Social Inclusion, Environmental Psychology and Semantic Web Projects at the University of Cagliari

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Projects
The tree research projects carried out at the Department of Pedagogy, Psychology and Philosophy of the University of Cagliari fall within the Smart, Secure and Inclusive Communities, and Cultural Heritage specialization areas and involve one researcher.
The first project aims to define evidence-based specifications for the implementation of innovative technological solutions in social inclusion programmes. Technological solutions may include platforms supporting resource sharing, interaction between schools, public services and education agencies as well as access to socio-educational services by people with special educational needs; technologies for school-hospital communication and digital education and for educational and didactic tutoring.
The second project focuses on the study of environmental psychology, i.e. mobility attitudes (both explicit and implicit) and behavioural intentions, with special regard to the influence exerted by the cognitive and emotional aspects of communication. Starting from the analysis of the functional strengths and weaknesses of the transport systems in the city of Cagliari, the project will create a questionnaire regarding the psychological determinants of mobility behaviours and an experimental setting for carrying out experiments.
The third line of research aims to define and design representation models able to make use of the opportunities offered by the Semantic Web, overcoming some theoretical problems related to the construction of semantic networks. The project starts from the standardization of knowledge representation methods by means of semantic networks, ending up with the development of theoretical tools that can help to maximize the potential use of the information contained in these networks and develop abstract representation models that translate this information into ontology patterns which can be used in the declarative languages of the Semantic Web.

Financial Resources
The projects are funded by NOP Research and Innovation 2014-2020 under Action 1.2 “Researcher Mobility”, Call “Attraction and International Mobility of Researchers” (AIM) with a budget of 183.833 euro for the recruitment of one researcher on a fixed-term contract.

Impact 
The activities of the first line of research are intended to support interventions in the fields of education, digital education and social participation.
The results of the second line of research aim to increase the persuasive power of sustainable mobility campaigns in urban and peri-urban areas. The project is therefore in line with the principle of environmental sustainability, one of the horizontal principles laid down by the European Union.
The development of the Semantic Web, the focus of the third research project, has innumerable applications and is potentially able to have an impact on any areas of knowledge. The design and subsequent implementation (also on dedicated Apps) of specific semantic networks can help to systematize knowledge with respect to the historical-artistic-architectural resources of a given geographical area so as to provide any user with reliable, up-to-date and interest-based information. This will allow the user to explore a wide range of possible cognitive and cultural paths, with a positive impact on the economy revolving around cultural and food and wine tourism.

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06/10/2021