Roberto Minelli

Roberto Minelli is a Scientific Collaborator and Academic Coordinator at the Software Institute, Faculty of Computer Science, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), where he also completed his Bachelor, Master, and PhD in Informatics. His work bridges research, education, and technology outreach, with a strong focus on software engineering, visualization, and developer interaction analysis.

His research centers on leveraging interaction data from development environments to enhance software comprehension and evolution. Key areas include software visualization, mining software repositories, reverse engineering, and program comprehension. He has pioneered work in visual metaphors such as Software Cities and explored immersive environments like virtual reality for code visualization.

The recent publications reflect a consistent trend in visual analytics for software engineering, with increasing emphasis on social and collaborative aspects of development (e.g., Discord, GitHub issues), large-scale system comprehension, and the integration of diverse data sources into unified visual models. His work combines empirical studies, tool development, and human-centered evaluation.

• Best Paper Award, IWESEP 2016
• Most Influential Paper Award, ICPC 2015
• Distinguished Reviewer Award, ICPC 2020

Minelli actively mentors students, co-supervising numerous Bachelor and Master theses in software visualization and analytics. He has secured multiple research and development mandates, including projects like Self-Driving Cars on Interactive Dynamic Tracks (SNF Agora) and Sphere Two: Swiss Pavilion @ Expo 2025. He plays a central role in organizing key events such as VISSOFT, SIESTA, and #FormulaUSI, and contributes to curriculum development and outreach programs targeting secondary education.

He is involved in several labs and teams, primarily the REVEAL research group (led by Prof. Michele Lanza) and the Software Institute at USI. His leadership in initiatives like CodeLounge and #FormulaUSI underscores his commitment to experiential learning and public engagement in computing.