Monica Gori graduated in Psychology at the University of Florence in 2004 (cum laude). From 2002 to 2006 she worked at the CNR of Pisa in David Burr’s Laboratory. She did her PhD in January 2009 at University of Genoa on Humanoid Technologies supervised by David Burr and Giulio Sandini. During her PhD she interacted with a strong multidisciplinary environment starting collaborations with engineers and clinical institutes (e.g. Chiossone Institute and Stella Maris Institute). In 2008 she worked in Martin Banks lab (Berkeley, California). From 2009 to 2013 she did a Post Doc at the Robotic, Brain and Cognitive Sciences (RBCS) department at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. During this period she started important collaborations with prof. Juergen Konczac (Minnesota University, USA) and with prof. Melvin Goodale (Ontario University, Canada). She is now tenure track reseracher leading the Unit U-Vip: Unit for Visually Impaired People at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. Monica Gori is an expert of development, multisensory integration, rehabilitation and visual disability. The impact of her work on the scientific community can be summarized by 128 international papers, 5 book chapters, and many conferences' abstracts. Internationally accepted indices of impact and productivity show that her work has received 2400 citations, leading me to an H-index of 25 (ORCID ID orcid.org/0000-0002-5616-865X; Scopus Research ID: 23491803400; ResearcherID: A-1238-2014) and 23 in Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.it/citations?user=KleaD-IAAAAJ&hl=it ). She was the scientific coordinator two two large European grants, ABBI (~€2 million) and WeDraw (~€2.5 million). One of her works has been listed in faculty of 1000 (Gori et al. Curr Biol, 2008). In 2012, she won the TR35 price for young innovators. In 2020 Monica won an ERC STG with the MYSpace project. The project will start in January 2021.
More information at:
Lab activity:
Italian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGg0SB8rj1U
English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiSsDLUS_UQ
https://www.iit.it/research/lines/unit-for-visually-impaired-people
TEDx: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAz_Qx6xcRQ
WeDRAW Project: Exploiting the best sensory modality for learning arithmetic and geometrical concepts based on multisensory interactive Information and Communication Technologies and serious games http://www.wedraw.eu/
ABBI Project: Audio Bracelet for Blind Interactions https://www.abbiproject.eu/
The main problem addressed in my research is to study how unisensory and multisensory perceptual capabilities change and interact during development in children with and without disabilities. In particular I’m investigating how different sensory modalities are integrated during development and how the absence of one modality, in children with sensory disabilities, can impact on other modalities that are not impaired (Gori et al. Current Biology, 2008; Gori et al. Frontiers 2012; Gori et al. Developmental Science 2012; Burr et al. 2011; Burr & Gori 2011; Gori et al. Current Biology, 2010; Gori et al. NeuroPsycholgia 2012). The goal of such activity is to develop new technological solutions to improve the spatial, motor and social ability of children and adults with disability. With this goal I have recently coordinated two european ICT projects, ABBI and weDRAW, which aimed to rehabilitate and facilitate learning in children with visual disability. More information about these two projects are provised below.
ABBI project: coordinated from 2014 to 2017 (Italian Patent Application IT TO2014A000323 (IIT 2013-159) for the ABBI device). Within the ABBI project (http://www.abbiproject.eu/) we developped a new technology soultion based on sensory-motor training to improve spatial, motor and social skills in children with visual impairment. For more info, please look at the videos in italian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGg0SB8rj1U and Eniglish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiSsDLUS_UQ
weDRAW project: coordinated from 2017- 2019. WeDraw (http://www.wedraw.eu/) examines how to exploit the best sensory modality for learning arithmetic and geometrical concepts based on multisensory technology and serious games for typical and atypical children. WeDraw is highly interdisciplinary, involving engineers, psychologists, pedagogics, and industrial links. The project exploits knowledge of multisensory integration in the teaching activity of elementary schools.
INVITED PRESENTATIONS AT UNIVERSITIES OR CONFERENCES
2011 UCL and CBCD London, May 2011 invited by Marko Nardini and Prof. A Karmiloff-Smith; University of Hamburg, November 2011, invited by Brigitte Roeder.
2013 Symposium European Conf of Developmental Psychology by D. Maurer Lausanne September.
2014 CBCD London, May 2014 invited by Prof. A Karmiloff-Smith; University of Munich October 2014 invited by Hermann Mueller; Symposium FENS 2014 organized by A.King and J.Rauschecker
2015 Invitation at University of Barcellona by Lopez Moliner.
2016 ESOF Invited talk, organized by Alessandra Sciutti Manchester, UK; Symposium ECVP organized by Montagnini and Bremmer, Barcellona, Spain.
2017 The Rank Prize Funds, Symposium on Learning to See: From Retinal to Brain Computations; Symposiums at IMRF organized by Streim-Amit and Andy Bremner.
Invited talk for ERC starting, June Belgium
2018 Invited talk for ERC starting, May Belgium
Invited talk Workshop SPADE organized by Binda, Burr, Morrone, June Pisa, Italy
Invited talk at the Blind Brain Workshop by Ricciardi, Bottari & Pietrini, Lucca, Italy
Invited talk Paris “Cross-modal Processing from neurophysiology to behaviour” by Claudia Lunghi
Invited talk JBC student-initiated workshop “Visual function acquisition in normal development and following emergence from blindness”, Hebrewe Univerity of Jerusalem, organized by Ehud Zohary
2019 Invited talk for ERC starting, May Belgium
Invited Talk Zangwill Club Seminar, University of Cambridge, Uk
Invited talk Symbiotic Intelligent Systems, Osaka, Japan
AWARDS and HONOURS
L’Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) è una fondazione di diritto privato - cfr. determinazione Corte dei Conti 23/2015 “IIT è una fondazione da inquadrare fra gli organismi di diritto pubblico con la scelta di un modello di organizzazione di diritto privato per rispondere all’esigenza di assicurare procedure più snelle nella selezione non solo nell’ambito nazionale dei collaboratori, scienziati e ricercatori ”.
IIT è sotto la vigilanza del Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca e del Ministero dell'Economia e delle Finanze ed è stato istituito con la Legge 326/2003. La Fondazione ha l'obiettivo di promuovere l'eccellenza nella ricerca di base e in quella applicata e di favorire lo sviluppo del sistema economico nazionale. La costruzione dei laboratori iniziata nel 2006 si è conclusa nel 2009.
Lo staff complessivo di IIT conta circa 1440 persone. L’area scientifica è rappresentata da circa l’85% del personale. Il 45% dei ricercatori proviene dall’estero: di questi, il 29% è costituito da stranieri provenienti da oltre 50 Paesi e il 16% da italiani rientrati. Oggi il personale scientifico è composto da circa 60 principal investigators, circa 110 ricercatori e tecnologi di staff, circa 350 post doc, circa 500 studenti di dottorato e borsisti, circa 130 tecnici. Oltre 330 posti su 1400 creati su fondi esterni. Età media 34 anni. 41% donne / 59 % uomini.
Nel 2015 IIT ha ricevuto finanziamenti pubblici per circa 96 milioni di euro (80% del budget), conseguendo fondi esterni per 22 milioni di euro (20% budget) provenienti da 18 progetti europei, 17 finanziamenti da istituzioni nazionali e internazionali, circa 60 progetti industriali
La produzione di IIT ad oggi vanta circa 6990 pubblicazioni, oltre 130 finanziamenti Europei e 11 ERC, più di 350 domande di brevetto attive, oltre 12 start up costituite e altrettante in fase di lancio. Dal 2009 l’attività scientifica è stata ulteriormente rafforzata con la creazione di dieci centri di ricerca nel territorio nazionale (a Torino, Milano, Trento, Parma, Roma, Pisa, Napoli, Lecce, Ferrara) e internazionale (MIT ed Harvard negli USA) che, unitamente al Laboratorio Centrale di Genova, sviluppano i programmi di ricerca del piano scientifico 2015-2017.
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) is a public research institute that adopts the organizational model of a private law foundation. IIT is overseen by Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca and Ministero dell'Economia e delle Finanze (the Italian Ministries of Education, Economy and Finance). The Institute was set up according to Italian law 326/2003 with the objective of promoting excellence in basic and applied research andfostering Italy’s economic development. Construction of the Laboratories started in 2006 and finished in 2009.
IIT has an overall staff of about 1,440 people. The scientific staff covers about 85% of the total. Out of 45% of researchers coming from abroad 29% are foreigners coming from more than 50 countries and 16% are returned Italians. The scientific staff currently consists of approximately 60 Principal Investigators, 110 researchers and technologists, 350 post-docs and 500 PhD students and grant holders and 130 technicians. External funding has allowed the creation of more than 330 positions . The average age is 34 and the gender balance proportion is 41% female against 59% male.
In 2015 IIT received 96 million euros in public funding (accounting for 80% of its budget) and obtained 22 million euros in external funding (accounting for 20% of its budget). External funding comes from 18 European Projects, other 17 national and international competitive projects and approximately 60 industrial projects.
So far IIT accounts for: about 6990 publications, more than 130 European grants and 11 ERC grants, more than 350 patents or patent applications, 12 up start-ups and as many which are about to be launched. The Institute’s scientific activity has been further strengthened since 2009 with the establishment of 11 research nodes throughout Italy (Torino, Milano, Trento, Parma, Roma, Pisa, Napoli, Lecce, Ferrara) and abroad (MIT and Harvard University, USA), which, along with the Genoa-based Central Lab, implement the research programs included in the 2015-2017 Strategic Plan.
