Membro della Giunta delCURRICULUM VITAE of Mauro Ursino
ACTUAL POSITION:
Full Professor at the Department of Electric, Electronic, and Information Engineering, scientific group ING-INF/06 (Electronics and Informatics Biomedical Engineering).
ACADEMIC DEGREES:
• Master in Electronic Engineering, Bologna University, 1983
• Ph. D. in Biomedical Engineering, Bologna University, 1987.
AWARD
Marotta Award from the Italian Academy of Sciences for the year 1989.
APPOINTMENTS:
• 1987-1991 - Post-doctoral Fellow, Università di Bologna.
• November 1991-February 1992 - Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Siena
• May 1992- February 1994 – Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Ancona
• March 1994-October 1998 - Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Bologna
• November 1998 – October 2001 – Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of Bologna
• November 2001 – October 2004 – Full Professor (under confirmation) of Biomedical Engineering, University of Bologna
• November 2004 – Full Professor (confirmed), of Biomedical Engineering, University of Bologna.
ACADEMIC TEACHING
Master Degree Course in Electronic Engineering, University of Bologna
1996 - 2002 Biomedical signal and data processing
2003 - 2005 Natural and artificial intelligent systems
Bachelor Degree in Biomedical Engineering, University of Bologna in Cesena
1998 – 2001 Biomedical signal and data processing
Master Degree Course in Biomedical Engineering, University of Bologna
2001 – 2013 Biomedical signal and data processing
2003 – 2011 Natural and artificial intelligent systems
2012 – today Neural Systems
2014 – today Biological Systems modelling
Ph. D Course in Biomedical Engineering, University of Bologna
1998 – 2016 Tutor of several Ph.D. students
2002 – 2016 Member of the Ph. D. Council
Ph. D. Course in Biomedical, Electrical and Systems Engineering (IBES)
2015 – Member of the Ph. D. Council
Course at Collegio Superiore University of Bologna
2017 Distributed memory in Neural Networks
2022 Distributed memory in Neural Networks
MANAGEMENT ACTIVITY
2000 - 2006 Member of the Directory Board of the Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informatica e Sistemistica, Università di Bologna
2006 – 2012 President of the Courses in Biomedical Engineering at the II Engineering Faculty of the Bologna University
2012 - 2018 Membro of the Directory Board of the Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Energia Elettrica e dell'Informazione "Guglielmo Marconi"
2013-2014 Member of the Committee of the Bologna University for Research evaluation, area 09 “Industrial Engineering.
2012-2014 Member of the National Committee for the National Scientific Habilitation procedure (ASN), appointed by the Ministry of Education.
2018 - 2021 Coordinator of the Degree Courses in Biomedical Engineering, DEI, University of Bologna, Cesena Campus
2021 - 2024 Member of the Directory Board of the Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Energia Elettrica e dell'Informazione "Guglielmo Marconi"
RESEARCH ACTIVITY
His research activity is especially focused on mathematical modeling and computer simulation of complex physiological systems. This research activity is presently subdivided into two main fields:
Modeling of cardiovascular regulation – i) He realized several original studies on mechanisms controlling local blood flow to tissues, with special emphasis on the cerebral circulation and intracranial pressure dynamics. These models have been applied for the analysis of patients in neurosurgical Intensive Care Units. A recent version of the model incorporates the complex anastomoses characterizing cerebral venous return to the heart. ii) He developed models of cardio-respiratory regulation in the short time, able to summarize the complex integration among the various mechanisms operating in response to various acute hemodynamic perturbations (haemorrhage, alterations in blood gas content, dynamical exercise). Other models are focused on the integration between cardiovascular dynamics, and solute kinetics during hemodialysis, and are currently used in some advanced Nephrology Units in Italy.
ii) Modeling of neurosensory integration and cognitive processes –
i) He realized some mathematical models of the primary visual cortex, and models describing the integration among different sensory modalities (auditory, visual and tactile). The aim is to reach a deeper theoretical understanding of the neural mechanisms involved in multisensory integration, and devise a possible use in the clinical practice, to improve cognitive deficits. In particular, these models can explain some typical illusory phenomena occurring during audio-visual interactions (such as the Ventriloquism and the fission effects), the maturation of multisensory capacities during the first weeks after birth, and the modification in the visuo-tactile peripersonal space induced by a tool use.
ii) Other models of neural populations have been used to estimate functional connectivity among different brain regions during simple cognitive or motor tasks, and to formulate hypotheses on the role of oscillations in brain electrical activity. These models allow a quantitative simulation of many different oscillatory phenomena (in the alpha, beta, gamma and delta frequency ranges) in different cortical areas and their reciprocal interactions during sleepiness or wakefulness. Models of oscillating neural populations are also used to analyse the behaviour of place cells in the hippocampus during navigation tasks.
iii) Further model investigates the neural mechanisms involved in semantic memory, i.e., how object semantics can be created starting from a recurring presentation of their elementary features. The model allows the formulation of hypotheses on the organisation of the semantic memory in the brain and on its the relationship with language.
iv) A recent biologically inspired neural network model simulates action choice and reinforcement learning in the basal ganglia. The model can be used to assess bradykinesia in Parkinsonian subjects, as a consequence of dopamine depletion, and to investigate the optimal strategy for levodopa treatment.
His scientific production presently includes about 346 publications (among them, 169 papers on peer reviewed international journals and 25 on international books).
v) Recent studies integrate methods of estimating brain connectivity with advanced techniques of electroencephalogram processing, to obtain information on brain connectivity alterations in various neurological pathologies (autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, epilepsy).
His scientific production currently includes about 384 works, of which 205 in international journals and 25 in international books.
PUBLICATION STATISTICS (Scopus December 1st 2024)
h-index42
i10-index [number of publications with at least 10 citations] 143
Total number of citations 6269
Number of documents: 283
RESEARCH GRANTS
• Responsible of the Bologna Research Unit in the MIUR Grant “Diagnostic and prosthetic cardiovascular systems” (year 1996, national responsible Prof. Fumero)
• Co-operator in several MIUR/PRIN grants during the years 1998-2004
• National responsible of the FIRB project: “Cardiovascular regulation modelling: from physiological knowledge to clinical application”, November 2002-November 2005
• National responsible of the PRIN 2005 Grant during the years 2006-2007: “Estimation of brain functional connectivity with advanced methodological procedures” (specific title of the Bologna Unit: “Computer simulation of cortical EEG and of brain functional connectivity by means of neural mathematical models”)
• National responsible of the PRIN 2008 Grant during the years 2008-2009: “Advanced methods for the study of neural learning during simple visuo-motor tasks” (specific title of the Bologna Unit: “Development of Neural Networks for the study of visuo-motor learning”)
• Responsible of the Bologna Engineering Research Unit in the Ministery of Environment Grant during the years 2011-2013: “Excessive daily sleepiness and road accidents: specific risk in the transport of waste and hazardous toxic materials of significant environmental impact”
• Responsible of several local projects of the Bologna University (ex 60%) during the years 1998-2024.
• Founding member of the MNESYS project, PE12 within the PNRR. Responsible for Work-package 4 in spoke 6 on the topic "Neural network models and technologies to better understand perception, movement and brain-body interaction and to impact on society". (2022-2025)
• Partecipant to the project PRIN 2022 "The effect of emotions on associative memory in Parkinson's disease: from behavioral to computational approach." (2023-2025)
PARTICIPATION TO THE EDITORIAL BOARDS OF INTERNATIONAL JOURNALS
• Action Editor of the Journal Neural Networks for the field “Computational Neuroscience” (2012-2015)
• Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering (2009-2014)
• Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal: Medical Engineering and Physics
• Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Integrative Neuroscience
• Guest Editor of a special issue of the journal Medical Engineering and Physics, devoted to “Cerebrovascular modeling”, 2003.
• Guest editor of a special issue, and Associate Editor of the journal "Brain Sciences" (2020 - present)
ORGANIZATION AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES
Organizer and Chairman of the Conference: Biomedicine 2005, Sixth International Conference on Modelling in Medicine and Biology Bologna, 7-9 September 2005.
Organizer of a Special sessions in the 33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBS, Boston, USA, Aug 30 – Sep 3, 2011
Organizer of a special session in the 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Milano, Italy, August 25-29, 2015
Organizer of a special session in the IEEE 2nd International Forum on Research and Technologies for Society and Industry Leveraging a better tomorrow (RTSI), Bologna, Italy, September 7-9, 2016.
REVIEWER OF INTERNATIONAL JOURNALS
Reviewer for the following journals during the last years:
• Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing,
• Medical Engineering & Physics,
• Journal of Integrative Neuroscience
• Annals of Biomedical Engineering
• American Journal of Physiology Heart and Circulation Physiology
• Mathematical Biosciences
• Physiological Measurement
• IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
• Clinical Neurophysiology
• Journal of Theoretical Medicine
• Journal of Mathematical Biology
• Neuroimage
• IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks
• Brain Research
• Plos one
• Neurocomputing
• Journal of Applied Physiology
• Neural Networks
• Trends in Cognitive Science
• IEEE Transaction on Neural Networks
• Nature Communications
• PNAS
Reviewer for the Editorial Company SIAM, on the book “Cardiovascular and respiratory systems: modeling, control and analysis”, by Franz Kappel et al.
Reviewer for projects submitted to the National Science Foundation, USA.
PATENTS
Patent on the subject: "Haemodialysis device" (n. BO2003A00660). Year 2003. University of Bologna. Applicants: Prof. M. Ursino, Prof. S. Stefoni.
