Emanuele, 22, talks about his passion for research born in a fab lab.
“Many thanks to all the people at the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, whom, more than anyone else except for my parents, influence my academic career since I was a child and introduced me to the world of robotics. Thanks to them, I participated in my first competitions, workshops, and hackathons – and then, they offered me my first job. And obviously introduced me to the Fab Lab and all the people that came to it and still do. Over the years, they have become a true second family. Thanks to Vladimiro and Titty, Emanuele Alfano, Mohamed, Daniele, Davide, and the entire Belli family, from whom I have and continue to learn so much day after day.”
It is particularly exciting to see makers like Emanuele Coletta grow up. And he is more than a talent for FMD. As he wrote in his thesis, he is part of a family! And that is why we wish to celebrate his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and automation received from Sapienza University with a perfect score of 110. The title of his thesis is: “Controlling a Mobile Robot in Case of Sensory Overload”
The thesis was presented on October 18 and the degree issues on October 26, at the presence of Valentina Gelsomini, our technical infrastructure manager who has known him since he was a kid. Emanuele is happy to speak about how he started out and how his collaboration with FMD began. It’s the story of a dream that is inextricably linked to our vision of the future: “Today, I am 22. I first came into contact with FMD at 10. The opportunity was provided by one of the first lab experiences held in the gym of my primary school, the Istituto Comprensivo Salvo D’Acquisto. Then, I began participating in initiativfes organised by FMD in collaboration with ITIS Galilei, the secondary school I attended and that participated in the first editions of RomeCup and RoboCup. My team won the RoboCup Soccer Light Weight category from 2009 to 2021. I was also in the second SPQR2 Team that came in first at RomeCup 2019, in the final competition against SPQR1, marking ten years of consecutive victories for the Galilei School. We also won the Best Robot Design at RoboCup Worldwide 2019, RoboCup Junior Italia in 2021, and RoboCup junior Worldwide (both of the latter were held on-line during the pandemic).”
Emanuele holds various records. “In 2016, at 14, I was the youngest digital ambassador for Project Make Learn Share Europe conceived to promote an exchange of information and knowledge amongst young students in Europe.”
“However, my experience in the Innovation Gym Fab Lab was fundamental, both in terms of human relations and projects. Friends, ideas, and important relations arose from the afternoons spend in those labs at the Educational City on Via del Quadraro. Today, I work as a coach for FMD and, just like it happened to me, I teach robotics, coding, and digital manufacturing to children and adolescents. And it’s also great fun to collaborate on the RomeCup, both in the organisation and as a referee for the Soccer Light Weight and Open categories.”
For the future? “I’m going to keep on studying to get a master’s degree in control engineering at Sapienza. My passion is to resolve complex problems, and I have given a lot of thought to working as a researcher. In general, I would like to work on projects that help people, and I have chosen to take a course on medical robots. Thanks to FMD, I have discovered that I like to work with students.”
The interview was conducted by Onelia Onorati, Press Officer for the Fondazione Mondo Digitale.
