RiNEm 2020: Italy’s electromagnetics community meets online, eight young researchers receive awards
Originally planned for Rome, the XXIII RiNEm was held entirely online due to the COVID-19 emergency. The meeting opened with welcome addresses by Giuseppe Mazzarella (University of Cagliari), President of SIEm, and Giuseppe Schettini (“Roma Tre” University), Chair of the meeting. All presentations were given in English.
The scientific programme was organized in four sessions, each devoted to a SIEm award for young researchers, with 30 papers in total. The topics cover much of applied electromagnetics:
- phased array synthesis, dynamic ray tracing, and “smart” electromagnetic environments for communication and sensing;
- SAR remote sensing, and microwave imaging for diagnostics and ablation monitoring;
- wearable and RFID sensors, EBG structures and metasurfaces;
- integrated photonic circuits and few-mode optical fibers.
The breadth of the work shows the strength of Italian research in the field. It also shows growing links with biomedical, space and telecommunications applications.
The second day hosted the URSI sessions. Carlo Carobbi (University of Florence), President of the URSI Italian Committee, presented the Union’s national and international activities. Giuliano Manara, Secretary of the URSI Italian Committee, chaired the “Roberto Sorrentino” Award session, where the three finalist papers were presented:
- N. Curreli;
- A. Michel and R. K. Singh;
- J. A. Tobon V., L. Crocco and F. Vipiana.
The URSI Special Session included four talks:
- Giulia Sacco (winner of the URSI GASS 2020 Student Paper Competition), on radar for vital-sign monitoring;
- Giordano Spadacini (Commission E), on intentional electromagnetic interference;
- Federica Poli (Commission D), on high-power fiber lasers;
- Lorenzo Figini (Commission H), on RF systems for nuclear fusion.
The meeting closed with the joint URSI-SIEm Award Ceremony. The SIEm award winners are:
- Giorgio Barzilai Award (best scientific paper by researchers under 35): Denis Bilibashi (University of Bologna), “Dynamic ray tracing: 3D general algorithm for reflections from moving objects”.
- Mario Sannino Award (best paper on microwave and millimeter-wave circuits and devices, authors under 35): Giorgio Sebastiano Mauro and Giuseppe Torrisi (INFN – Catania), “Hollow-core woodpile EBG coupler for dielectric laser accelerators”.
- Carlo Giacomo Someda Award (best paper in photonics, authors under 35):
- Maziyar Milanizadeh and Matteo Petrini (DEIB – Politecnico di Milano), “FSR-free coupled microring resonators hitless photonic filter”;
- Riccardo Veronese (DEI – University of Padova), “Exploiting Rayleigh signature for centimeter-resolved mode dispersion measurement in few-mode fibers”.
- Gaetano Latmiral Award (best paper by PhD students): Simone Nappi (University of Rome “Tor Vergata”), “RFID-based stress predictive engineering”.
The awarded papers range from:
- propagation modelling in dynamic scenarios;
- optical-scale particle accelerators;
- integrated photonic filters;
- characterization of few-mode fibers;
- RFID-based wireless monitoring.
Together, they show how the younger generation combines methodological rigour with attention to applications.
The award committees were:
Sorrentino: Pietro Bolli, Lorenzo Crocco, Matteo Pastorino.
Barzilai: Sandra Costanzo, Gaetano Marrocco, Luca Perregrini;
Sannino: Oscar Antonio Peverini, Nazzareno Pierdicca, Andrea Randazzo;
Someda: Andrea Galtarossa, Costantino De Angelis, Michele Midrio;
Latmiral: Ovidio Mario Bucci, Alessandra Costanzo, Maurizio Migliaccio;
