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Making the most of graduate talent: the Pisa-Pavia Consortium between IUSS, Sant’Anna School and University of Pisa awarded the first joint degree in bionics engineering

Publication date: 05.06.2017
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Angela Mazzeo, a 22 years old talented student from Puglia, is the first Pisa-Pavia Consortium student who graduated in bionics engineering. The Pisa-Pavia Consortium, a strategic partnership between the IUSS Pavia, Sant’Anna School, University of Pisa and, more recently, the Scuola Normale Superiore, awarded its first joint degree in Bionics Engineering. This combined degree program has the potential to offer transdisciplinary education and benefits students in providing increasing skills and career paths.

Over the past few years the Universities of Pisa and Pavia have collaborated through the University Consortium to add value from partnership activity in research, innovation and teaching.  Angela Mazzeo attended a number of cross-subject programmes at Sant’Anna School and IUSS Pavia. In particular, she analysed the importance of the tactile perception feedback for prosthesis users - a way to build artificial sensation in prosthetic hands that can detect sensation signals. Her work was supervised by Professor Calogero Oddo (Sant’Anna School) and Professor Paolo Bazzurro (IUSS Pavia).

This summer, Angela Mazzeo, thanks to the Erasmus Programme, will spend two months at the Bionics Department of Lund University, the Sweden’s top-ranked university (ranked 60th in the world). After the Erasmus Programme, she hopes to further advance her skills at the Sant’Anna School Biorobotics Institute and to continue her interest in education by pursuing a Ph.D. or transitioning to a professional career in Italy.

“Our special programs give talented students the opportunity to maximize their intellectual potential and to enrol in special projects as part of their undergraduate studies. The Consortium activity will give additional opportunities to exceptional students by taking part in research-related programs” – said Paolo Bazzurro and Calogero Oddo.

Angela Mazzeo is one of the IUSS Pavia “honors student”. Entry to the IUSS Pavia is very selective. Once enrolled in the Bioengineering degree program, Angela Mazzeo was engaged in guided research projects leading to a degree with honors. She actually earned superior grades and graduated with honors. Her thesis presented mathematical models of cancer metabolism and quantifiable metrics. Professor Paolo Magni (University of Pavia) and Professor Elena Maria Tosca acted as thesis supervisors.