The CCRI welcomes today Marco Della Gala from the University of Calabria, who will be working in the CCRI for 20 months on a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship.
Through an EU Horizon 2020 funded ‘training through research project’ called SOFIA, Marco will be working towards creating ICT based tools, in particular mobile applications, to help people access local food, a topic very close to the heart of the CCRI.
As the use of mobile devices continues to grow, mobile applications have become an incredibly effective way of providing information and resources to a wide audience. Through a multi-case study analysis of local food systems and rural areas and a web review of ICT tools for Alternative Agro Food Networks (AAFNs), Marco will be aiming to create, design and develop a mobile application to support the context awareness and information/knowledge exchange among farmers and consumers adhering to AAFNs. Moreover, it will endeavor to create innovative, facilitatory and safe cooperative communication environments and to foster intellectual, social and relational capital flows among AAFNs’ partners.
Marco’s background is in management engineering, in which he graduated from the University of Calabria, Italy, in 2004. He also gained a Masters in knowledge engineering in 2006. Since then, he has collaborated with companies in the ICT and agro-food sectors carrying out processes and functionalities analysis, designing informative systems and databases, and designing and developing mobile applications. His latest research interests lie in mobile technologies and AAFNs, by studying the impact of mobile applications and mobiquitous services in augmenting learning opportunities for actors engaged in AAFN.
Marco is currently studying for a PhD at the University of Calabria. His research project is titled “Business models and ICT services to support the development of agro-food and touristic sustainable local systems”.
Marco will be working with Matt Reed, James Kirwan and Rob Berry, providing a platform for sharing valuable knowledge and expertise.
