To her, flight data “speak”. Viola Mangiantini is a young mathematician in her thirties, specialising in data analysis, machine learning and deep learning. She has a passion for uncovering the language code of data and the ability to use it to enhance simulation systems for pilot training. Viola is a Project Engineer at Leonardo’s Venegono site, specifically within the Advanced Analytics & AI for Training Systems team of the Simulation, GSE and Training Systems unit. Together with around ten other mathematicians, aeronautical engineers and computer scientists, she works on the most advanced technologies currently available to improve pilots’ training and learning paths within a flight simulation environment where real and virtual merge.

Originally from Florence, Viola graduated in Mathematics from the University of Florence. She later specialised in Mathematical Physics at the University of Milan, focusing on dynamical systems and celestial mechanics. In 2022, she completed a second-level Master’s degree at the University of Turin, dedicated to mathematical and physical methods for aviation sciences.

“I quickly realised that teaching was not for me: I was certain I wanted to work in industry because I love the practical application of what I studied,” she explains. The opportunity came during her Master’s programme, which offered her a six-month internship at Leonardo’s Turin hub in Corso Francia. “I completed the internship in September 2022 and the following month I was hired in Venegono. For four years now I have been processing and studying flight data, including speed and attitude data, for different types of aircraft. Together with my colleagues, I then process them using artificial intelligence techniques with the aim of improving or innovating flight simulation.”

What she finds most engaging is turning general requirements into concrete solutions, moving from overall analysis to the development of tools applicable in real-world scenarios. The environment certainly supports this: “Leonardo is a stimulating and dynamic context,” she emphasises, “and there is a great relationship with all colleagues, many of whom are even younger than me. Here every day is different from the last: we work on cross-functional projects that are constantly evolving.”

Far from her native Florence, Viola has gradually built a network of new friends while maintaining long-standing relationships. Above all, she has expanded her musical horizons: alongside her studies of the piano and her love for Bach, she has developed a passion for rock music – particularly the Red Hot Chili Peppers – and taken up playing the drums. The geometric precision of Bach’s counterpoint and the symmetry of his canons, as well as fractions, polyrhythms and asymmetric divisions in drumming, are perfectly suited to the mind of a young mathematician. If data “speak”, Viola indeed has the gift of knowing how to listen to them, decipher them and make them “play”.