Selected as group facilitator for the “Management Matters” class organized and offered by the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education at Stanford University. Management Matters is one of several VPGE workshops designed to help graduate students develop a range of skills needed in any professional environment. Offered in Winter 2016, Management Matters consists of three sessions focused on managing people: working with different communication styles; setting expectations; and giving and receiving feedback.
As a facilitator, I am responsible for a group of attendees during break-out sessions. These sessions include participatory activities involving challenging scenarios and developing strategies for effectively managing people at various levels of an organization.
Moving technology form the research lab to everyday life. This is my goal. I was admitted in the Stanford iFarm program during Winter 2014. The Stanford Innovation Farm Teams Project seeks to improve success and overall efficiency of the commercialization of Stanford-owned inventions while providing an educational experience to iFarm Team participants. Participation in the iFarm Team Project provides individuals with a unique educational experience and opportunity to network in highly competitive industries.
Energy savings is the first and most important energy source. The interest of my team and mine is to find new solutions for energy awareness in residential buildings. We worked on a technology aimed to evaluate thermal building properties, predict energy consumption and claim carbon credits: A method and process to quantify energy savings and carbon offsets realtime for buildings. We explored the potential market segments, establishing for each one value propositions, partners, streams of revenue. We also designed a possible way to implement the technological platform associated with our patent.
Stanford Leaders in Communication helps learning techniques to show the real value of research findings and recruit others to your cause. In addition to becoming experts in various fields, leaders need to promote their work and influence others. Through practice at weekly meetings, we quickly learn to apply these techniques automatically even in high stakes situations. We also have the opportunity to role-play real scenarios to improve your negotiation and Q&A skills. The goal is to give club members the ability to promote research results in a meaningful and persuasive way so other scientists recognize the value of your research rather than overlook your work. Our motto is: Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done, because he wants to do it (D. Eisenhower).
Achievements
Group facilitator for a workshop on job interviewing communication skills at AWIS (Fall 2014)
Group facilitator for a communication and persuasion workshop at StartX (Fall 2014)
Selected by the Associate Director of Curriculum Development of the Stanford School of Medicine Career Center as a group facilitator for the class INDE231A – Academic Interviews: Workshop and Clinic (Fall 2014)
Selected by the Director of the Stanford Interdisciplinary Life Science Communications as a group facilitator for a scientific pitch training workshop for 3rd year Stanford grad students (Spring 2014)
Admitted to participate to the workshop: How to Create a Compelling LinkedIn Profile
Admitted to participate to the workshop: Persuasive Email Writing
Group facilitator for the workshop: How to Craft a Compelling Research Statement Workshop
Admitted to participate to the workshop: Personal branding
I joined Stanford University in September 2013 and I was a PostDoctoral Scholar in the group of Prof. Mark Brongersma till May 2016. This is one of the best environments I have been working in during my professional life. Located in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, it is really one of the world’s leading teaching and research universities. I tried to take advantages of as many as possible opportunities offered by the Farm.
Broadband, polarization-independent, omnidirectional, metamaterial-based antireflection coating for solar cells M. L. Brongersma, C. E. A. Cordaro, E. F. Pecora Provisional patent
Leadership experience
Selected as group facilitator for the Management Matters class organized and offered by the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education at Stanford University
Admitted at the full time Stanford Ignite program by the Stanford Graduate School of Business (Summer 2015)
Admitted at the Stanford IFarm program by the Office of Technology Licensing (Winter 2014)
I strongly believe in the give-back idea. I hold my current position also because of my education. This is because I decided to get involved in my alma mater alumni association. This really is a rewarding experience in terms of positive feedbacks, satisfactions for all the organized events, and recognition from the current students. I served as President of the SSC Alumni Association (Associazione Alumni Scuola Superiore di Catania) between 2011 and 2014. Before, I was member of the Executive Board and Vice-President (2009 – 2010).
Who we are
130+ alumni of a high-excellence education institution within the University of Catania (Scuola Superiore di Catania). The institution acceptance rate is very low (less than 10%). It provides a full scholarship for all the college years, including lodging in an historical campus (Villa San Saverio). Very high grade average and strict deadlines are required to maintain the scholarship. Attendance of complementary and high-level classes is required, along with a research thesis at the end of the scholarship (in addition to the standard university classes and master thesis). As alumni, we contribute to the education of the current students, create a network of diverse experiences and skills, represent the best output of our alma mater
What we do
We organize scientific seminars and conferences (once a week during the school year) and orientation activities. We mentor current students. We organize social events
My role and responsibilities
As a President, I ran and led the organization of all the events and activities; I interact with the academic and students representatives; I organized an yearly fund-raising campaign to support the Association activities; I interacted with all the alumni members to involve, motivate, and support their active participation; I was the administrator of the Association website, Facebook and LinkedIn groups, Twitter and YouTube accounts.
In the media
Workshop with the Speaker of the Italian House of Representative (on. Laura Boldrini, Presidente della Camera dei Deputati) – see in the available downloads and the recorded streaming:
