Research: two projects from the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa receive funding from the European Union as part of the NextGenerationEU plan, ‘Young Researcher 2024 - MSCA’ program
Two projects from the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa have received prestigious funding under the “Young Researchers 2024 - MSCA” program, funded by the European Union (Next Generation EU plan) and promoted by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR), with resources reserved for winners of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual and Postdoctoral Fellowships.
The two projects are HAND2, coordinated by Enzo Mastinu, assistant professor at the BioRobotics Institute, and LEAD, coordinated by Maria Rosa De Giacomo, assistant at the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Sustainability and Climate.
HAND2 – sensors and AI for the development of semi-autonomous prosthetic hands
The HAND2 project will last three years and is a continuation of the HAND project, funded by the European Union's Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions program. The goal is to develop and validate methods for semi-autonomous prosthetic hands using a conventional myoelectric human-machine interface. By refining and finalizing the work carried out in the project on modern sensor technology and artificial intelligence, and modeling of reaching movements, HAND2 aims to develop a complete prosthetic system capable of intuitively managing the main phases of person-object interaction, from planning the grasp to reaching, to the actual grasp for manipulation.
The developed system will be able to recognize the object at a distance to enable grasping on a multi-articulated prosthetic hand; optimize and execute finger trajectories for grasping during the reaching phase; and recognize the properties of the object to ensure proper grasping once it is in contact with the prosthesis.
“Semi-autonomous prosthetic hands can be a game changer, ultimately transforming the conventional view of a prosthetic hand from a tool to a more complex device that interacts intelligently with the user and any object,” says Enzo Mastinu.
LEAD – the impact of female managers on sustainable business performance
The LEAD project (acronym for The effects of strategic femaLE leADership on sustainable performance) combines the themes of leadership, gender policies, and sustainable development to address a current issue in an innovative way: the impact of women in leadership roles on the sustainable performance of businesses in economic, environmental, and social terms.
The three-year project aims to analyze, through a rigorous causal approach, the effect of female strategic leadership on corporate sustainability performance and to study the cognitive and decision-making processes underlying strategic choices in order to identify the mechanisms that guide managerial decisions in the field of sustainability.
“The project adopts an integrated and interdisciplinary approach, combining quantitative analysis of performance and corporate sustainability indicators with qualitative surveys aimed at exploring the strategic dynamics and decision-making models adopted,” says Maria Rosa De Giacomo.
The ‘Young Researcher 2024 – MSCA’ is a funding program that aims to promote project proposals submitted by young researchers. The call was open to those who had previously won calls for proposals relating to Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Individual Fellowships under the Horizon 2020 Framework Program, including Standard European Fellowships and Reintegration Panels, and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowships under the Horizon Europe Framework Program.
