Simone Grimaldi is a PhD-student within the research group Sensor-bsed Services and will be doing his research in the field of industrial wireless sensor and actuator networks.
What is your area of interest?
My research takes place in the context of the ASIS Project, and is about reliable wireless communications in the field of industrial wireless sensor and actuator networks (IWSAN). While these networks represent an appealing solution for industrial monitoring and process control, the available protocols are still not able to match the extremely demanding requirements of industrial applications for both communication performances and reliability aspects.
What is it that you are going to investigate in your Ph.D?
The research aims to investigate the state-of-the art of IWSAN research and to study new methods to improve the performances, resilience and intelligence of these wireless systems in order to decrease the gap with the industrial requirements and proceed toward the vision of autonomous and deterministic wireless and actuator networks. The objective will be pursued proposing novel solutions to cope with the harshness of the radio channel in industrial scenarios. The research will cover ambitious topics such as algorithms for communication monitoring and recovery, coexistence with other wireless systems (toward the cognitive radio paradigm) and development of media access protocols with deterministic performances.
Why did you choose Sweden and Mid Sweden University?
I had the great opportunity of working at my MSc Thesis for 6 months at ABB Corporate Research Center in Västerås, experimenting the Swedish working environment and lifestyle. I developed a strong interest and passion for the topic of IWSN, then the possibility of starting a dedicated research path sounded immediately appealing to me. Also, since I visited Mid Sweden University in March 2015, I had a nice impression of both the campus and the city of Sundsvall, which somehow reminds me of my hometown, and felt that this would be a great place to pursue the PhD.