Big & Open Data
Innovation Laboratory

The Big and Open Data Innovation Laboratory (BODaI-Lab) of the University of Brescia, Italy, aims to create working groups that develop – within specific projects – innovative methods, techniques and tools for the retrieval, management and analysis of open and big data with a multidisciplinary approach.

The main purpose is to support research within the University of Brescia, in the fields of medical, engineering, economic, financial, business, social and legal scientific research. Particular attention is devoted to technology transfer to the PA and the Industry sector.

Description Research Projects

Meaning of BODaI

Bodai (ぼだい) is the Japanese version of the Sanskrit bodhi (बोधि). It is the state of the completely enlightened mind, i.e. the knowledge or wisdom, or awakened intellect, of a Buddha.

The verbal root budh- means to awaken. This term, although mostly used the context of Buddhism, is also present in other Eastern philosophies and traditions. It has been popularised in the Western world with the word enlightenment, having the connotation of a sudden insight into a transcendental truth or reality

In our Laboratory, wisdom, knowledge of Nature and enlightenment are achieved through data analysis and machine learning algorithms.

The symbol used for the “O” of BODaI (as well as for the “O”s in the BODaI’s projects logos) is the sacred symbol in Zen Buddhism called enso, literally meaning circle. It symbolizes absolute enlightenment, strength, elegance, the beginning and end of all things, the circle of life and the connectedness of existence. In two words, Universe and Nature. At the same time, through the impossibility of creating the perfect circle freehand, it contains the lesson of the limits of the human mind and the acceptance of imperfection as perfect.

Some authors consider enso as a precursor of the mathematical symbol of infinity.

Main topics

BODaI-Lab deals with developing methods, models and advanced techniques of multivariate statistical data analysis, machine learning, artificial intelligence, semantic and social web, useful for research, organization, classification, integration, analysis and visualization of huge, heterogeneous and complex collections of digital data (big data), even in open format (open data).

The research activity of the laboratory is focused on the following themes:

Design of advanced methods and tools for information sharing and cooperation within contexts featured by a large information background (big&open data)
Definition of advanced models and methods for knowledge representation, ontology-based semantic processing, reasoning under uncertainty and incompleteness conditions, logic inference, planning, automatic reasoning and, in general, efficient processing focused on problem solving.
Development of mathematical and statistical models for data analytics, of methods and tools for statistical analysis, data mining, knowledge discovery and machine learning, data analysis and evaluation, advanced simulation and optimisation
Definition of a software infrastructure, based on Semantic Web and Social Web technologies, including Linked Data techniques (http://lod-cloud.net) and social networking, to classify and cluster big&open data from heterogeneous sources, based on their semantics

BODaI-Lab research projects

Scientific coordinators: Paola Zuccolotto and Marica Manisera

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Scientific coordinators: Eugenio Brentari and Luigi Odello

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ODE — Open Data Exploration

This project is developed in cooperation with Regione Lombardia, aiming at investigating techniques for exploration and knowledge extraction from Open Data (in particular, focusing on data about mobility) provided by Regione Lombardia on its official web portal (http://www.dati.lombardia.it).

Scientific coordinator: Devis Bianchini

Banco Energia — Interventions against energy poverty

Project developed within the two-years agreement between University of Brescia, Università Cattolica in Brescia and A2A S.p.A. The project will provide essential information for preparing A2A initiative for vulnerable consumers. In particular, the project includes both support for the identification of potential beneficiars and the implementation of field experiments to identify more effective procedures aiming at stimulating contributions to the project from consumers.

Scientific coordinator: Raffaele Miniaci

Smart Solutions for Cyber Physical Production Systems

Scientific coordinator: Devis Bianchini

Labor contracts, incentives for productivity and innovation: theoretical and empirical analysis

Scientific coordinator: Raffaele Miniaci

Human Activity Spatio-Temporal Indicators using Mobile Phone Big Data

The project, developed by the DMS StatLab of the University of Brescia in agreement with the Statistical Office of the Municipality of Brescia, is based on the use of high frequency mobile phone data to develop spatio-temporal indicators useful for statistical analyses.

Participants: Anna Simonetto, Rodolfo Metulini, Marie Cointin

Scientific coordinator: Maurizio Carpita

Big & Open Data Innovation Laboratory