curriculum vitae - Università Campus Bio

CURRICULUM VITAE
Personal information
Name: Susanna
Family name: Summa
Date of birth: August 23rd, 1985
Place of birth: Rome, Italy
Mobile: +393296219447
Address: Viale Glorioso 16, 00153 Roma
CF: SMMSNN85M63H501M
E-mail address: [email protected]
Citizenship: Italian
Languages: Italian (Mother tongue), English (Oral/Written: Good)
Short presentation
Currently I’m a member of the Laboratory of Biomedical Robotics &
Biomicrosystems, at the Campus Bio-Medico University under the supervision of
Domenico Formica and Eugenio Guglielmelli. Previously I was a member of the
NeuroEngineering and NeuroRobotics Lab (Neurolab) of University of Genova
(Unige), under the supervision of Vittorio Sanguineti and Maura Casadio. My main
research areas are neural control of movements, motor learning in normal and
pathologic conditions, neuro-motor recovery through robotic technologies and natural
interfaces in persons with neurological disorders (stroke, multiple sclerosis,
Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, ASD).
My research interests are focused on neuroscience, specifically related to
computational motor control. In particular I am studying control mechanisms in
rehabilitation. My PhD project specifically focused on understanding the recovery
mechanisms underlying the symptoms of individuals affected by Parkinson’s disease
(PD) and stroke survivors. My main aim is to develop low cost technologies and
principled rehabilitation techniques that PD subjects and stroke survivors can use
daily in their home environment.
Present Position
1. November 2015 – ongoing Research fellowship (Assegnista di Ricerca art. 22,
Legge 30.12.2010, n. 240) at the Laboratory of Biomedical Robotics &
Biomicrosystems, at the Campus Bio-Medico University. Project title: “Daily athome follow-up of Parkinson’s Disease patients motor performance through
robotic and portable devices”
Previous Position and Research experience
1. January – December 2015 Research fellowship (Assegnista di Ricerca art. 22,
Legge 30.12.2010, n. 240) at Dept. Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and
Systems (DIBRIS), Unige. Project title: “Development of a device for measuring
orofacial movements for rehabilitation purposes”
2. January 2012 – December 2014 PhD program in Bioengineering, University of
Genova (ISCED 1997 levels 6 - Second stage of tertiary education). Thesis
title: “Control of speed, accuracy and effort on motor adaptation and motor skill
learning”. Advisor: Prof. Vittorio Sanguineti
3. November – December 2013 Internship at the Robotic Laboratory of the
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago (USA). Project: integration of a
Body Machine Interface with a Natural User Interface. Host Professor:
Ferdinando Mussa-Ivaldi
4. May – November 2013 Contract work (incarico di collaborazione di lavoro
autonomo di tipo occasionale/professionale) with University of Genova on the
following research project title: “Software development of a virtual reality Kinect
based for the rehabilitation of Hemispatial Neglect patients”.
5. May – November 2012 Contract work (incarico di collaborazione di lavoro
autonomo di tipo occasionale/professionale) with University of Genova on the
following research project title: “Realization of a software interface for the data
analysis collected by the Kinect device and implementation of applications for
clinical use".
Education
1. 2012 Passed certification examination for the Italian Board of Professional
Engineers.
2. September 2009 - October 2011 MSc in Bioengineering (LM-21). Final grade
109/110 University of Genova. Thesis title: “Natural User Interface (Kinect™) to
rehab bradykinesia in Parkinson’s disease”. Advisor: Prof. Vittorio Sanguineti
3. September 2004 - May 2009 BSc in Biomedical Engineering (L09). Final grade
101/110 Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma. Thesis title: “Bidimensional
kinematic analisys: Gait cycle identification”. Advisor: Prof. Giulio Iannello
Scholarships
1. 2003-2005 PhD research scholarship for PhD program in Bioengineering,
Doctoral School in Sciences and Technologies for Information and Knowledge
University of Genova
Publications
Journals
1. Summa, S., M. Casadio and V. Sanguineti (2016). "Effect of Position- and
Velocity-Dependent Forces on Reaching Movements at Different Speeds."
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 10(609).
2. Summa S., Basteris A, Betti E, Sanguineti V (2015). “Adaptive training with
full-body movements to reduce bradykinesia in persons with Parkinson’s
disease: a pilot study.” Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation, 12,
16, ISSN: 1743-0003, doi: 10.1186/s12984-015-0009-5
3. Saiano M, Pellegrino L, Casadio M, Summa S, Garbarino E, Rossi V,
Dall’Agata D, Sanguineti V (2015). “Natural interfaces and virtual
environments for the acquisition of street crossing and path following skills in
adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders: a feasibility study.” Journal of
Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation, 12, 17, ISSN: 1743-0003, doi:
10.1186/s12984-015-0010-z
4. Maura Casadio, Irene Tamagnone, Summa S., Vittorio Sanguineti (2013).
“Neuromotor recovery from stroke: computational models at central,
functional, and muscle synergy level.” Frontiers in Computational
Neuroscience, 7, 97, ISSN: 1662-5188, doi: 10.3389/fncom.2013.0009
Book chapters
1. Koutsou A, Summa S, Nasser B, Martinez J, and Thangaramanujam M. (2014).
“Upper Limb Neuroprostheses: Recent Advances and Future Directions.”In J.L.
Pons and D. Torricelli (Eds.), Emerging Therapies in Neurorehabilitation (Vol.
4, pp. 207-233): Springer Berlin Heidelberg
International conferences proceedings (Full papers – Peer Reviewed)
1. Summa S, Tamagnone I, Asprea G, Capurro C, Sanguineti V, “Modulation of
Motor Performance by a Monetary Incentive: A Pilot Study”. 37th Annual
International Conference of the IEEE in Engineering in Medicine and Biology
Society (EMBC), 2015. Milan, August 25th-29th. (Accepted Oral Presentation)
2. Summa S, Pierella C, Giannoni P, Sciacchitano A, Iacovelli S,
Farshchiansadegh A, Mussa-Ivaldi F A, Casadio M, “A body-machine interface
for training selective pelvis movements in stroke survivors: a pilot study.” 37th
Annual International Conference of the IEEE in Engineering in Medicine and
Biology Society (EMBC), 2015. Milan, August 25th-29th. (Accepted Poster)
3. Pellegrino L, Saiano M, Casadio M, Summa S, Garbarino E, Sanguineti V,
"Natural Interface for training and measuring social skills in adults with autism
spectrum disorders", 5th International Symposium on Measurement, Analysis
and Modelling of Human Functions, 27-29 June, 2013, Vancouver, CANADA.
(Oral Presentation)
4. Summa S, Palmieri G, Basteris A and Sanguineti V, “Concurrent adaptation to
force fields and visual rotations”, Proceedings of the 4th IEEE RAS/EMBS
International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, Rome
June 24-27 2012. (Oral Presentation)
Conference proceedings (selected abstract)
1. Summa S, Basteris A, Betti E, Sanguineti V, “Esercizio interattivo per la
riabilitazione della bradicinesia in persone con la malattia di Parkinson”, XIV
Congresso Nazionale della Societá Italiana di Riabilitazione Neurologica
(SIRN), 8-10 May 2014, Genova, Italy (Oral Presentation)
2. Summa S and Sanguineti V, “Reinforcement learning, action selection and
movement vigor” GNB2014, June 25th-27th 2014, Pavia, Italy. (Poster)
3. Summa S, Casadio M, Sanguineti V, “Effect of assistive forces on speedaccuracy trade-off in reaching movements: Model and experiments.” SFN
Conference Neuroscience 2013, San Diego (USA) 9-13 November 2013
(Poster)
4. Saiano M, Pellegrino L, Summa S, Casadio M, Garbarino E, Rossi V,
Sanguineti V, Dall’Agata D, “Riabilitazione neuro-cognitiva di adulti con disturbi
dello spettro autistico basata su interfacce naturali”, XIII Congresso Nazionale
della Societá Italiana di Riabilitazione Neurologica (SIRN), 18- 20 April 2013,
Bari, Italy (Poster)
5. Summa S, Basteris A, Betti E, Sanguineti V, “A feasibility study on using Kinect
for rehabilitation in persons with Parkinson’s disease”, XIII Congresso SIAMOC
2012 Bellaria, 3-6 Ottobre 2012. (Oral Presentation)
Participation in research projects
1. 2009-2011 HUman behavioral Modeling for enhancing learning by Optimizing
hUman-Robot interaction (FP7-ICT-231724 HUMOUR). EU,7th Framework
Program. PI: Sanguineti V.; Role: Collaborator
2. July 2013-present REcovery of Motor functions After stroKE: exploiting and
enhancing residual abilities of the upper body beyond compensatory strategies
(REMAKE). FP7-PEOPLE-2012- CIG-334201 (Career Integration Grant). PI:
Casadio M.; Role: Collaborator
3. 2014-2015 Body machine interfaces for neuromotor rehabilitation and healthy
aging, Joint Declaration on Scientific and Technological Cooperation between
Italy and the United States of America, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. PI:
Casadio M.; Role: Collaborator
4. 2014-2015 Body-Machine Interfaces based on muscle synergies for adaptive
and personalized neuro-motor rehabilitation of persons with Multiple Sclerosis,
FISM - Italian Foundation Multiple Sclerosis - Cod. 2013/R/5. PI: Casadio M.;
Role: Collaborator
5. 2011-2013 A new generation of personal interactive technologies to support
motor skill learning and neuro-rehabilitation, Italian Ministry of Education,
University and Research. Research Programs of National Interest (PRIN). Call
2009. PI: Sanguineti V.; Role: Collaborator
Technology transfer
I strongly believe in the importance of translating my research into the clinical
practice and transfer the related knowledge to the industry. The following
experiences demonstrates the importance of that dedication:
1. I developed and validated the rehabilitative exercise software for the planar
robot Braccio di Ferro Physioassistant, Celin srl, Follo (SP) – Itay company.The
exercises are used in the center for clinical research / rehabilitation Fondazione
Don Gnocchi I.R.C.C.S. Santa Maria Nascente (Milan).
2. I contributed alongside Dr. Mario Saiano to the design and the validation of a
Natural Interface (NI) for rehabilitation of cognitive pathologies. The NI is now
used at Department Primary Care, ASL3 Genovese.
3. I contributed to the development, design and experimental validation of a Body
Machine Interface for the core stability training of stroke survivors. The system
is used by the Robotic Rehabilitative Center, Hospital Santa Corona di Pietra
Ligure ASL2 Savonese (Dr. G. Checchia).
4. I developed, designed and validated a NI for neuro-motor rehabilitation of
Parkinson’s disease now used at the Functional Recovery and Rehabilitation
Service, Hospital La Colletta Arenzano (Genova).
Training courses
- Jan 28-31/2014 [COST] Action TD1006 Winter School on Computational Methods
for Neurorehabilitation (Hotel Schütz, Obertauern, Austria)
- Nov 8/2013 Translational and Computational Motor Control (San Diego, California)
- Aug 4-18/2013 Summer School in Computational Sensory-Motor Neuroscience
(Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
- Jun 26/2012 Theoretical models of Motor Recovery COST Action-European
network on Robotics for Neurorehabilitation (Rome, Italy)
- Sept 16-21/2012 Summer School on Neurorehabilitation (Monasterio de Piedra,
Spain)
- Jun 3-13 2014 Advanced EEG analysis Prof: Claudio Campus and Alberto Ianuggi
(Italian Institute of Technologies - Genova, Italiy)
- Sept 22-25 2014 La Bioingegneria: dal recupero funzionale all’organo artificiale.
XXXIII Scuola annuale GNB. Prof: C. Cobelli (Bressanone, Italy)
- Jun 10-14 2013 C++ Programming Techniques Prof: Fabio Solari and Manuela
Chessa. (University of Genova DIBRIS – Genova, Italy)
- Jun 3-7/2013 Regularization Methods for High Dimensional Learning (University of
Genova DIBRIS – Genova, Italy)
- July 2-23 2012 Ingegneria del Software Prof: Massimo Narizzano. (University of
Genova DIBRIS – Genova, Italy)
- March 12-19 2012 Public Speaking Prof: Giovanna Morgavi. (University of Genova
DIBRIS – Genova, Italy)
Social skills and competences
- Good ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team
- Able to manage situations of heavy workload, respecting priorities and deadlines
- Ability to work with people with neuro-motor disabilities, such as Parkinson’s
disease, stroke and autism
Technical skills
- OS: Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS X
- Excellent knowledge of Modelling and simulation using Matlab and Simulink
- Programming: Matlab (advanced), C, C++ (advanced), Python (advanced),
Statistica (basic), R (good)
- Excellent skills in H3DAPI, a library for virtual reality (developed Microsoft Kinect
support for H3DAPI)
- Excellent skills in OpenCV, OpenNI, Kinect SDK
- Excellent knowledge of Latex
- Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
Supervision of students for master’s degree thesis and final test of the
bachelor degree
Master of Science in Bioengineering:
December 2014: Selene Iacovelli
Bachelor degree in Biomedical Engineering:
March 2015: Giulia Asprea
September 2014: Alessio Schiacchitano
December 2013: Giovanni Brazzini, Margherita Barilari
October 2013: Amel Cherif, Maddalena Mugnosso
March 2012: Ludovica Gonella
December 2011: Giovanni Palmieri
In progress: Clelia Capurro