University of Genoa - School of Engineering (D.I.S.T.) Department of Communication, Computer and System Sciences - DIST (Principal Contractor - Italy)     Contact person for the project: Prof Beltrame Francesco     The role of DIST in the Consortium is to offer both the technical expertise required for the integration of the different modules and the ergonomic expertize required for its clinical testing. More specifically, DIST will: - control the development of the devices and applications envisaged in VEPSY in order to achieve an ergonomic situation to convey different features of necessary support. - lead the engineering supervision on the design and testing of devices and applications in different user contexts of simple interfaces variations. - find an engineering solution on how to integrate the different modules in to a single coherent application package. DIST works on the frontiers of Information Engineering where, thanks to the integration among Information Technology, Control and Transmission Systems, multimedia environments, new methodologies are available and continuously growing. It is one of the most important and dynamic realities of the University of Genoa. DIST's Educational sectors are Automatics, Bio-engineering, Computer Science, Operative Research and Telecommunications. In these sectors, DIST participates in both international and national research projects, which are encouraged and financed by the European Union (UE), the Ministry of University, Scientific and Technological Research (MURST) and the National Research Council (CNR).   Application areas towards which DIST's research is addressed include both       information technologies and methodologies, as well as their use in different sectors of production and services, from industrial robotics to cultural and "free time" activities. At DIST, about 100 Master theses are discussed each year; in addition, DIST premises host 50 courses, educational laboratories (Automatic Controls, Computer Sciences, Real-Time Systems, Telecommunications) and tele-educational systems: as a result, it contributes to Masters in Biomedical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Business-Administration Engineering and Computer Science Engineering, as well as degrees in both Electronic Engineering and Logistics and Production-oriented Engineering. The Bio-Lab is a Bio-engineering laboratory. Its main research activities concern bio-image acquisition, processing and visualisation, in order to investigate the relations between structure and function in biological systems (images of cells in optical and confocal microscopy), for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes (images of the human body in Magnetic Resonance, Computerized X-ray Tomography, ultrasounds and other methods). A confocal laser-scanning optical microscope is one of BIO-LAB's "germs", together with a hardware-software environment and a virtual-reality platform, for user-bioimage interaction, with stereo vision and both head and hand-tracking devices. The laboratory is also involved in several projects funded by the European Commission (DG XIII/C4) projects related to the area of Health Care Telematics, with special reference to emergency telemedicine. Key researcher for the group is Prof. Francesco Beltrame, tenured associate professor of Bioengineering at DIST (Department of Communication, Computer and System Sciences) of the School of Engineering of the University of Genoa. He is a member of: IEEE, AEI, AIIMB. He has been a delegate/expert of the Italian Ministry of University and of Scientific and Technological Research (MURST) in the European Commission R&D Programme of DG XIII "Telematic Systems of General Interest" - Sector Health Care (AIM, Advanced Informatics in Medicine) during the IIIrd Framework Programme (1990-1993) of the European Union, and in the European Commission R&D Programme of DG XIII "Telematics Applications" - Sector Health Care and Sector Disabled and Elderly during the IVth Framework Programme (1994-1998) of the European Union; he has been a research proposal evaluator during the IIIrd and IV th Framework Programmes for DG XII and DG XIII (BIOMED, AIM and INFO2000 programmes); he has been a partner of R&D research projects in the programmes AIM, BIOMED, TIDE and TELEMATICS APPLICATIONS; he has participated at various Concerted Actions on Biomedical Engineering in the AIM and BIOMED programmes. He has experience as a consultant in the area of Biomedical Technologies of Italian (ESAOTE BIOMEDICA SpA) and foreign (Helwett & Packard Labs, Palo Alto, USA) companies and of centers for the validation of Biomedical Equipment (CIVAB/CRS-TBS, Trieste) and of various other SMEs; consultant of CNR (the National Research Council of Italy)) and of Liguria Region for Health Care Telematics ` (emergency "118" telematic network and transfusional blood centers telematic network). Since 1996, he is a delegate of MURST at the OECD for the Megascience Forum, Working Group on "Biological Informatics". He is the author of more than 120 scientific papers.