The Bridge - February 2018 - 47

to study engineering. Then, when I discovered
computer engineering, I immediately knew I chose
the right path because it gives you the possibility to
create something new in a completely different and
powerful way.
What do you love about engineering?
What I love more about engineering is the way in
which the minds of people practicing and studying
engineering is constantly trained to work in a logical
way. Our mind is a powerful tool, but we need to
keep practicing to maintain its training. The study of
engineering helps us to do this; it is a way to always
challenge ourselves and improve our skills and our
way of thinking. A good engineer knows that his/
her life and work is based on continuously learning
something new. Learning is not something we have
to do, it's something we actually like.
What is your dream job?
I don't really have a dream job, but I know which
are the main aspects of my ideal job. I aim to do
something constantly new and I'm scared of boring,
monotonous jobs. I really hope to find something
challenging and inspiring. I'm looking for that kind
of job that makes you wake up every day looking
forward to going to work and being productive. I
strongly believe that if you do what you like you can
be more efficient and you don't feel the fatigue.
Whom do you admire (professionally and/or
personally) and why?
Elon Musk is one of the people I admire more.
He is a great inventor, who was able to answer
many of today's challenges in science and bring
his unbelievable ideas to life. His qualities I admire
most are his passion and curiosity, that have always
pushed him to try and to learn, going well beyond
the knowledge acquired at university. I'm also
really impressed by his courage; he left his Ph.D. at
Stanford University after two days and took the risk to
follow his intuitions on new possible entrepreneurial

ideas. Sometimes it is really difficult to take action,
but we need to do it to achieve results never reached
before. Finally, I admire his efficiency; he is able
to immediately apply newly acquired knowledge
and he can organize his time to perfectly keep up
with the different companies he founded and other
commitments he has. He teaches us that to reach
our goals, we have to believe in ourselves and in our
ideas and that it is important to be organized and
focused. However, despite his intelligence and his
capacities, his brilliant intuitions have been crucial to
reach success...it is always important to think to new
solutions, explore new research fields and try paths
not taken by others.
What is the next BIG advance in engineering?
Engineering is a vast topic that is constantly
developing. There are always new challenges in this
field, and its changing nature makes it extremely
difficult to think only about a single next possible
advance. However, one field that has already seen
interesting progress, and that will surely develop in
the next future, is Artificial Intelligence. Last year, our
Chapter organized a series of events on chatbots, with
a particular interest in Natural Language Processing.
NLP is the study of how machines can process
human ("natural") language. It has different kinds of
application, from language translation to automated
customer relationship management and it is a specific
field of Artificial Intelligence. The possibility to go deep
into this field with experts from different companies,
allows us to see which advances have been done and
understand what is still missing. With this background,
it is easier to understand which are the main
challenges in the AI field. However, there is always
new progress, and one day we'll probably hear about
a machine which passed the Turing Test and is, or at
least seems to be able to think.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Bridge - February 2018
