Progetti di ricerca

Space missions increasingly require autonomous and efficient on-board data processing to overcome challenges such as limited communication bandwidth, high latency, and the need for real-time decision-making. While traditional artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms have demonstrated remarkable performance in these tasks, their… Leggi tutto high power consumption and computational demands make them less suitable for resource-constrained environments like space [6]. This proposal aims to advance satellite edge computing by developing a neuromorphic processing module that interfaces a RISC-V core with Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs). Inspired by the human brain's efficiency and adaptability, SNNs process information through intermittent spikes, activating neurons only when inputs exceed a threshold. This event-driven approach drastically reduces power consumption, specifically for continuous data streams, while maintaining high computational efficiency, making SNNs suitable for space applications [1][6]. Unlike conventional deep learning models, such as Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), SNNs encode information in a time-dependent manner, enhancing robustness against radiation-induced errors—a critical requirement for space systems [2]. This activity will focus on adapting an existing RISC-V core to interface with a custom-designed SNN. Thanks to the high degree of customization offered by the RISC-V architecture and its open-source nature, I aim to develop an integrated module that combines a traditional processor with an SNN-based accelerator. To enable efficient control and communication between the processor and the SNN, the project will also explore the development of custom instructions for specific SNN tasks. The module will be validated through a practical use case to assess its performance in terms of computational efficiency and radiation resistance, ensuring its suitability for deployment in the challenging conditions of space.

In the Maghreb, raising ethno-nationalism excludes Blackness from the national body. These racial tensions build on a long history of social differentiation that political, public, and academic discourses tend to reduce to a Black/white dichotomy. CHRoMa explores these current dynamics in light… Leggi tutto of earlier histories of racial differentiation. By addressing Maghrebi lexicons, grammars, and genealogies of race, the project cross-fertilises three disciplinary fields: Critical Race Theories and Methodologies, recent anthropological reflections on race, and history literature on race in the Maghreb. The objective is to study today’s Maghrebi patterns of racialisation through a bottom-up approach that grounds the understandings of racial identities within specific cultural, social, political, and religious contexts. An innovative method that starts from people’s lived experiences will prevent an essentialised and a priori reading of racial identities. On a broader comparative level, the project considers racialised hierarchies and political and personal spaces of resistance to racial discrimination across Maghrebi geographies, histories, and societies. Three are the ground-breaking shifts 1) to develop an analytical approach that combines nuances of colour with other discriminatory factors, thus moving beyond the Black/White dichotomy 2) to promote a Maghreb-centred approach to the study of processes of racialisation 3) to strengthen the emergent field of Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) Critical Race Studies. The Maghreb is a privileged standpoint to narrate patterns of racialisation outside dominant Western thinking, as it is both a “post-colonial” and a “post-slavery” context. Case studies comprise the legacies of racialised slavery, the meanings of whiteness, racialised internal divisions within the “white” Amazigh population, the racialisation of Sub-Saharan migrants, and the new categories crafted by anti-racist activism.