Fabio Maggio is a senior researcher and Permanent Project Leader (PPL) of the Digital Technologies for Aerospace sector. His focus lies within digital agriculture and precision farming, which he explores through three foundational and interconnected ICT technologies: AI, big data, and robotics.
Data pertaining to agriculture reaches CRS4 through various channels. Agro-meteorological data is automatically delivered daily, thanks to our collaboration with Arpa Sardegna; additionally, images, time series, and other forms of information are sourced from agencies for agriculture of Regione Sardegna (Laore and Agris), as well as from end users who collaborate with us. Machine learning methods play a pivotal role in data analysis and processing, such as optimal interpolation of agro-meteorological data to obtain crop-scale information. Moreover, cutting-edge deep learning models enable us to automatically classify images for early detection of field emergencies, such as occurrences of phytopathologies, weed/pest infestations, and deficiencies in water and/or nutritional elements. With the aid of state-of-the-art edge devices, able to mitigate the necessity for cloud computing, and optimized AI techniques, real-time classification is now achievable. This opens the way to a new generation of smart rovers (unmanned ground vehicles, UGV) capable of continuous and quasi-autonomous operation. This interdisciplinary expertise forms the foundation of a structured initiative led by Fabio and his colleagues at CRS4.
Fabio also boasts decades of professional experience in numerical simulation (i.e., computer-based solutions for large-scale partial differential equations), high-performance computing (HPC) utilizing parallelism and general-purpose GPUs, and leading edge numerical methods (such as spectral elements and domain decomposition).
Between 2018 and 2023, Fabio delivered courses on "Numerical Simulation and HPC" and "Machine Learning" for the Master's Degree program in Mathematics at the University of Cagliari.