The Rosanna Degani Young Investigator Award

1 – About the Programme

1.0 – What’s it all about?

This award is designed to encourage young investigators to present their work at CinC and to have it discussed with experts. It’s a unique gate to the international scientific community of CinC. You can find below the definition of a young investigator, requirements for the proof of eligibility, details of the review process that leads to the selection of the 4 finalists, and finally to the one and only winner. Also, all the steps to enter the YIA competition are listed in the detailed information set out below.

Of most importance is the requirement to submit a full paper (4 pages) by the time of the abstract deadline (together with an abstract and proof of eligibility) and to attend CinC with a senior co-author. As an incentive to participate in the competition, every eligible scientist who enters for the YIA competition will obtain a 50% reduction in the CinC conference fee.

Four YIA finalists are chosen and invited to present their research at the opening plenary session. The four finalists receive a 100% reduction in the CinC conference fee.* Four semi-finalists are also chosen and their papers will be presented in relevant sessions during the conference. In addition to the eminent honour of being a finalist or semi-finalist in the CinC YIA competition, each finalist will receive a prize of US$750 and the four semi-finalists, each US$250 at the closing plenary session. The overall YIA winner will also receive a commemorative plaque and an additional cheque for US$500.

1.1 – Rosanna Degani

Rosanna Degani was a pioneer in the field of electrocardiography from the Institute of System Dynamics and Bioengineering in Padua, Italy, and Chair of the Organizing Committee of the 18th Computers in Cardiology Conference held in Venice, 1991. Her tragic illness and premature death occurred shortly after the Venice meeting. While her professional and scientific value is still evidenced by her papers, many of which appear in the annals of CinC, the memory of her human qualities is reserved for those who had the privilege of meeting her. The YIA is also a tribute to these qualities.

1.2 – The Annual YIA Competition

After the 1991 Computers in Cardiology meeting, the Local Organizing Committee proposed the establishment of a Young Investigator Award to be named after Rosanna Degani, the late Chair of the Committee. The decision to establish the Award was made by the CinC Board of Directors in Durham, NC during Computers in Cardiology 1992. The first Award was made at CinC 1993, in London. The program was initially largely funded for ten years by the Venice Organising Committee, but monies were subsequently obtained to continue the award.

1.3 – The Aim of the Programme

The programme is designed to encourage young investigators to present their work and to have it discussed by the audience. It is also the intention to give young investigators an opportunity to enter the international scientific community through the main gate! The program also serves to encourage conference attendance of students and young researchers by offering all entrants who conform to the regulations a reduced registration fee (see 3.7).

1.4 – Participants

The number of submissions has been steadily increasing and is now of the order of 25 per annum. The competition is therefore tough, but the odds are clearly not insurmountable! Someone has to win this prestigious award.

1.5 – Winners of the Rosanna Degani Young Investigator Award

2023 Johann Vargas-Calixto
McGill University 
Prediction of Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy Using Events in Fetal Heart Rate and Uterine Pressure
2022 Marion Taconné
LTSI – University of Rennes 
Model-based and Unsupervised Machine-learning Approaches for the Characterization of Responder Profiles for Cardiac Resynchronization
2021 Francesca Margara
University of Oxford
Mavacamten Efficacy in Mutation-specific Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: an In-silico Approach to Inform Precision Medicine
2020 Wilson Good
The SCI Institute
Quantifying the Spatiotemporal Influence of Acute Myocardial Ischemia on Volumetric Conduction Speed
2019 Steffen Schuler (Joint 1st Place)
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
 Delay-Based Regularization for ECG Imaging of Transmembrane Voltages
2019 Yingjing Feng (Joint 1st Place)
LIRYC – University of Bordeaux
 Noninvasive One-Year Ablation Outcome Prediction for Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation Using Trajectories of Activation from Body Surface Potential Maps
2018 Ana María Sánchez de la Nava
Hospital GU Gregorio Marañón, Madrid
In-silico Safety Pharmacology on Intersubject Variability Population of Models: A Regression Model Approach
2017 Alessandro Masci
University of Bologna
Development of a Computational Fluid Dynamics Model of the Left Atrium in Atrial Fibrillation on a Patient Specific Basis
2016 Axel Loewe
University of Karlsruhe

Left Atrial Hypertrophy Increases P‐Wave Terminal Force Through Amplitude but not Duration

2015 Aurore Lyon
University of Oxford
Extraction of Morphological QRS-based Biomarkers in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy for Risk Stratification using L1 Regularized Logic Regression 
2014 Matthijs Cluitmans
Maastricht University
Physiology-based Regularization Improves Noninvasive Reconstruction and Localization of Cardiac Electrical Activity
2013 Julia Ramírez
Universidad de Zaragoza
Prediction of Sudden Cardiac Death in Chronic Heart Failure Patients by Analysis of Restitution Dispersion
2012 Emilie Bollache
INSERM U678 Paris
Automated Evaluation of Aortic Valve Stenosis from Phase-Contrast Magnetic Resonance Data
2011 Frida Sandberg
University of Lund
Model-Based Analysis of the Ventricular Response during Atrial Fibrillation
2010 Giacomo Tarroni
University of Bologna
MRI-Based Quantification of Myocardial Perfusion at Rest and Stress using Automated Frame-by-Frame Segmentation and Non-Rigid Registration
2009 Kun Wang
Newcastle University
A Comparison of 2D and 3D Edge Detectors in Semi Automated Measurements of Chamber Volumes Using 3D Echocardiographic Laboratory Phantom Images
2008 Emiliano Votta
Politecnico di Milano
From Real-Time 3D Echocardiography to Mitral Valve Finite Element Analysis: A Novel Modeling Approach
2007 Francesco Maffessanti
Politecnico di Milano
Development of a Method for Left Ventricular Shape Evaluation Based on Surfaces Obtained by Real-Time 3D Echocardiographic Images
2006 Simona Petrutiu
Northwestern University
Manifestation of Left Atrial Events in the Surface Electrocardiogram during Atrial Fibrillation
2005 Gil Zwirn
Tel Aviv University
Adaptive Attenuation Correction in Contrast Echo
2004 Xin Zhang
University of Minnesota
3-Dimensional Activation Sequence Reconstruction from Body Surface Maps
2003 Cristiana Corsi
University of Bologna
Automated Quantification of the Effects of Low Body Negative Pressure on Left Ventricular Function during Parabolic Flight
2002 Enrico G. Caiani
Politecnico di Milano
Automated Quantification of Regional Myocardial Perfusion by Analysis of Contrast-Enhanced Echocardiographic Images
2001 Diego di Bernardo
Newcastle University
Computer Modeling of Cardiac Repolarisation for the Analysis of the Electrocardiogram
2000 Eran Toledo
Tel Aviv University
Evolution of Compensatory Cardiovascular Control Mechanisms in Heart Transplant Subjects
1999 Ezana Azene
Tulane University
Wavefront-Obstacle Interactions: a Computational Study
1998 Michael Hilton
Birmingham Heartlands Hospital
A New Application For Heart Rate Variability: Diagnosing the Sleep Apnoea Syndrome
1997 Wenguang Li
Erasmus University
Quantification of Blood Volume Flow by Decorrelation Analysis of Radio-Frequency Intravascular Echo Signals
1996 Stephanie Caswell
University of Michigan
Separation of Ventricular Tachycardia from Ventricular Fibrillation Using Paired Unipolar Electrocardiograms
1995 Neil L. Greenberg
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Noninvasive Assessment of Diastolic Intraventricular Pressure Gradients using Color Doppler M-mode Echocardiography
1994 Eugene Seneta
University of Technology, Sydney
Optimizing Defibrillation Electrodes: Automating the Search for Better Configurations
1993 David Bloem
Illinois Institute of Technology