30 April 2026
Start time
17:30 – 19:00 – GMT+01:00 (Europe/Amsterdam)
Location
TU Delft Aula, Mekelweg 5, Senaatszaal
On Thursday 30 April 2026, the PhD Defence and Awarding Ceremony of Alessandro Cattapan from Italy, will take place. His promotors are Professor Michael McClain and Professor Mario Franca and his co-promotor is Dr. Konstantina Katsanou.

The title of the thesis is:
From Source to Stream: Measuring and Modelling Sediment Shape Evolution in Mountain Catchments

Research Summary
This work is motivated by a simple yet profound curiosity: the desire to pick up a stone from a riverbed and tell how far it has travelled, just by examining its shape. Addressing this overarching question, three main contributions are provided. First, a new image segmentation algorithm is developed to extract the outline of pebbles from photographs collected in the field, even in challenging lighting conditions, with shadows. This enables the reliable collection of sediment shape data directly from natural environments. Secondly, a physically based model is introduced to estimate the evolution of sediment shape along river courses. The model takes into account the natural variability of fragment shapes originating from outcrops of specific lithologies, which were monitored and analyzed for the first time. The third contribution involves the estimation of travel distances based on sediment shape. A direct method is presented, and its accuracy and precision are discussed, alongside a probabilistic method, based on a Bayesian framework, providing the opportunity to include multiple information sources in the estimates of travel distances.

Livestream
Below you can find the schedule:

17.30 – 19.00 Presentation, Public defence & Awarding ceremony

Please note: you cannot enter the room after the presentation has started.

Livestream
Follow Alessandro Cattapan Defence online! The event will be live-streamed starting 17:30 CET

To be provided later(opens in a new tab)