History of WebValley

In 2023 the team of about 20 students, supported by FBK researchers and other tutors of international level will delve into a project of AI for a widely distributed air quality assessment, exploring possible relation patterns between the pollutant agents distribution detected by diverse sensors based on different technologies, in collaboration with FBK centers Sensors and Devices (Research Unit Micro Nano Facility) and Digital Health & Wellbeing (Research Unit Data Science for Health).

The WebValley 2022 Team was involved in the development, implementation and validation of AI algorithms aimed at the monitoring of pollutant agents through the elaboration of datasets acquired from innovative sensors and consolidated technologies. An evaluation of the data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency on pollutants in recent years was also envisaged, to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions on air quality.

Data Science and Artificial Intelligence are pervasively spreading into the Life Science domain, opening the doors to a near future where algorithms are considered proper medical devices certified by institutional agencies. In this scenario, a growing number of prognostic tools are developed and tested to support physicians in their daily clinical tasks, with a particular interest in predictive systems raising red flags when signals of worsening conditions are detected. In particular, the WebValley 2021 Team was involved in the development, implementation, and validation of AI algorithms aimed at detecting the early onset of comorbidities in diabetic patients starting from their healthcare trajectories collected as personal Electronic Health Record.

The single-cell sequencing (SCS) is the most advanced omics technology, collecting the sequence information from individual cells and providing a higher resolution of the cellular structure and supporting a deeper investigation of the functions of an individual cell within its environment. Supported by a team of computational biologists, the WebValley Team explored SCS data through unsupervised learning models and dimensionality reduction algorithms. In particular, advanced clustering techniques and UMAP manifold projections were used to identify novel patterns possibly revealing different phenotypes yet undetected.

Widening the use of machine learning on massive health data out of the hospital context for point of care of disease with deep learning methods for the integration of biomedical imaging, omics markers and clinical data for predictive health.

Predictive models and privacy-by-design in Healthcare.
Deep Learning and Blockchain for predictive oncogenomics.

The project will be run in a tech lab, set up by FBK in cozy village in Trentino, Italian Alps. The students will be the protagonists, supported by FBK researchers and other tutors of international level. Joining WebValley by means of one of our fellowships will provide an unique experience on some of the most interesting themes of smart techs and innovation (IOT systems, GPU cloud computing, 3D printing, and more), combined with research in biology and environmental health. Further, we will simulate and use small size drones to develop a device carrier.

The 2016 project: Frutipy.

Affiliative Behaviour and Physiology Lab
Some of the work leading to this program has received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement n° 630166.

The 2014 project: the aim of WebValley 2014 is designing a novel web platform for studying microbiota dysbiosis in childhood.The platform shall connect –omics data and clinical phenotypes, implementing a system medicine approach, with a special focus on the support of reproducible research within interdisciplinary projects. The team will partner with researchers from major Children's hospital and research institutes, international experts in bioinformatics for functional metagenomics, and specialist web developers. Teamwork will rely on a few preparatory short courses on the biology of microbiota and its importance for health and safe nutrition, basic data science tools, and a hands-on course in understanding and analyzing next-generation sequencing (NGS) data. We expect to develop an open source working prototype solution as well as to explore the biotechnology and predictive modeling aspects, such as profiling and network analysis. The prototype will be tested on original and open access datasets of clinical interest.

The 2013 project: 3D nanoWebGIS interface and complex networks for molecular medicine data. The aim of WebValley 2013 is designing a novel web tool for studying change in cells (e.g. in morphogenesis or in disease) from different points of view and in interdisciplinary teams. We aim to extend the nanoWebGIS system for shared studies on bioimages with an interface for 3D spatial structure investigation and a whole new module for complex networks analysis. The project shall integrate mathematical and biological aspects, with the opportunity of working on original data from collaborating international labs. Technology will be the backbone of the project: the team will combine different open source software tools and propose new ways of interacting with data on non-standard devices such as smart TV displays.

The 2012 project: Multi-scale science: the nanoWebGIS interface for molecular medicine data. The project will aim at sketching a new type of interface to big data in molecular biology. Labs are generating more and more massive amounts of imaging data at scales from tissue to cell aggregates and single cell environment scales that can be characterized by their spatial description and possibly dynamic evolution in time. The software shall offer on-line spatial exploration of data, from lab instruments or simulated environments of 2D/3D cellular dynamics. The challenge is to use for the first time the latest techs applied in the GIS over internet domain, capable to harmonize complex data and different scales. The project shall enable the sharing between scientists of multi-scale studies, the overlay of models and real data, with an interaction based on Kinect and Android interfaces. We aim to extend the tools we built in 2011 for the amazing Kinect controller adding an interaction with Smart WebTV displays to the newest GIS and WebGIS methods.

The project will combine the amazing Kinect controller with GeoScaler Hub, an Open Source WebGIS for climate change indicators. The interface will explore new ways to interact with geospatial patterns, but also use methods to downscale global indicators and quantify the need for adaptation strategies at local scales. New ideas for interacting with displayed data through personal mobile devices and for reproducibility of analyses will be explored. We expect to develop a concept prototype for an innovative exhibit display at MUSE, the new Trento Science Museum,  designed by Renzo Piano and opening in 2012.

The 2009 project: Data Sonification & GPU Computing

The 2008 project: Mulivariable Graphs.

MapBuilder is a service that allows the creation of maps on web pages. The different layers can be loaded from a
any Mapserver. To allow the insertion of the map, the web page must be accompanied by a configuration document where
the various objects that make up the map are created (buttons, windows, etc.) and the functions that can be operated on of them. The configuration file, to request the different layers from the server, it has to call another file that also contains theirs features.

The group developed the LUGORT prototype system, dedicated to the collection, interactive visualization and analysis of biological-environmental data. The software system can be used both from a PDA and from a computer for the collection of geo-referenced data and their automatic insertion in a central GIS-database system. The problem of monitoring electromagnetic field pollution was chosen, carried out starting from real data in collaboration with the ITC group specialized in the subject.

The objective is the development of a software prototype for the monitoring and study of the phenomena of movement, dispersion and migration of populations of Ungulates of the Alps, starting from naturalistic, environmental and genetic data. An innovative geo-bioinformatics approach will be adopted, integrating in a single Internet-based service software methods for the management, geographic-based visualization and analysis of genetic and ethological-behavioral data.

The leitmotif of the activities will be the design and construction of a new Internet-based service for the management of biological-environmental data as geo-referenced databases: in particular, an IT system for the management of ecological data will be studied that can be made available to non-specialist users. , such as groups of biologists and / or wildlife monitoring experts.

The group of camp participants will fully address the problem of designing and building an innovative service based on the Internet and capable of creating a virtual community of developers and users. In particular, a service will be studied and implemented for the management and distribution of reports and multimedia material relating to the problem of monitoring architectural barriers, with the aim of building a system that allows to promptly report and create updated maps of situations of hardship.

The group of camp participants will fully address the problem of designing and building an innovative service based on the Internet and capable of creating a virtual community of developers and users. In particular, a service will be implemented for the management and distribution of videos and photos related to mountain trails: the server will allow to share multimedia data to which geographical coordinates are assigned (e.g. clips of films along a path) and to build collaboratively a coverage of mountain hikes.