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Rassegna e confronto delle caratteristiche dei sistemi di monitoraggio energetico esistenti: valutazione dello stato dele tecnologie attuali, indagine sulle applicazioni più comuni e sulle tendenze future. Tesina senza controrelatore e senza stage aziendale. Review and comparison of existing energy monitoring systems: assessment of state of the art of technology, review of applications and outlook on future trends. Thesis without co-examiner ("tesina") and without internship.

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Aim of the work is to develop the firmware of a datalogger based on STM32 architecture and LoRa comunication protocol in order to use the Electrical Vehicle as sensor of itself and the environment around it.

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Rassegna e confronto dei metodi di analisi dei dati misurati da impianti elettrici di edifici (in particolare le curve di consume di potenza): studio delle applicazioni più comuni e delle tendenze future. Tesi (o probabilmente tesina, senza controrelatore) senza stage aziendale. Review and comparison of data analytic mehods for measured data from electrical installations in buildings (particularly power consumption curves): most common applications and future trends. Thesis (or more likely "tesina" without co-examiner) without internship.

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Tesi con stage presso ABB a Dalmine (BG). La tesi si inserisce in un'attività già avviata con l’obiettivo di estendere le capacità di simulazione esistenti fino alla realizzazione di una macchina automatica di test per il software. Principali attività: - analisi / Ottimizzazione prestazioni piattaforma simulazione attuale: - valutazione di soluzioni più efficienti per la gestione e memorizzazione dei segnali. - Ampliare interfaccia di alcuni blocchi complessi/di controllo per produrre gli output desiderati (es. informazioni diagnostiche in caso di test falliti) - Creazione interfacce per gestione ingressi e uscite simulatore: generazione profili input e visualizzazione output. - Esecuzione automatica dei test: creazione strumento per definire gli output attesi e verifica automatica dei risultati conformi ai desiderata. Requisiti: - buona conoscenza di Matlab/Simulink - conoscenza del linguaggio di programmazione C Thesis with internship at ABB in Dalmine (BG). The thesis is part of an ongoing activity with the purpose of enhancing existing simulation tools and design a fully automatic software testing machine. Main activities: - Analysis/Optimization of existing simulation platform; - evaluation of efficient solution for generation, handling and storing of signals/data; - extend interface of some simulation blocks to provide additional output (e.g. diagnostic info in case of test failure) - creation of input/output user interfaces for input profile generation and output visualization; - automatic test execution: design of a tool to define expected output and automatic check of result conformity. Requirements: - good working knowledge of Matlab/Simulink - working knowledge of C programming language.

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Tesi con stage presso ABB a Lodi. Lo student si occuperà di uno dei progetti di sviluppo in corso: 1) impatto della digitalizzazione di apparecchiature di alta tensione su processi e costi di gestione/manutenzione/fuori servizio di sottostazioni elettriche per l’utilizzatore finale; 2) valutazione dell’utilizzo di trasformatori ausiliari di potenza di alta tensione nelle seguenti applicazioni: - sistemi di desalinizzazione in aree rurali; - caricatori di auto elettriche in aree remote. Thesis with internship at ABB in Lodi. The student will work on one of the ongoing development projects: 1) Impact of application of digital technologies in high voltage apparatus on processes and cost of ownership/ cost of maintenance / out-of-service cost of substations; 2) Evaluation of auxiliary high voltage power transformers in applications: - fresh water production in rural areas - electric vehicle charging in remote locations.

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The combination of data and technology is having a high impact on the way we live. The world is getting smarter thanks to the quantity of collected and analyzed data: the amount of available information is constantly growing and organizations rely more and more on data analysis in order to achieve their competitive advantage. However, such amount of data can create a real value only if combined with quality: good decisions and actions are the results of correct, reliable and complete data. In such a scenario, methods and techniques for the Data Quality assessment can support the identification of suitable data to process. If for traditional database numerous assessment methods are proposed, in the Big Data scenario new algorithms have to be designed in order to deal with novel requirements related to variety, volume and velocity issues. Dealing with heterogeneous sources requires an adaptive approach able to trigger the suitable quality assessment methods on the basis of the data type and context in which data have to be used. The thesis focuses on the design of new data quality assessment and improvement algorithms for different type of sources.

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Hardware IP protection is becoming important as the fabrication process is more and more distributed and involves fab-less design houses and third-party foundries. Thwarting reverse engineering of a design is important to protect intellectual property and avoid unauthorized copies. Algorithm-level obfuscation is used to add an extra layer of protection, hiding sensitive information during component generation. The correct functionality is enabled only with the correct key after chip fabrication. This thesis aims at improving the existing algorithm-level obfuscation techniques to work also when the attacker gets access to a working chip (called oracle).

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Hardware IP protection is becoming important as the fabrication process is more and more distributed and involves fab-less design houses and third-party foundries. Since the IP design can cost up to millions of dollars for a company, IP thefts generate huge economic damages. Watermarks are used to determine the real owner of the design during litigation. This thesis aims at developing and comparing a set of watermarking techniques during the generation of IP components. Functional and non-functional properties of the design can be used to embed a unique signature that must guarantee strong protection (low probability of coincidence) with low overhead.

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Contract-based design is an emerging approach to perform successive refinement/synthesis steps of the high-level specification to match given requirements. This approach has been widely used to design cyber-physical systems and automatically generate complex control systems starting from high-level requirements and library components. In this project, this approach will be extended to rethink high-level synthesis and perform refinements starting from the high-level specification down to the synthesis of hardware IP cores.

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This thesis aims at creating a design methodology and proper hardware components to support the integration of HLS-generated hardware accelerators with a complete RISC-V CPU. The student must understand the details of the CPU and how the code is executed to interface with device components. Then, he/she must design proper hardware components to interface components generated through HLS with such infrastructure in a semi-automatic way. Execution of the complete system on FPGA is required to complete the evaluation.

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Validation and consensus in blockchains do not completely address data quality assurance, that is, while they ensure that transactions can be ordered, and that they are signed and well formed, they do not guarantee that data in them are of sufficient quality to be utilised for given business objectives. This project focuses on the investigation of the feasibility of traditional data quality controls in blockchain-based systems. The student should provide a theoretical discussion of how traditional data quality controls could be implemented into blockchain architectures and an implementation for controls deemed feasible. The thesis focuses on an important aspect of blockchain-based system design that, if carefully addressed, will increase substantially the adoption of this technology for the implementation of cross-organisational information systems.

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Topics: web engineering, data extraction, homebrewing

Web content extraction is the collection of structured content (data) from generic web pages. The challenge is understanding which data elements are relevant and how to extract them, taking into account the structure of the page (HTML), its style (CSS), and perhaps the actual data items and/or their semantics. Typical synonyms of the practice are web wrapping or web scraping. While there are some generic tools that typically require user intervention, the goal of this line of research is to study methods for the fully automated extraction of domain-specific content, that is, content for which we already know something (e.g., target instances or typical data structures). The specific domain this research focuses on is homebrewing, i.e., making beer at home, and beer recipes.

Research questions and possible thesis/project topics

• Automated recipe extraction: Given a web page that describes the recipe of a beer in a textual, colloquial fashion, how can we automatically extract a structured recipe from the page? How can we do so from pages with different structures and presentation styles? Are we able to automatically identify the units of the ingredients and to convert them from the imperial to the metric system (or vice-versa) and to import the recipe into a suitable editor for further editing? Answering these questions requires web engineering skills and may ask for the development of a browser extension for the extraction of content.

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Topics: blockchain, smart contracts, web services, service level agreements

Blockchain is a new technology for developing immutable, distributed ledgers (logs) of transactions, e.g., used for the implementation of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Smart contracts are small programs that can be executed inside the blockchain, e.g., to enforce contractual agreements. A service level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a provider of a service and its consumer that states which constraints and requirements regarding the quality of the service must hold, in order for the delivery of the service to be considered satisfying by the consumer (e.g., max response time < 10ms). The typical challenge in the delivery of digital services over a network, e.g., the Internet, is certifying service levels in a manner that is trustful to both parties involved. The goal of the research proposed in this context is to study if and how blockchain technology can be used as a distributed service level certification authority.

Research questions and possible thesis/project topics

• Automated payment and compensation: Assuming there are three actors, a provider, a consumer, and a trusted service level monitor, how can we model the services offered and the respective service level agreements in terms of smart contracts able to manage payments for service consumption and compensations for SLA violations? The idea is to establish two channels, one for the actual delivery of the service and one for billing and compensation, to enable automated payments and enforcement of agreements. Answering the question requires knowledge in web services, blockchain and smart contracts. The implementation of a working scenario is expected.
• Blockchain SLA monitor: Assuming instead that there is no trusted service level monitor we can rely on, is it possible to use features provided by blockchain technology itself, e.g., transactions, payloads, timestamps or smart contracts, to implement this trusted service level monitor? Which quality of service attributes can be supported, which not? The answer to these questions requires a profound understanding of blockchain technology and smart contracts. The implementation of a working prototype is expected.

Preliminary results

• no results yet

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Topics: blockchain, smart contracts, web services

Service-orientated computing is the development paradigm that leverages on web services, e.g., REST APIs or SOAP services, for the implementation of composite applications. Web services are software components that provide programmatic access to application logic via standard interaction protocols over the Internet. Blockchain is a new technology for developing immutable, distributed ledgers (logs) of transactions, e.g., used for the implementation of Bitcoin. Smart contracts are small programs that can be executed inside the blockchain, e.g., to enforce contractual agreements. The goal of the research proposed in this area is to study how smart contracts can be used to implement a service-oriented computing paradigm inside the blockchain, in order to make blockchain functionality accessible and reusable.

Research questions and possible thesis/project topics

• Service model: What does it actually mean to interpret smart contracts as services? How does this affect the traditional model of web services we know for example from SOAP or REST? What could be a good model for a service implemented using smart contracts? All these questions require a thorough analysis of current service-oriented computing technology and a profound understanding of smart contracts. The goal is developing a model of reusable service for the blockchain and the implementation of suitable demonstrators of viability.
• Service search and discovery: How do we enable developers or other potential consumers of a smart contract service to search for and discovery interesting services? Can we do so in a cross-blockchain fashion (supporting different blockchain technologies)? Currently, no suitable registry or solution exists that helps service consumers in their task. Solving this issue requires knowledge in web engineering, web services and blockchain. The target is a prototype of openly accessible registry.
• Composition model: Given a set of candidate smart contract services, how could a possible composition paradigm for smart contracts look like? Do we need a dedicated modeling language or middleware for execution? The goal is to develop a new service by integrating existing ones. This is very challenging, and given a good answers will require good knowledge of both web services and blockchain/smart contracts. Target outputs are a composition model and a respective notation, perhaps also a middleware for composition execution.
• Composition editor: Assuming we have some form of composition paradigm, can we develop some form of visual editor to assiste developers in their composition task? How could this editor look like? Which are the key features such an editor should have? All these questions have no answers yet and different solutions may be compared to given an answer. The goal is to provide the composition paradigm of the previous point with a suitable, easy to use development environment.

Preliminary results

• Mini analysis of smarts contracts as services
• Proposal of smart contract description language and preliminary registry

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Topics: chatbots, data engineering, human-computer interaction

Data exploration is a data analysis practice that, given a database with concrete data, aims to understand what is in the database (instances) and which characteristics describe the data in the database (schema). It is typically carried out by an expert interested in learning how to use the data and albe to write even complex SQL queries. Chatbots are bots (software agents) that provide textual, conversational user interfaces toward software, that is, they allow users to interact with software using natural language text messages, like the ones we all use in Whatsapp, Telegram, Messenger. The goal of the research in this context is to develop a chatbot for data exploration that allows also non experts to explore and understand the content of a given database.

Research questions and possible thesis/project topics

• Heuristic conversation generation: Given a database endpoint, how do we “teach” the chatbot knowledge about the database? A preliminary analysis has shown that it may be necessary to annotate the schema with conversational clues, so that the chatbot is able to learn the necessary terminology, grammar and user questions. But which features can a chatbot support? What exactly needs to be annotated, and how? The output will be a chatbot able to interact with users and to answer his/her questions about the database.
• Automated annotation: Assuming that some form of annotation of the schema is needed in order to help the chatbot create a conversational competence, how much of this annotation can be generated or derived automatically from the schema and/or instances of the database? Do we need suitable heuristics encoding expert knowledge or can AI/machine learning algorithms do the job automatically? The final output will again be a working prototype of data exploration chatbot.
• User experience: How effective is conversational data exploration in practice? Is the paradigm actually useful? Which are hurdles for adoption, which instead the strong points compared to SQL-based data exploration? All questions that require suitable user studies to be answered, as soon as the first working prototypes are ready.

Preliminary results

• no results yet

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Topics: personal assistants, web engineering, human-computer interaction

Screen readers are accessibility tools for blind or visually impaired people or simply people that are not able to look at the screen of the computer in a given instant of time. They are able to read out text and to deliver a voice-based interaction with applications; user input is typically keyword based. Vocal personal assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana and Apple Siri are virtual assistants that provide a bidirectionally vocal user interface toward software. The goal of this research is to study how to turn personal assistants into modern screen readers for the web and to design, develop and test respective prototype systems. The vision is “talking” with websites.

Research questions and possible thesis/project topics

• Heuristic conversation generation: Given the URL of a website, how can we extract the necessary knowledge and content structure of the respective web page so that a conversational agent is able to maintain a meaningful conversation with users? In a first attempt, answering this question will require an analysis of existing accessibility mechanisms, the identification of which capabilities can reasonably be supported through a conversational interface, and the conception of heuristics that may be used to instruct the conversational agent. Web engineering skills are a must and “speaking” prototypes are targeted.
• Conversation annotation format: Assuming that it is not possible to generate meaningful conversation skills without any additional input, a new question could be: is it possible to specify an annotation format that allows one to add conversation-specific hints to the website so as to enable new/advanced conversational skills? Answering this question requires web engineering skills and again targets “speaking” prototypes.
• Automated conversation generation: Forgetting about heuristics and annotations or also using them, is it possible to automatically learn how to extract conversational knowledge form web pages? The approach here is more a data science approach (it will be necessary to analyze lots of HTML pages), yet the idea is still to implement a working prototype that supports voice interactions.
• User experience: How effective are conversational screen readers in practical settings? Is the paradigm actually useful? Which are hurdles for adoption, which instead the strong points compared to traditional screen readers? Lots of questions that require suitable user studies to be answered, as soon as the first working prototypes are ready.

Preliminary results

• no results yet

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Topics: social bots, social networks, data science, ethics

Bots are algorithmically driven entities that behave like humans in online communications. They are increasingly infiltrating social conversations on the Web or in chat apps. If not properly prevented, this presence of bots may cause harm to the humans they interact with, e.g., they may offend or discriminate people. The goal of this research is to understand which types of harm and which abuses may happen, whether abuses can be considered intentional or not, whether it is possible to prevent them and, if yes, how.

Research questions and possible thesis/project topics

• Bot detection: Given a specific type of abuse, e.g., discrimination, spamming or mimicking interest, how can we identify bots that may be vulnerable to this type of abuse? Answering this question requires following a data science methodology and may require the use of machine learning and AI algorithms, online/reinforcement learning techniques, network analysis techniques, and similar. Different social networks may be studied. The expected output are algorithms or methods able to classify social network accounts based on the harm they may cause.
• Code analysis: Here the idea is to start from the code of bots shared online, e.g., in GitHub, and to study which abusive code patterns can be identified, which effects they may have, and how to spot bots that implement them. Again, answering these questions requires a data science approach and may imply the use/implementation of code analysis and search algorithms as well as manual inspection of code. Different social networks may be studied. Possible outputs are code patterns or pattern search algorithms and data analyses.
• BotBuster: As a preliminary result of the research in this area, an online tool named BotBuster has been developed. It allows one to classify accounts in Twitter as bot or not and, in case of bots, it identifies potential harms. It currently implements an ensemble of bot classification algorithms, which are trained offline and used online. The question is how to turn BotBuster into a tool that is able to learn over time. Also new algorithms for BotBuster can be implemented.

Preliminary results

• Empirical analysis of harms and abuses by bots

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During an internship into the Enterprise KEB (international player on the field of electrical Drives) the aim of the work is to analyse the electrical footprint of electrical motors in order to develop algorithm to recognize and classify state of works and fault of the system.

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Il lavoro di tesi riguarda la modellazione del campo elettrico all’interno dell’isolante di un cavo di alta tensione che opera in regime di corrente continua (HVDC). Nella fase inziale di salita della tensione, quando il sistema è messo in funzione, la distribuzione del campo elettrico è controllata essenzialmente dalla permittività elettrica del materiale isolante (distribuzione capacitiva); in condizioni stazionarie la distribuzione è controllata invece dalla conducibilità elettrica dell’isolante, a sua volta dipendente dai valori locali della temperatura e del campo elettrico (distribuzione resistiva). Nella fase intermedia, successiva all’applicazione della tensione, si assiste alla transizione tra la distribuzione capacitiva e quella resistiva. In questa fase la descrizione del comportamento transitorio del campo elettrico deve necessariamente combinare le equazioni dell’elettrostatica con quelle della conduzione elettrica. Considerazioni analoghe valgono nel caso dell’inversione di polarità della tensione. La condizione di partenza è rappresentata dal cavo in funzionamento stabile al livello di tensione nominale. Ad un certo punto la polarità della tensione è invertita, innescando un nuovo transitorio di ridistribuzione delle cariche elettriche e del campo elettrico.

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