Short Bio

I am Associate Professor in the Cyber Physical Systems Group, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton.  I have research interests in systems modelling with aerospace and biomedical application, control systems and Monte Carlo methods. Before joining Southampton in 2022, I was a Lecturer in the Department of Engineering at the University of Leicester, and, previously, a Research Associate in the Control Group at the University of Cambridge (2003- 2006), and a post-doc researcher at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium (2001 - 2003). I also held visiting appointments at the Australian National University, Canberra. I have a Laurea (5-year degree) in Information Engineering , University of Pavia, and a PhD in Automatic Control, University of Brescia. 

Scientific Activity

• Editor for the special issue "The Pulsing Brain", Interface Focus, A. Lecchini-Visintini, E. Chung, S. Holdsworth, J. Minhas and S. Payne Editors, 2024
  See Part 1, and Part 2.

• Lead organiser, "The Pulsing Brain", Royal Society Theo Murphy meeting, June 2024, Brighton, UK

• Associate Editor, International Journal of Control, since 2019

• Associate Editor, European Control Conference, (2013-2019)

• Associate Editor, International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, (2007-2019)

• Guest Editor for the special issue “Air Traffic Management: Challenges and opportunities for advanced Control”, International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, A. Lecchini-Visintini and J. Lygeros Editors, 2010

Externally funded research projects

• A. Lecchini-Visintini, I.D. Forsythe 
  Structured adaptive estimation: reliable "grey box" adaptation (Part 2)
  EPSRC, 2022-2025

• A. Lecchini-Visintini
  Industrial Fellowship hosted at Rolls Royce
  Royal Academy of Engineering, 2019-2020

• A. Lecchini-Visintini, M.C.Turner
  Nonlinear modelling and control of fueldraulic systems
  Research project funded by Rolls Royce, 2018-2019

• A. Lecchini-Visintini,
  Modelling and Control of a Jet Engine Hydro Mechanical Unit
  PhD studentship funded by Rolls Royce, 2014-2016

• A. Lecchini-Visintini
  Optimization with Monte Carlo methods for the control of complex systems
  EPSRC 'First Grant', 2010-2011

• J. Maciejowski, A. Lecchini Visintini
  iFly: “Safety, Complexity and Responsibility based design and validation of highly automated Air Traffic Management”
  EU 6th Framework Programme, 2007-2011

Teaching

I currently teach in the following modules

• From Biological Molecules to Biomedical Data (UG)

• Digital Systems and Signal Processing  (UG)  

• Fundamentals Principles of Energy Systems  (MSc)

• Digital Control System Design (UG & MSc) 

In the past I have taught several Control and Electrical Engineering modules

Publications

Journal papers

• A. Lecchini-Visintini,  J.J.M. Zwanenburg, Q. Wen, J.K. Nicholls, T. Desmidt, S. Catheline, J.S. Minhas, C. Robba, M. Dvoriashyna, A. Vallet, J. Bamber, M. Kurt, E.M. L. Chung, S. Holdsworth and S.J. Payne
  The pulsing brain: state of the art and an interdisciplinary perspective
  Interface Focus Volume 15, Issue 1, 2025

• J.K. Nicholls, A. Lecchini-Visintini, J. Ince, E. Pallett, J.S. Minhas, M. Oura and E.M. L. Chung
  A brief history of the development of transcranial tissue Doppler ultrasound
  Interface Focus Volume 14, Issue 6, 2024

• J.K. Nicholls, P. Turner, A. Lecchini-Visintini, J. Ince, G. de Vries, L. Cappellugola, M. Oura, K. Ebirim, E. Pallett, K. Ramnarine, E.M.L. Chung
  The Effects of Blood Pressure on Brain Tissue Pulsation Amplitude in a Phantom Model
  Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology, 49(9):2134:2139, 2023 

• K. Ebirim, A. Lecchini-Visintini, M. Rubagotti, E. Prempain
  Constrained Model Predictive Control With Integral Action for Twin Rotor MIMO Systems
  ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, 145(8):081006, 2023

• A. Almudayni, M. Alharbi, A. Chowdhury, J. Ince, F. Alablani, J.S. Minhas, A. Lecchini-Visintini, E.M.L. Chung
  Magnetic resonance imaging of the pulsing brain: a systematic review
  Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine, 36(1):3-14, 2023

• J. Ince, A. Lecchini-Visintini, A. Almudayni, M.A. Horsfield, J. Wormleighton, C. Banahan, E.M.L.Chung, J.S. Minhas
  Brain tissue motion in acute hemorrhagic stroke using amplified MRI (aMRI)
  Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 86:17-19, 2022 

• M. Alharbi, P. Turner, J. Ince, M. Oura, K. Ebirim, A. Lecchini-Visintini, J.S. Minhas, E.M.L. Chung
  The Effects of Hypocapnia on Brain Tissue Pulsations
  Special Issue: Cerebral Autoregulation and Stroke
  Brain Sciences, 10(9):614, 2020

• J. Ince, C. Banahan, S. Venturini, M. Alharbi, P. Turner, M. Oura, K. Beach, T.G. Robinson, A. Mistri, A. Lecchini-Visintini, J.S. Minhas, E.M.L. Chung
  Acute Ischemic Stroke Diagnosis Using Brain Tissue Pulsations
  Journal of the Neurological Sciences, 419:117164, 2020

• P. Turner, C. Banahan, M. Alharbi, J. Ince, S. Venturini, S. Berger, I. Bnini, J. Campbell, K. Beach, M. Horsfield, M. Oura, A. Lecchini-Visintini, E.M.L. Chung
  Brain tissue pulsation in healthy volunteers
  Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology, 46(12):3268-3278, 2020

• T. Puller, A. Lecchini-Visintini
  A simplified model of a fueldraulic actuation system with application to load estimation
  Proceedings of the IMechE, Part I: Journal of Systems and Control Eng., 233(5):570-581, 2019

• A. Tastemirov, A. Lecchini-Visintini, R. Morales
  Complete dynamic model of the Twin Rotor MIMO System (TRMS) with experimental validation
  Control Engineering Practice, 66:89-98, 2017

• F.Wei, A. Lecchini-Visintini
  On the Stability of Receding Horizon Control for Continuous-Time Stochastic Systems
  Systems & Control Letters, 63(1):43–49, 2014

• A. Lecchini-Visintini, J. Lygeros and J. Maciejowski
  Stochastic optimization on continuous domains with finite-time guarantees by MCMC methods
  IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 55(12):2858-2863, 2010

• N. Kantas, A. Lecchini-Visintini, J. Maciejowski
  Simulation Based Optimal Design of Aircraft Trajectories for Air Traffic Management
  Int. Journal on Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, 24(10):882-899, 2010

• A. Dehghani, A. Lecchini-Visintini, A. Lanzon, B.D.O. Anderson
  Validating controllers for internal stability utilizing closed-loop
  IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 54(11):2719-2725, 2009

• E. Crisostomi, A. Lecchini-Visintini and J. Maciejowski
  Combining Monte Carlo and worst-case methods for trajectory prediction in air traffic control
  Automatic Control in Aerospace, 2(1), 2009 (on-line journal active in the period 2008-2011)

• A. Lecchini, W. Glover, J. Lygeros and J. Maciejowski
  Monte Carlo Optimisation for Conflict Resolution in Air Traffic Control
  IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 7(4):470-482, 2006

• A. Lecchini, A. Lanzon and B.D.O. Anderson
  A model reference approach to safe controller changes in iterative identification and control
  Automatica, 42(2):193-203, 2006

• R. Hildebrand, A. Lecchini, G. Solari and M. Gevers
  Optimal prefiltering in Iterative Feedback Tuning
  IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 50(8):1196- 1200, 2005

• R. Hildebrand, A. Lecchini, G. Solari and M. Gevers
  Asymptotic accuracy of Iterative Feedback Tuning
  IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 50(8):1182- 1185, 2005

• R. Hildebrand, A. Lecchini, G. Solari and M. Gevers
  Prefiltering in Iterative Feedback Tuning: optimization of the prefilter for accuracy
  IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 49(10):1801-1805, 2004

• A. Lecchini and M. Gevers
  Explicit expression of the parameter bias in identification of Laguerre models from step-responses
  Systems & Control Letters, 52(2):149-165, 2004

• M.C. Campi, A. Lecchini and S.M. Savaresi
  An application of the Virtual Reference Feedback Tuning method to a benchmark problem
  Special Issue: Design and optimization of restricted complexity controllers
  European Journal of Control, 9(1):66-76, 2003

• A. Lecchini, M.C. Campi and S.M. Savaresi
  Virtual Reference Feedback Tuning for two degrees of freedom controllers
  Special Issue: New ideas in recursive estimation and stochastic adaptive control
  Int. Journal on Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, 16(5):355-371, 2002

• M.C. Campi, A. Lecchini and S.M. Savaresi
  Virtual Reference Feedback Tuning: a direct method for the design of feedback controllers
  Automatica, 38(8):1337-1346, 20001

Selected conference papers 

• A. Lecchini-Visintini, M.C. Turner
  Further Results on the Design of an Observer for an Electro-Hydraulic Actuation System with a Deadzone Nonlinearity
  IFAC World Congress, Yokohama, 2023

• X. Fu, A. Lecchini-Visintini
  Optimisation of restricted complexity control for wave energy conversion
  UKACC Conference on Control, Belfast, UK, 2016

• Z. Pineda Rico, A. Lecchini-Visintini, R. Quian Quiroga
  Iterative Feedback Tuning for the Joint Controllers of a 7-DOF Whole Arm Manipulator
  51st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Maui, Hawaii, 2012

• Z. Pineda Rico, A. Lecchini-Visintini, R. Quian Quiroga
  Dynamic model of a 7-DOF Whole Arm Manipulator and validation from experimental data
  9th Int. Conf. on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO), Rome, 2012

• Z. Yang, N. Kantas, A. Lecchini-Visintini, J.M. Maciejowski
  Stable Markov decision processes using simulation based predictive control
  19th Int. Symposium on the Mathematical Theory of Network and Systems, Budapest, 2010

• E. Crisostomi, A. Lecchini-Visintini and J. Maciejowski
  Combining Monte Carlo and worst-case methods for trajectory prediction in air traffic control
  6th EUROCONTROL Innovative Research workshop, 2007

• A. Lecchini-Visintini, J. Lygeros and J. Maciejowski
  Simulated Annealing: Rigorous finite-time guarantees for optimization on continuous domains
  In: Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 20, MIT Press, 2008.

• A. Lecchini, M. Gevers, and J. Maciejowski
  An Iterative Feedback Tuning procedure for Loop Transfer Recovery
  14th IFAC Symposium on System Identification, Newcastle, Australia, 2006

• A. Lecchini
  Algorithms and asymptotic results for direct data based control design
  In Mini-symposium on Identification for robust control
  16th Int. Symposium on the Mathematical Theory of Network and Systems, Leuven, 2004

• A. Lecchini and M. Gevers
  On Iterative Feedback Tuning for non-minimum phase systems
  41st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Las Vegas, USA 2002

• G. De Nicolao, G. Ferrari Trecate and A. Lecchini
  MaxEnt priors for stochastic filtering problems
  13th Int. Symposium on the Mathematical Theory of Network and Systems, Padova, 1998