Marcello is a firm believer of lifelong education. He holds a M.Sc in Physical Geography (1999), with a specialization in geohydrology, from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, as well as a Bachelor in Environmental Studies from the Open University of the Netherlands (2004). With more than 10 years' experience in designing sustainable urban water systems, he joined the LEESU research center in 2019.

The Ph.D. research project aims to develop an intelligent control system for urban wastewater treatment processes that can be defined as an adaptive hybrid digital twin integrating the assets of process simulation plant-wide models to evaluate scenarios and the strength of data-based AI control using machine learning techniques to autonomously process data and recognize patterns. The adaptation will come through continuous checking and updating the model parameters describing the treatment processes. It will thus allow for the first time the model to follow the reality so that it can aid decision-making for optimal operations, as well as detecting type changes in the operating conditions or incorrect settings in the parameters of the wastewater plant.

The research is expected to contribute to an increase of productivity of the plant in an energy- and reagent efficient way, thereby lowering its environmental impact.

The Ph.D. research is a result of a partnership for cooperation and exchange of academic and operational expertise between the W-SMART association, the Laboratoire Eau Environnement et Systèmes Urbains (LEESU) at Paris-Est University, the University Laval - Dept. Of Civil and Water Engineering and SIAAP, the public wastewater utility in the Greater Paris area, who manages the wastewater plant at Seine-Aval used as a case-study.