LUIGI SCIBILE

M.IEEE, D.Phil, Ing., Dott.

Curriculum VITAE
EDUCATION

Master's degree in management of Research Infrastructures, , Universitˆ degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca.

Field project: Closing the loop between strategy and operations - Design and implementation of a management dashboard for strategy execution with Key Pragmatic Indicators: CERN case study.

Tutor: Prof. E. Marafioti, Universitˆ Bicocca.
 

PhD in Control Engineering, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oriel College.

PhD thesis: Advanced Plasma Control on JET. 

Tutor: Dr A L Dexter, M.A., D. Phil., C.Eng., M.I.E.E., Worcester College.

JET tutor: Dr. P. Noll, JET senior scientist

 

Laurea in ingegneria elettronica, Process control and automation, University of Naples "Federico II".

Laurea thesis: A plasma stabilisation system for the JET divertor configuration.

Tutor: Prof. F. Garofalo.  JET tutor: Dr Vito Marchese, JET senior scientist.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY 

01/01/2021 - today: CERN - Technical coordinator and senior advisor

 Accelerator Technologies department (TE)

I am in charge of the technical coordination of the SM18 test facilities, critical for the HL-LHC project.
I contribute to the Einstein Telescope (ET)  project in various roles: I am the overall CERNÐET coordinator of the collaboration between ET and the various CERN departments/groups, I manage the support for the overall project costing and I am also involved in the vacuum beam pipe design activities in the role of logistic and transport workpackage leader.
I provide executive support to the head of department in matters of management and safety and I represent the department is several CERN wide committees and large projects.

01/12/2010  - 31/12/2020: CERN - Group Leader and deputy department head

Site Engineering group, Site Management and Building department.

I was Head of the Site Engineering group firstly in the General Services and Infrastructure Department (GS) and then in the Site Management and Buildings department (SMB) where I was also the deputy department head. The group mandate was to provide and to maintain in working conditions the civil engineering structures and infrastructures and the technical services for the tertiary and industrial part of the organization. The abovementioned responsibilities included all phases from preliminary design to construction management and hand-over of complete structures and infrastructures including their eventual operation, renovation and/or decommissioning.
As head of the group, I was managing up to 60 staff plus students and contractors, for a total of about 400 people. I was not only involved in people's management but also in the technical work of the group, following directly the most critical activities, managing some of the most complex contracts, and being responsible for the operational safety of on-site work for people in the group. The group was managing activities between 70 and 100 MCHF per year (M+P) and had several competencies, from civil engineering design and construction, to geomatic (CERN GIS system) and topography services, Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, Electrical systems, District heating networks, Urban Planning, Concrete and steel engineering. Among the notable achievements:

  • I developed and implemented a group structure aimed at optimizing resources based on innovative management accounting techniques and using KPIs to track progress: this allowed me to effectively steer/align/adapt/change the group structure/effort towards CERN overall objectives over the years achieving a 1.85 MCHF/FTE performance.
  • I managed to increase the groupÕs performance achieving to run ~40 contracts in parallel with a total procurement value exceeding 700 MCHF over ten years.
  • Following the bankruptcy of the main contractor of the B774 building, I took the responsibility to follow up the legal issues, to negotiate contracts with all subcontractors, to setup and justify a new baseline (schedule and budget) and restart the works in a swift way to minimize damages to the exposed building structure: the building was eventually delivered within the new baseline time and budget.
  • In 2015, the HL-LHC civil works were anticipated by three years. I re-organized the activities of the group (technical, commercial and legal) and re-allocated the resources to align with the new strategy. I also developed an innovative structure and adjudication scheme for the HL-LHC civil works (double consultants/double contractors) that was finally presented and approved by Finance Committee: strategy that has proved successful after the timely delivery of the HL-LHC civil infrastructures.
  • I lead the preparation of the CERN MasterPlan 2030 that was approved by the management in 2013 and presented to the host state authorities in 2015. 
  • I have setup the strategic lines and the organization for the site infrastructure consolidation that has allowed a progression from 12MCHF to 30MCHF x year. I have also developed the reporting methodology and analysis of the current buildingÕs situation presented at the Finance committee and council.



01/04/2010 - 01/12/2010: CERN - Project manager and senior advisor

General Services and Infrastructure Department (GS).
As Assistant to the department head in matters of strategy and quality, I provided several reports analysis the strategic activities of the department: in particular, I started the review of the CERN Masterplan.
As project manager, I was responsible for the construction of the AMS Payload Operation and Control Centre building: the main achievement was the delivery of the AMS building on time and budget in only 9 months with the appreciations of Prof. Ting and NASA General Bolden.

 

01/04/2008 - 30/03/2010: ITER - Responsible Officer for the Central Interlock (CIS) and Safety (CSS) Systems.

CODAC section, CDH Department.

I was Responsible Officer for the design of the ITER interlock and safety systems: two PBS out of ~30 of the ITER Project. These systems were intended for the protection of the ITER machine and for the protection of the people and the environment. Given the Nuclear nature of ITER, a part of the systems was subject to the French Nuclear Authorities. For the engineering design, the work implied the use of both state-of-the-art systems and customized for the one-of-a-kind experiment like ITER. This also included R&D activities conducted in collaboration with University and government funded laboratory and with R&D contracts with industries. The approval of the design activities went through the external review of experts.

   

30/10/2002 - 30/03/2008: CERN - Project Manager

Monitoring and Access Group, Technical Services Department.
As project manager, I was responsible for the management projects in the field of large, distributed control and monitoring systems used for safety-related applications. In particular,
I was Project Leader of:
    ¥    the Radiation Monitoring System for the Environment and Safety (RAMSES).
    ¥    the LHC Access Control System (LACS)
    ¥    the CERN Safety Alarm Monitoring System (CSAM).
For all this projects, I was responsible for the management of the financial, organizational, technical, purchasing and contractual aspects: notable achievements for all these projects were the delivery on time and budget and the setup of result-oriented contracts for the service maintenance.
Another particular achievement of this period was also my introduction of the functional safety standards (IEC 61508) at CERN. I was responsible for the support of the standards for which I was organizing coaching and trainings. For this activity, I kept the contact within CERN and with the international community following the new trends and contributing to the implementation of these standards: I wrote a number of international publications and participated to several conferences on this subject (See my List of publications).

 

 

30/10/1997 - 30/10/2002: CERN - System Engineering Section Leader

Monitoring and Access Group, Technical Services Division.

I was responsible of a team of staff in charge of software development, installation, maintenance and safety studies. The main focus was on the management of the financial, organizational, technical, purchasing and contractual aspects of distributed control and monitoring systems used for safety-related applications. The main achievement of this period was the standardization of the software methods and the progressive increase of the reliability of the applications.
 

 

 

01/03/1993 - 30/10/1997: JET, UK, EURATOM fellow and PhD with the Oxford University

Magnet Group, Magnet and Power Supplies Division. 

I was responsible for the analysis, design, realization and experimental validation of innovative control systems for the optimization of the plasma operating region in a nuclear fusion TOKAMAK-type reactor.
As part of my PhD, I derived a mathematical model of the plasma vertical position including the modeling of the switched power supplies and of the measurement system. I developed a new design control design methodology based on a Variable Structure Controller and on some theorems I wrote. The result was a novel non-linear controller (discrete time adaptive near-minimum time algorithm). The control design was followed by the simulation validation on the JET TOKAMAK and the experimental validation on the COMPASS-D TOKAMAK.
I participated in the design, realization, commissioning and operation of the JET machine protection and interlock system. In particular, I was responsible for the realization, installation, operation and maintenance of the software of the JET Machine Protection and Instrumentation System.
I was also a member of the team that operated the power supplies (Power Supplies Operation Engineer - PSOE) for the JET experiments. The shift work included the control of the power supply guaranteeing the correct operation of the systems. The PSOE was responsible for the operation of the 300MW power supplies during the experiments
The main achievement was the publication of the main results in  Automatica, in the IEEE Transaction on Control System Technology and in Fusion Technology (See my List of publications).
 

 

20/01/1992 - 01/03/1993, 05/08/1991 - 28/09/1991: JET, UK, Research Assistant.

I analysed, designed and published an innovative control systems for the stabilization of the vertical position of the plasma in a TOKAMAK (See my List of publications).

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

Member IEEE since 1999.
Member of the Italian Order of Engineers (Ordine degli Ingegneri di Napoli) since 1993.
Reviewer of Automatica, Fusion Engineering and Design, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, IEEE Transaction on Control System Technology

SKILLS

AND

ADDITIONAL

INFORMATION

Management, leadership and technical skills:

  • Demonstrated experience in team management, change management and resources optimisation.
  • Demonstrated experience in tendering and contracting supplies, construction works and services.
  • Demonstrated experience in the management of large-scale projects.
  • Demonstrated experience in managing international teams.
  • Extensive knowledge and practical experience in management accounting, Leadership and Development.
  • Extensive knowledge and practical experience in Project Management (PMI/PgMP)
  • Knowledge of Earned Value Management elements and risk management.
  • Extensive knowledge of safety analysis and functional safety standards with practical applications.
  • Expert knowledge and practical experience in fault detection and protection system.
  • In-depth academic expertise (PhD) and practical experience in system Identification and linear and non-linear control design covering the following techniques: Classical, LQR, LQG, H°, VSC, adaptive control. Practical experience of fast (microseconds) real-time implementation.
  • Good knowledge of electromagnetic fields and complex algebra (PhD).
  • Extensive knowledge of functional safety analysis and functional safety standards (IEC61508, IEC61511) with practical applications

 

Languages:

  • Fluent in English, University of Cambridge Proficiency in English. 
  • Fluent in French. 
  • Fluent in Spanish