Claudia Arcidiacono

Full Professor of Rural buildings and agro-forest land planning [AGRI-04/C]

In 1993 graduated in Civil Engineering with full marks and honours at the University of Catania. Got the PhD in "Costruzioni agricole e assetto del territorio"in 1998. Researcher from 2002 to 2006 and Associate Professor from 1 december 2006 to 1 February 2018. She is Full Professor since 2 February 2018.

In the framework of the Eu project "Human Capital and Mobility (HCM)", participated to the joint publications program and to the mobility program spending a research period from March to May 1996 at the DLO-Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering (IMAG-DLO), Wageningen (The Netherlands).

Since 1994 is a member of A.I.I.A. (Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering) and Secretary of the Board from 2006 to 2009. Since January 2022 is President of the AIIA Second Technical Session.

Since 1993 has taken part to research projects of the MURST, CNR, POM, POP, UE, Sicilian Region, The Coca Cola Foundation, MISE, MIPAAF.

She has been coordinator of the European project ICT-Agri on  “CowBhave: a basic low-cost open-source automated monitoring system for discrimination of dairy cow behavioural activities” (COWBHAVE).

She has been Guest Editor of the 'Virtual Special Issue on sustainability issues of by-product and waste management systems to produce building material commodities' in Resources, Conservation and Recycling journal by Elsevier.At present, she is Guest Editor of the Special issue 'Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis of Resource Recovery from Waste Management Systems in the Context of Circular Models of the Economy and the Bioeconomy', in 'Resources' journal by MDPI, EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER of  AGRICULTURE by MDPI, and Review Editor on the Editorial Board of Quantitative Sustainability Assessment (specialty section of Frontiers in Sustainability).

Since 2001 has given the following courses at the University of Catania: Informatics, Analysis and planning of agri-forest systems, Techniques for topographic surveying and mapping, Materials and techniques for rural buildingsFarm buildings for tropical and subtropical agricultureRural buildings design, GIS and Remote Sensing, and Landscape planning.

Since 2010 has been Coordinator of the International Doctorate in “Ingegneria agraria” of the University of Catania, which she has highly contributed to organize, and internazionalize since 1998, has been component of the Teaching Board since 2008 and scientific tutor of doctorate students. Since October 2013 is component of the Board of the International Doctorate in "Agricultural, food and environmental Science" of the University of Catania.

From A.A. 2016/17 to 2019/20 has been President of the Master Degree Course on “Salvaguardia del Territorio, dell’ambiente e del Paesaggio” (classe LM75) of the University of Catania. 

Has been component of the group 'Gruppi di Esperti della Valutazione' (GEV) of the scientific area 07 for the evaluation of the quality of research (VQR) in 2015-2019.

Very good knowledge of written and spoken English; got the "Cambridge First Certificate in English" with full marks (grade A). Good knowledge of written and spoken French.

Good skills in programming, in knowledge and use of operating systems, graphics software, spreadsheets and word processors, computational software (Mathematica), CFD software (Fluent), LCA software (SimaPro), GIS and image processing software (ArcGis, QGis, Erdas Imagine, Feature Analyst).

Last edit: 05/10/2024

VIEW THE PUBLICATIONS
N.B. the number of publications can affect the loading time of the information
VIEW THE COURSES FROM THE A.Y. 2022/2023 TO THE PRESENT

Academic Year 2021/2022


Academic Year 2020/2021


Academic Year 2019/2020


Academic Year 2018/2019


Academic Year 2017/2018


Academic Year 2016/2017


Academic Year 2015/2016

Her research activity was related to the Buildings and Plants for protected cultivations, aiming to the optimization of the cultivation techniques and of the control of the microclimatic parameters inside the greenhouse, in dependence of the canopy demand, by using simulation models and performing field and laboratory experimental trials. Many of her scientific works, published in national and international proceedings and refereed scientific journals, and the doctoral thesis have focused on the analysis of the physical processes developing inside greenhouses (thermal exchanges, ventilation, etc.) in relation to the cultivation practises (soil solarization, seasonal cultivations).

Other research activity was focused on the following topics: agricultural buildings and related equipments and plants; conservation, rehabilitation and reuse of traditional rural buildings; buildings for agri-food industry; innovation in animal housing design and influence of housing environment on animal well-being and production using CFD.

Her recent work regarded the analysis of image recognition and feature extraction of crop shelter coverage as well as the automated localization of animals inside breeding environments to monitor their behaviour by using real-time monitoring systems based on image analysis on video recordings and RFID-based systems, and analysis of the emissions from livestock housing.

Reception and Counselling Mode for Students: by MS Teams, code vw7xs7x (please book by email)