{"id":102,"date":"2026-03-12T18:05:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T17:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cornerstone.web.roma2.infn.it\/?p=102"},"modified":"2026-03-12T18:06:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T17:06:47","slug":"cornerstone-a-journey-completed-a-path-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cornerstone.web.roma2.infn.it\/?p=102","title":{"rendered":"CORNERSTONE: A Journey Completed, a Path Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>After two years of intensive research, the CORNERSTONE project (PRIN 2022 PNRR, code P2022RKXH9) has officially reached its conclusion. What began as an ambitious effort to bring physics-informed machine learning to bear on solar event forecasting has grown into a coherent, multi-disciplinary scientific programme \u2014 one built across two institutions and a genuinely shared vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The project brought together two complementary teams. At the University of Genova, <strong>Prof. Federico Benvenuto<\/strong> led a research line focused on discovering new, physically meaningful feature spaces for solar event prediction. <strong>Dott. Mugatwala<\/strong>, <strong>Dott. Miriana Catalano<\/strong>, and <strong>Dott. Daniele Pedemonte<\/strong> developed two powerful approaches to this challenge: a Genetic Algorithm framework that evolves optimal symbolic equations through selection, crossover, and mutation; and a Physical Symbolic Optimisation method, combining neural networks and reinforcement learning to generate expressions that not only fit the data but respect physical unit constraints. At Roma Tor Vergata, <strong>Prof. Dario Del Moro<\/strong> led the unit as Co-PI, providing the scientific vision that shaped the project from the outset and coordinating its development throughout. He also represented CORNERSTONE internationally, presenting this work at the United Nations\/Costa Rica Workshop on Machine Learning Applied to Space Weather in San Jos\u00e9 in February 2026. Under his supervision, <strong>Dott. Stefano Scardigli<\/strong> built the data infrastructure \u2014 a carefully curated database integrating over a decade of solar observations \u2014 while <strong>Dott. Simone Chierichini<\/strong> developed a mask-aware Transformer architecture for flare forecasting with measurable gains over prior baselines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CORNERSTONE ends, but the questions it raised do not. How do we move from deterministic predictions to genuine probabilistic ensembles? How do we extend reliable forecasting from flares to CMEs and SEPs? How do we close the gap between research models and operational space weather services? These are the threads we intend to keep pulling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Five publications are currently in preparation. The tools, models, and collaborations built along the way are perhaps the most durable legacy of all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To everyone who contributed: thank you. The Sun has not finished surprising us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cornerstone.web.roma2.infn.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GGI_Sun-Earth.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-103\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After two years of intensive research, the CORNERSTONE project (PRIN 2022 PNRR, code P2022RKXH9) has officially reached its conclusion. What began as an ambitious effort to bring physics-informed machine learning to bear on solar event forecasting has grown into a coherent, multi-disciplinary scientific programme \u2014 one built across two institutions and a genuinely shared vision. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-project-action","tag-project"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstone.web.roma2.infn.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstone.web.roma2.infn.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstone.web.roma2.infn.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstone.web.roma2.infn.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstone.web.roma2.infn.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstone.web.roma2.infn.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstone.web.roma2.infn.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstone.web.roma2.infn.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstone.web.roma2.infn.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstone.web.roma2.infn.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstone.web.roma2.infn.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}