SMARTEC TEAM

Nicoletta CASANOVA (Civil Eng. ETHZ)
Chief Executive Officer

Eng. Nicoletta Casanova received her degree in Civil Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) in 1994. From 1994 to 1999 she was active as Technical Director at the Laboratory for material testing Istituto Meccanica dei Materiali SA (Grancia, Switzerland) and from 1994 to 1996 also as scientific co-worker at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne for the development of a fibre optic deformation sensing system for civil engineering structural monitoring. Since 1996 she is cofounder, director and president of SMARTEC SA. From 2000 to 2003 she was also director of the Laboratory Istituto Meccanica dei Materiali SA.

Daniele INAUDI (Ph.D. Phys., MBA)
Chief Technology Officer Roctest Group

Dr. Daniele Inaudi received a degree in physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) where his graduation work was prized with the ETHZ medal. In 1997 he obtained his Ph.D. in civil engineering at the Laboratory of Stress Analysis (IMAC) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne for his work on the development of a fiber optic deformation sensing system for civil engineering structural monitoring. In 2005 he received a Master in Business Administration form the University of Southern Switzerland.
Daniele Inaudi is co-founder and CTO of SMARTEC SA and CTO of Roctest.
He is fellow and member of the executive committee of ISHMII and is an active member of IABMAS, OSA, SPIE, IABSE and fib. Daniele Inaudi is author of more than 200 papers, five book chapters, a book on "Fiber Optic Methods for Structural Health Monitoring" and editor of a book on Optical Nondestructive Testing.

Roberto WALDER
Sales Manager, Application Line Manager Oil&Gas and Buildings

Roberto Walder attended the School of Business and Administration in Bellinzona, Switzerland and obtained his diploma in 1982. After the education he developed business and marketing skills in international context working several years for multinational companies. He worked altogether 7 years for Brother International Ltd., a Japanese company manufacturer of computer peripherals and communication products. After 4 years spent as Export Manager with Brother Handels AG in Switzerland, he moved to Italy where he took part in the set-up of the newborn Brother Italia S.p.A. for the first 3 years of introduction on the Italian market. In 1993 he joined the company Roadstar SA, a consumer electronics and telecommunication products manufacturer based in Switzerland. He worked for 6 years as Area Sales Manager and contributed to the development of new markets mainly in central and northern Europe. In 1992/1993 he attended the School of Marketing and Sales Management in Switzerland enhancing his knowledge in marketing and communication. Since January 2000 Roberto Walder has been working as Sales Manager at SMARTEC SA.

Luca MANETTI (Geomatic Eng. ETHZ)
Solution and Services Manager

Eng. Luca Manetti took his degree in Rural Engineering and Geodesy at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich in 1997. In 1999 joined the University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), leading the Navigation - Telemetry and Orientation group at the school's Computer Integrated Manufacturing Institute (ICIMSI), supervising students and directing industry-sponsored research and development programs. In 2001 co-founded the company GEODEV Earth Technologies, as a spin-off of a research project. Luca specialized in navigation applications, precise positioning with GPS and Geographic Information Systems and brings a deep knowledge in surveying and land management activities, as well as a qualified experience in leading projects and R&D teams. Since May 2008 Luca Manetti has been working at SMARTEC SA as Solutions&Services Manager.

Michele CISLINI
Production Manager

Stefano PEDRAZZI
Administration Manager

Stefano Pedrazzi became the Administration Manager at SMARTEC in 2007 and enjoys the healthy challenges the role demands. He has a varied background in administration and management with over 10 years’ experience in small and medium-sized business in Switzerland. He received his degree in Accountancy at the Business and Administration School in Lugano, Switzerland in 1997. Travel is a strong feature in his life, traveling widely after high school for 2 years for language learning purposes and leading him to Australia and Asia. He began his career in 1999 in Allied Steel Sa, a start-up company operating into international trading in steel company based in Lugano where he developed from Accounting assistant to Accountant. In 2004 he moved to Interroll AG, a manufacturing company of rollers, components, drives and modules for material handling, storage and automation, based in St. Antonino (Switzerland), where he worked with responsibility appointments in the Administration Department, until he joined SMARTEC.

Angelo FIGINI (Civil Eng.)
Application Line Manager Bridges and Ships

Eng. Angelo Figini received in 1997 his Master Degree in Civil Engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan (IT). His thesis degree was focused on the experimental study and certification of ISAC 5000 (Intelligent System for Automatic Collimation), an automatic device for structural monitoring, installed and tested on a dam in Sardinia and developed by ENEL (Italian national company for electrical power supply). After military service as Engineer Officer in the Italian Navy, he began his career as consultant in technical engineering and in the commercial field for a multinational Swiss company. Since 2002 he is employed in SMARTEC as Area Manager mainly for the Italian market, and recently he became Application Line Manager, chiefly for structural monitoring of transport infrastructures and ships. In January 2008 he received an E-MBA (Executive Master of Business Administration) at the Supsi University in Lugano (CH).

Ivan COTTONE (Mech. Eng.)
Application Line Manager Dams and Geotechnical

Eng. Ivan Cottone studied at the Polytechnic of Milan (Italy) where he obtained in December 1999 his degree in mechanical engineering. After one year of mandatory military service, from 2001 to 2005 he was active as a project manager at a mayor international IT company. He was responsible for servers' software compliance for Italian key accounts within an international project. From 2005 to 2008 he worked as proposal and sales manager at an Italian consulting and service company specializing in the measurement and control of dams and other geotechnical structures. During this working experience he also developed a wide knowledge on traditional instrumentation and the capability to design monitoring networks for applications in the geotechnical and civil fields. He was co-author of several papers on dam engineering and monitoring. Since May 2008 Ivan Cottone has been working as Geotechnical Application Line Manager at SMARTEC SA.

Esmeralda MATTEI
Application Line Manger Research

After following Classical and Humanistic studies, Dr. Esmeralda Mattei graduated with a degree in Literature and Philosophy, specializing in Fine Arts with the thesis on the Eiffel Tower and its reflects on the Contemporary Collective Imagery. She worked from 1985 to 1991 as Commercial Manager in an Italian Company that marketed monitoring solutions for clinical health care in cardiovascular and vascular surgery and from 1992 to 1998 in a Theatre in Genoa as PR, Image Curator and Marketing Manager, with the responsibility of managing the relationships with the press, the schools and Universities and the main local Institutions. In Switzerland since 1999, she worked at first in the Research and Development and after in the Commercial Department of a Multinational Swiss Company that creates and produces innovative and highly performance delivery devices for the pharmaceutical market. Since 2006 she has been working at SMARTEC in the Commercial Department, where she is specializing in taking care of an Academic and Research Network of partners.

Elena RUFFATO
Customer Service

Daniele POSENATO (Ph.D. IT Eng.)
IT Engineer & Project Engineer

Eng. Daniele Posenato took his degree in Computer Science Engineering, specializing in Robotics and Industry Automation Systems at the Politecnico of Milan, Italy, in 1999. From 1998 to 1999 he was active at the Joint Research Centre at Ispra in developing neural controllers for autonomous robots. From 1999 to 2000 he worked for the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission as a researcher, developing dynamic database servers on Internet. Since 2001 Daniele Posenato has been working as IT engineer and project manager at SMARTEC SA. In 2009 he obtained a Ph.D. from the Swiss federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne for his work on the development of data analysis algorithms for long-term monitoring data.

Riccardo BELLI (Telecom. Eng.)
Project Engineer

Eng. Riccardo Belli received his Laurea Degree in Telecommunication engineering at Politecnico di Milano in 2005. His graduation work, "OPTICAL FIBER SENSOR FOR DISTRIBUTED MEASUREMENTS OF TEMPEARTURE BASED ON RAMAN EFFECT", focused on the feasibility of an optical sensor for distributed monitoring of temperature and was carried out at the Photonic Lab of Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione D.E.I. . From 2005 to 2007 he worked as researcher for Politecnico di Milano in the Photonic Lab of D.E.I., his research efforts were mainly focused on the development of distributed sensing systems and interferometric sensors. In 2007 Riccardo Belli joined SMARTEC team as project engineer.

Pascale FAVEZ (Civ. Eng.)
Project Engineer

Eng. Pascale Favez took her degree in Civil Engineering, specializing in Structures Mechanics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, in 2007. Her thesis degree was focused on the experimental study of structural behavior of heritage buildings under earthquakes loads.
From 2007 to 2008 she worked as site manager on building sites for a French multinational contractor company.
In 2009 Pascale Favez joined SMARTEC team as project engineer.

Samuel VURPILLOT (Ph.D. Civ. Eng.)
Project Engineer

Dr. Samuel Vurpillot received a degree in Civil Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. In 1999 he obtained his Ph.D. at the laboratory of Stress Analysis (IMAC) of the EPFL on the development of automatic analysis of deformation measurement for structure. Since 2000 he is active as director at the Laboratory of Soil Measurement and In Situ testing of the De Cérenville Géotechnique SA Company in Lausanne. His area of interest is the application of sensors in the field of civil engineering smart structures. Since 1997, he is Lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, in the civil engineering departement. He is teaching Structural Mechanic. He is currently working as Project Engineer for SMARTEC.

Piero DOMINIONI (IT Eng.)
Field Engineer

Dipl. Eng. Piero Dominioni received his Diploma in Software engineering at Politecnico of Milan - branch of Como in 2003. From 2001 to 2007 he was active as software and electronic technician at R.S.R. s.r.l., based in Bulgarograsso (Italy), in the field of electronic industrial applications. From 2007 to 2009 at FIAM S.r.l. - ISEO Holding (Italy) he operated as product technician for electronic products, customer service and software development in the field of locks and security systems for private and business users. He brings his knowledge in the electronic field and various skills related to his interest in problem solving for electronic and mechanical parts. In 2009 Piero Dominioni joined SMARTEC team as field engineer.

Antonio BARLETTA
CAD / CAM

Marco BOSSI
Production

Fabio ZANINI
Production