Profile

I am a PhD student at University College London since February 2020, and I moved to the UK after spending 2.5 years in China. My favourite foods are Pizza (I am from Italy) and Chinese Noodles. In my free time, I play field hockey and football, hang out with friends in London and have long video calls with other friends who are not living in the UK.

I am a PhD student at University College London, and I spend most of my working hours doing research in the field of Bridge Engineering. This is my office:

My research is about cable-stayed bridges, like this one:

I look for innovative ways to make sure that this type of bridge can withstand earthquakes, strong winds and blasts. These events happen few times during the service life of the bridge, which is about 100 years. Sometimes they actually don’t happen, but we must make sure the bridge is safe in case any of them occurs. For example, this picture shows Hanshin Expressway Bridge after Kobe Earthquake (Japan 1995).

Usually, Engineers design a bridge to withstand several hazards separately. For instance, they first calculate the dimensions of towers and cables which make the bridge safe against wind; then they do the same for earthquake and eventually, for important bridges, they make calculations for blast.

Such calculations can result in very different elements dimensions, and engineers should make a choice among them. Here comes my research: I am trying to define a procedure able to select optimal parameters for all the hazards I mentioned, saving as much material as possible. My final aim is to design safer, cheaper and more sustainable bridges.

I wake up at 7am, have breakfast and take my bike:

Then I head to the gym, I spend there about one hour, take shower and go to office. This is the main campus of UCL, and my office is in one of these buildings:

In office, I start reading papers, which look like this:

Then I use a computer software to study the response of bridges to earthquake, wind and blast. I try to summarize results in graphs and write reports for my professors. This is an example of graph:

At 1pm, I have lunch with friends. I usually cook my lunch the evening before and bring it to school. In the afternoon, I go back to office and continue my research. I attend lectures given by professors that are visiting my university. Here’s an example:

In the evening, I play sport (hockey, football or running) or meet friends. Then I go back home, cook and go to sleep.