Dr Francesco Pilla is a Funded Investigator with CONNECT at University College Dublin.

His area of expertise is geospatial analysis and modelling of environmental dynamics, which involve the development of environmental pollution models (air, noise, water) and decision support tools using a GIS platform, in order to facilitate the interoperability of input data and research outcomes between the client/final user and the research team.

His work focuses on understanding complex environmental phenomena in order to preempt the impacts resulting from interactions between the human population and the environment.

His approach integrates models for environmental pollution with a GIS platform: this is used to assess and predict impacts from built-environment interventions which have the potential to provide population-wide effects.

He uses a range of pervasive and community sensing applications as a means of calibration and validation of GIS models and decision support tools. He is currently exploring the use of these GIS based tools as a way to integrate co-design (as part of Living Labs) in urban planning and pervasive sensing (static and mobile as part of citizen science initiatives) to improve city life from an environmental pollution perspective.

This will be explored as part of the work planned in iSCAPE, the H2020-SC5 project of which he is coordinator.

Francesco is also currently working on several Irish Environmental Protection Agency funded projects which involve the creation of GIS tools to analyse and model environmental phenomena. He acquired considerable experience in networks of environmental sensors for urban environmental monitoring during his collaborations with two different research laboratories in MIT as part of a Fulbright/EPA TechImpact award (2015) and his PhD (2011) research work.