(President), Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa

Sandro Barone

Prof. Sandro Barone is Full Professor of Design and Methods of Industrial Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Pisa. He received a M.Sc. Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Palermo in 1990. He worked for about two years in the design office of Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie (Pistoia), Italy. In 1995 S. Barone received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Design, and worked for one year at the University of Sheffield (UK) as research associate. He joined the University of Pisa in 1996. His teaching activity includes Industrial Design, Modelling Industrial Products, and Industrial Technical Drafting. He is member of the PhD board in Mechanical Engineering. He is member of the Editorial Board of the Journal Strain and he has acted as reviewer for the following scientific journals: Journal of Strain Analysis for Engineering Design, Strain, Experimental Mechanics and Journal of Vibration and Acoustics. He published about 100 peer reviewed scientific papers, mainly in international journals. In 1997 he received the prestigious Hetenyi Award from the Society of Experimental Mechanics. The main research areas are: design methods, CAD/CAE systems, optical technologies for 3D scanning, optical methods for mechanical design, Additive Manufacturing technology. In 2004 he founded ScanSystems spin-off company, today AirNivol S.r.l.

Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa

Armando Razionale

Prof. Armando Razionale is Associate Professor of Industrial Design Methods at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Pisa. He received an M.Sc. Degree in Aerospace Engineering and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pisa in 2004. His research topics include Reverse Engineering, Computer Aided Design and Engineering, Image Processing for Computer Vision, 3D medical Imaging and Design for Additive Manufacturing. 3D structured light-based techniques for the acquisition and modelling of complex 3D shapes in industrial and biomedical contexts. Prof. Razionale is author/co-author of more than 60 papers published in international refereed journals and conferences. He has participated to several research projects, also coordinating the R&D activities. In 2004 he founded ScanSystems spin-off company, today AirNivol S.r.l.

Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa

Alessandro Paoli

Prof. Alessandro Paoli is Associate Professor of Design and Methods of Industrial Engineering at the School of Engineering of the University of Pisa. He received the master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Pisa and the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering at the same University. His research activities have been focused on Image Processing and Reverse Engineering techniques for the reconstruction of complex 3D shapes in industrial and biomedical contexts. Current research interests are oriented toward the development of 3D printers for challenging applications in industrial and biomedical fields. He participated to several academic and industrial research projects and his research activity has been disseminated by more than 60 papers published in international refereed journals and conferences.

Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa

Paolo Neri

Paolo Neri is Assistant Professor of Industrial Design Methods at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Pisa. He received an M.Sc. Degree in Mechanical Engineering (2012) and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (2015) at the University of Pisa. His research topics include Mechanical systems modelling and simulation, Experimental Dynamic characterization, Reverse Engineering, 3D structured light-based techniques for the acquisition and modelling of complex 3D shapes and for vibration measurements, and custom 3D printing processes for engineering and biomedical applications. Dr. Neri is author/co-author of more than 30 papers published in international refereed journals and conferences. He has participated to several research projects, also being in charge of a research grant of University of Pisa.

Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa

Francesco Tamburrino

Francesco Tamburrino is Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering of Università di Pisa. His research activities are mainly focused on industrial design, materials science and technology, additive manufacturing, cellular materials and dental materials.

Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa

Beatrice Aruanno

Dr Beatrice Aruanno is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of Engineering of the University of Pisa. She received the M.Sc. Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Milan in 2016 and the PhD Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the same university in 2020. Her research topics include mechanical design, virtual and physical prototyping, extended reality, and intelligent user interfaces.

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Polytechnic University of Milan

Monica Bordegoni

Design Research Group, University of Strathclyde

Andrew Wodehouse

Dr Andrew is a Senior Lecturer in in the Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management at the University of Strathclyde. His work is in the area of human-centred design, encompassing digital interaction, manufacture and creativity. He has led a range of UK Research and Innovation funded research projects and has collaborated with disciplines such as drama, bioengineering, history and business to deliver new methods and approaches for design.

Design Research Group, University of Strathclyde

Lewis Urquhart

Lewis has a degree in Product Design from the University of Strathclyde and has now undertook an Engineering Doctorate in Advanced Manufacturing. Currently, he works for Strathclyde as a Research Assistant with diverse research interests including form theory, design emotion and manufacturing protocol.

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Malta

Philip Farrugia

Prof Ing. Philip Farrugia received the B. Eng. (Hons) degree from the University of Malta in 2001 with First Class Honours. He joined the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (DIME) at the University of Malta in 2001, as a Research Assistant. In February 2003, he was appointed as an Assistant Lecturer with the same department. In September 2008 Philip was appointed as a lecturer after completion of Ph.D. with research related to ‘Computer-Aided Early Form Modelling’. Currently he is an Associate Professor with DIME. Since 2008, Prof. Ing. Farrugia has been coordinating the taught masters course in integrated product development. In addition, he was the principal investigator in a number of research funded projects related to healthcare products (e.g. an artificial rib bridge – www.ribridge.com, design and fabrication of a distal end for endoscope applications -www.exmmim.com) and assistive technology (e.g. a therapeutical device which supports children with language impairment, www.speechieproject.com). Philip has recently won two projects, one related to a conformity and usability risk assessment required for the commercialisation of the aforementioned therapeutical device, and another one related to the development of a novel VR simulator and adjustable test jig to design safer and customisable motorcycles. Prof. Farrugia has published over forty-six peer reviewed research papers in fields related to product development, and is the principal inventor of one patent (application pending) and three registered international community designs.

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Malta

Emanuel Balzan

Emanuel graduated with honours in Electrical Engineering in 2009 and received the M.Sc in Integrated Product Development in 2012 both from the University of Malta. Following the first degree, he worked as a Research Engineer with the MARSEC-XL Foundation. After receiving his Masters he worked with Methode Electronics Malta as a Quality Engineer for 3 years in the Customer Liaison department where he ensured that the quality of both the products and process are to their highest standards. He joined the University of Malta as a Researcher in 2016 and has worked on the SPEECHIE project in which a therapeutic toy for children with speech and language difficulties was developed. Emanuel is a PhD student working on a user-centred design methodology that will aid designers to create better toys for children with Language Impairment.

Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Malta

Edward Abela

Edward Abela received his B.Eng. from the University of Malta in 2017. After working in R&D within the manufacturing industry, he pursued his M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, specialising in rehabilitation engineering and biomechanics. Since 2019 he has been a researcher at the University of Malta working on the PRIME-VR2 project whilst reading for his doctorate degree at the same university.

Edward will support the research team at UOM in leading and guiding product assembly and testing by designing and building in-house hardware and formulating product validation and verification plans.

Loud1Design

Brian Loudon

Brian Loudon (M.Eng. in Product Design Engineering and B.Sc. Hons. in Maths) is a Product Design Engineering consultant with 20 years of commercial experience. A key driver in Brian’s work is the generation of parametric and algorithmic models that allow a solution space to be explored, optimised or customised to individuals. These models seek to capture the design intent fully, allowing explorations that always remain valid within the design constraints.

Computer Science Department, University College London

David Swapp

Dr David Swapp has been the manager of UCL’s VR research facilities since 1999. He supports projects by providing input on design, configuration and running of software, design of appropriate experimental protocols, and content development. David supports a broad range of researchers and has published in fields ranging from neuroscience through to engineering.

Flying Squirrel Games

Anthony Demanuele

Anthony Demanuele is the founder and lead developer at Flying Squirrel Games. He worked at TRC game studio before founding his own company back in 2015. He is experienced in application development on a number of platforms including PC, Android and iOS and successfully shipped more than 15 titles over the last 10 years. Areas of expertise: Application, Game and content development using the Unity Engine, C# programming language and Javascript for backend scripting. Anthony Demanuele will assist the Platform implementation (WP6) to enable his team in building the Virtual Reality experience, the complementary application, cloud services and art support. Anthony will also contribute in WP2 to provide expertise in identifying software specifications for the platform and identifying communication protocols between the different modules of the VRHAB-IT platform.

Saint James Hospital

Milos Stanisavljevic

Mr Milos Stanisavljevic (male) graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons) degree in Physiotherapy from the Medical University of Belgrade, Serbia. He headed the setup of 7 specialised physiotherapy and rehabilitation clinics in Malta & overseas. He is an active member of the Malta Olympic Committee Medical Commission since 2003. Milos also has over 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry in Serbia, Malta & North Africa and is currently responsible for the day-to-day management and administration of Planet Health International within the Saint James Hospital. He conducted presentations as one of the speakers and participated in sports medicine conferences such as The 10th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science which was held in 2005 in Serbia, The Physical Medicine and Rehab seminar, which took place in 2017 in Dubai, Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine Conference in Abu-Dhabi which were held in 2012, 2013 and 2014 as a part of ADMC congresses.