It still falls under an institutional role of avoiding a good part of the truth about the world or about society. Otherwise, it couldn’t survive very long if it taught the truth.

The lesson you learn in the socialization through education is that if you don’t support the interests of the people who have wealth and power, you don’t survive very long [example]. You are just weeded out of the system or marginalized. And schools succeed in the indoctrination of the youth by operating within a propaganda framework that has the effect of distorting or suppressing unwanted ideas and information. Facts that are inconvenient to the doctrinal system are summarily disregarded as if they do not exist. They are just suppressed.

If you are a teacher and you show too much independence and question the code of your profession too often, you are likely to be weeded out of the system of privilege. You have to keep quiet and instill your students with the beliefs and doctrines that will serve the interests of those who have real power. But schools are by no means the only instrument of indoctrination. Let’s take what we are fed by television. We are offered to watch a string of empty minded shows that are designed as entertainment but function to distract people from understanding their real problems or identifying the sources of their problems.

Noam Chomsky on MisEducation (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000)

My main research interests are in artificial intelligence, collaborative innovation, cognition, interaction, software agents and applications to the environmental sciences. More precisely:
• Adaptive, robust, effective, natural, software-based systems, which are able to function effectively in circumstances that 
    were not planned for explicitly when the systems were designed.
• Intelligent, integrated systems (cognitive systems) combining many aspects of human competence and based on     
    knowledge in several disciplines.
• Software agents that operate autonomously in teams or in cooperation with humans, for example, in exploration, in    
    emergency situations, in productivity improvement, in control, in delivering assistance.
• Technologies for /human–machine interaction/ based on a well-grounded understanding of sensor data and human 
    language, the ability to generate concepts and to translate across languages.
• Artificial systems that can:
    • achieve general goals in a largely unsupervised way and persevere under adverse or uncertain conditions;
    • adapt, within reasonable constraints, to changing service and performance requirements, without the need for external
        re-programming, re-configuring, or re-adjusting;
    • communicate and co-operate with people or each other, based on a well-grounded understanding of the objects, 
        events and processes in their environment, and their own situation, competences and knowledge.
• Fully integrated management systems, sharing data to monitor, warn and react to environmental risks, with special focus 
    on intelligent drainage-basin management.
• Forecasting methods and assessment tools for sustainable development taking into account differing scales of observation.