Università Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM), founded in 1969, is located in Ancona, with campuses distributed across the Marche region. The university hosts approximately 17,000 students and is organised into five faculties: Engineering, Sciences, Economics, Medicine, and Agricultural Sciences.
UNIVPM employs more than 500 academic staff and over 500 technical and administrative personnel, supporting a broad range of educational and research activities. The university includes 12 departments, five of which have been recognised as “excellent” by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR), reflecting the high quality of its scientific output.
The university participates in the RoboStellars project through LabMACS , directed by Prof. David Scaradozzi.
LabMACS (Laboratory of Modelling, Analysis and Control of dynamical Systems) is a research laboratory of the Department of Information Engineering (DII – Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione) at Università Politecnica delle Marche. The Department brings together multiple research groups covering areas such as control systems, robotics, electronics, signal processing, telecommunications, computational intelligence, and software engineering.
Within this interdisciplinary environment, LabMACS research activities are mainly centred on:
- Control and optimization of dynamical systems.
- Robotics and automation, with a focus on motion and interaction control in distributed systems.
- Educational robotics.
- Underwater robotics and marine technologies.
A significant part of the lab’s work is dedicated to educational robotics. LabMACS has conducted numerous experimental studies involving students from primary schools to universities, intending to develop innovative tools and methodologies for teaching STEM subjects. The laboratory collaborates with more than 60 schools across Italy and works closely with national institutions such as the Italian Ministry of Education and INDIRE.
LabMACS coordinated and participated in several national and European projects. These included the Erasmus+ projects RoboPisces (www.robopisces.eu) and RoboAquaria (www.roboaquaria-project.eu), which promoted STEM education through robotics and marine science using dedicated educational kits.
In addition to its educational activities, LabMACS is active in applied research for marine environments, including underwater surveys for archaeological and cultural heritage documentation. It is part of the Italian Interuniversity Center for Marine Environment (ISME) research infrastructure and collaborates with institutions such as the Italian Navy and NATO.
.The following key staff members will be directly involved in the project:
- Prof. David Scaradozzi is currently an associate professor at the Università Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM), Ancona, Italy. He is the head of the Laboratory of Modelling, Analysis and Control of dynamical Systems (LabMACS). His research interests include control and optimisation of dynamical systems, robotics and automation, underwater robotics, educational robotics, with special interests devoted to all aspects regarding the identification and assessment of education processes, study and development of new robotic tools and lesson plans for teaching e-STrEM subjects, in formal and nonformal education.
- Benedetta Castagna is a Research Fellow at Università Politecnica delle Marche. She holds a PhD from the Kent School of Architecture and Planning, University of Kent. Her skills involve 3D modelling with theoretical approaches, interested in the enhancement and economic-social development of heritage. Her international profile combines the disciplinary and cultural experiences acquired at three universities in Italy, England and Spain.
- Martina Morano is a PhD candidate at UNIVPM, working at LabMACS. Her research interests include the study, identification, and modelling of educational processes, especially during educational robotics activities, through artificial intelligence techniques and the development of a Cyber-Physical Human System.