Giancarlo Santamato

Giancarlo Santamato (Bari, Italy, 1989) is a Mechanical Engineer, registered with the Order of Engineers of Bari since 2015. He graduated with honors in Mechanical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Bari in 2014 and received his Ph.D. with honors from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in 2020. His research focuses on applied structural mechanics, including modeling and simulation of complex systems, experimental dynamics, and advanced sensing technologies.

Since 2016, he has contributed to several industrial research projects with major companies in the transportation, infrastructure, and defense sectors, also serving as Principal Investigator. He established an independent research line on structural monitoring, involving the design of robotic inspection systems, innovative vibration analysis methods, sensor integration, and related numerical signal-processing algorithms.

More recently, his research has expanded toward advanced applications of smart materials, including sentient metasurfaces with integrated optical fibers for environmental awareness, as well as irradiation and high-temperature photonic sensing for electric propulsion engines.

He has authored numerous articles in leading international journals, presented at international conferences, organized intensive courses abroad, and holds several international patents. He also serves as a peer reviewer for top-tier journals in the field. His work extends to multidisciplinary projects in robotics and haptics, including vibrotactile interfaces, upper-limb tracking systems, and exoskeletons, and he coordinated the final phase of the AVATAR X-PRIZE telepresence project.

He is actively involved in teaching activities in dynamics, mechanical design, Finite Elements, and nonlinear elasticity for PhD and Master programs in Mechanical, Nuclear, Aeronautical, and Aerospace Engineering. He is currently supervisor of 3 Master’s theses in Aerospace Engineering.