IT Talks | A Seminar Series for PhD Students in Information Technology
Eventi

IT Talks | A Seminar Series for PhD Students in Information Technology

08 APRILE 2026

Immagine di presentazione 1

Mercoledì 8 aprile 2026 | 11:30 - 13:00
Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria - Politecnico di Milano
Sala conferenze Emilio Gatti (Edificio 20)

Invited Speakers: Xiong Xiong, Bohao He, Luca Crotti

Speaker Pitch: Federico Terenziani, Marco Dottor

Contatti: phd-inf@polimi.it

Sommario

IT Talks is a seminar series dedicated to Ph.D. students and researchers in the field of Information Technology, conceived as a space for discussion on cutting-edge research, advanced methodologies, and interdisciplinary applications.

The second seminar will take place on April 8, 2026, from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM, in the Emilio Gatti Conference Room (Building 20). The event will feature two invited speakers and one speaker pitch, offering insights into timely research topics ranging from sustainability to learning-based financial applications.

Invited Speakers

Xiong Xiong
Autonomous Recharging and Safety-Critical Coordination for Multi-Agent Coverage in Uncertain Environments

Multi-agent coverage missions—essential for modern agriculture and infrastructure inspection—face the dual challenge of operating in partially observable environments and adhering to strict physical limits, such as battery life and kinodynamic feasibility. This talk presents an online planning framework that enables a fleet of UAVs/UGVs to achieve efficient coverage while autonomously managing their energy levels.

Our approach integrates Control Barrier Functions (CBF) with a library of short-horizon motion primitives to ensure collision avoidance and seamless docking at charging stations. We introduce a hybrid coordination strategy that switches between decentralized exploration and proximity-aware cooperation via Distributed Model Predictive Control (DMPC). To prevent the "greedy" pitfalls of local planning, we further incorporate an auxiliary navigation and recovery mechanism. Simulation results in complex 2D and 3D environments demonstrate that this framework significantly improves coverage coherence and mission longevity compared to traditional baselines.

Bohao He
Protecting Global Seagrass Meadows to Support Climate Change Mitigation

Seagrass meadows are among the most efficient natural carbon sinks in the world. Despite their importance, spatially resolved global estimates of ongoing annual carbon sequestration rates in seagrass sediments have yet to be established, limiting the integration of these ecosystems into national climate accounting. Here, we combine ensemble species distribution models with 382 field measurements and machine learning to produce a global map of seagrass carbon accumulation rates and their associated economic value.

We estimate a global mean carbon accumulation rate of 26.81 g C m⁻² yr⁻¹, which contributes 53.99 Tg C yr⁻¹ to global blue carbon sequestration. This service generates approximately US$36.65 billion annually in climate mitigation value. However, we reveal profound global inequality in the distribution of this blue carbon wealth, with just five nations accounting for 45.36% of the global total. Crucially, our analysis exposes a severe governance mismatch: 27.8% of the total economic value of seagrass carbon lies in countries with high carbon assets but low adaptation readiness, particularly small island developing states and least developed nations. Realizing the full climate mitigation potential of seagrass ecosystems under the Paris Agreement will require targeted international investments to build institutional capacity and ensure equitable climate governance for highly vulnerable nations.
Luca Crotti
From MaaS to Streets: Urban Motion Planning for Autonomous Driving
 
Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) aims to deliver reliable and efficient urban mobility through integrated, on-demand services. Autonomous driving can be a key enabler, but operating in cities requires handling complex interactions and uncertainty. This seminar highlights why motion planning is central to making urban autonomy practical. The discussion links these concepts to MaaS performance and overall user experience.

Speaker Pitch

Federico Terenziani
Marco Dottor

The seminar provides an excellent opportunity to explore state-of-the-art research topics, foster scientific discussion, and encourage the exchange of ideas among early-stage researchers.



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