User:Riccardo Antonini

Riccardo Antonini (born in Rome, Italy, 1957) is presently, at Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri (Italian Prime Minister staff) as Science and Technology Advisor.

Formerly at Consorzio Roma Ricerche - Rome, Italy, the Project Manager of various Research Projects on Virtual Reality and Interactive Media.

He is also Advisor for Space Synapse, a startup of the European Space Agency (ESA). Space Synapse aim is to bring the experience of human space flight “back to earth to the ordinary people”.

Among other projects he has been coordinator, from 1997, of the Italian part of the project funded by the European Union “Amusement”, i3 Esprit project no. 25197. “Amusement” successfully ended in june 2000. Amusement had among others the goal of studying new concepts of internet environment for games usig artificial life techniques.

He has been member of the Coordinating Group of the i3net (Intelligent Information Initiative) funded by the European Union and member of the Direction Board of the i3 Summer School 2001 on Interaction Design (IDSS) along with Giorgio De Michelis. IDSS has been held in Ivrea (Torino) at the former “historical multisciplinary” “Olivetti Research Centre” then “Interactive Design Institute” www.interaction-ivrea.it from 1 to 10 September 2001.

He has been member of the Coordinating Group of the “Convivio” (The Network for People Centered Design - IST-2001- 38265) initiative funded by the European Union (The Network for People-Centred Design of Interactive Systems- progetto UE IST-2001- 38265). In the "Convivio" initiative, he has been co-director along with prof Yngve Sundblad of KTH Stockholm Sweden, of the Convivio International Summerschool on Interaction Design in the 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007. To the “Summerschools” took part, both as students and/or teachers, corporate managers and designers of the following multinationals: IBM, NOKIA, Motorola, Giugiaro, Ernst & Young among others.

He conceived and coordinated the project, financed by the European Union Commission in the framework of the Cultura 2000 Program: "Could Faust dis-invent the A-Bomb" on the social responsibility of scientists that includes a musical inspired by Goethe's Faust and the life of Sir Joseph Rotblat, Nobel Prize for Peace. "Faust" were part of the official program of the 2006 and 2007 editions of the “UNESCO education for sustainable development week” promoted by the Italian National Committee under the Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. The project has been presented at various theaters and institutional premises including Stockholm Nobel Museum.

Riccardo Antonini has a longstanding experience (more than 20 years) as researcher and professor in the field human physiology and human factors in spaceflight where he worked with a background in electrical engineering and an orientation towards cybernetics. He has worked among others, with prof. Aristide Scano one of the pioneers of physiology and human factors studies in spaceflight. Riccardo Antonini begun his carreer as a reseracher in human physiology and human factors in the field of car race drivers “user experience” back in 1982 using original miniaturized telemetry systems (now a standard practice in F1 races) that himself also helped to design, studying the extreme conditions thereof. He worked then in human physiology and human factors at Sport Science Institute at Hewlett Packard Medical Division (now merged into Philips) and hence at Università di Roma “Tor Vergata” Electrical Engineering Departement at later on at the Space Biomedical Institute of the same university. He carried on research at the same time at DASRS (Aerospace Medical Research center of Italian Air Force). At DASRS, where he was active since 1984 and for more than ten years, among other research projects, he designed and supervised the building of an original electro-hydraulic active platform for space weightlessness simulation. He was also participating in the (European Space Agency) ESA-EXEMSI92 initiative (Experimental Campaign for the European Manned Space Infrastructure- EXEMSI'92 was a 60-day isolation and confinement experiment with an international crew) designing the electronics for the Italian experimental sets for doctor Luca Urbani (and prof. Felice Strollo). He was then called by ESA to participate as board member at the coordination of the technology transfer project “Promedus” (Promotion of Medical Uses of Space technology).

He has been professor of Artificial Intelligence at “Universidad Carlos III” Madrid, Spain And was a lecturer in “Fuzzy Logic” at Doctorate courses at “Universidad Complutense” Madrid, Spain. He was one of the organizers of ECAL 95 (European Conference on Artificial Life) Where he had there the honor to work with professor Francisco Varela among others.

He has been R&D (Research and Development) Manager of VAI (Industrial Video Applications) Aprilia, Rome, Italy. VAI dealt with a wide range of electronics from Optical memories (Optical Cards, CD Roms, for which it has been the second Italian mass production facility) to Entry level Cash registers (for which it has been the first Italian producer) to biometrics for security applications. He holds several patents ranging from “laser holographic cryptograpy” to “Inflatable Child Car Seat”. He is the author of two successful Italian Mixed Reality Shows and is presently authoring interactive TV shows for major international producers.

He has been also consultant of Cinecittà Studios’s LID (Italian Digital Laboratory for Movie production).

Riccardo Antonini has been member of the Board of Administration of "Promedus", a company of the European Space Agency dedicated to the "Promotion of Medical Use in Space". He holds a Degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Rome "La Sapienza".