Dr. Anh Nguyen Nguyen Duc serves as Full Professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), with visiting scholar positions across Norwegian, Finnish, Italian, and Vietnamese institutions. His academic work centers on software engineering with emphasis on human, process, and ecosystem dimensions of development. Education: MS: Technical University of Kaiserslautern and Blekinge Institute of Technology (double degree) PhD: Norwegian University of Science and Technology Research fingerprint analysis reveals dominant focus on software startups (27%), supplemented by software processes (6%) and engineering education (5%). His expertise spans cybersecurity, global software development, business-driven methodologies, and software analytics, consistently addressing human-organizational challenges in dynamic development environments. Recent publications (2024-2025) demonstrate accelerating integration of AI in software engineering, particularly through large language models for startup assistance, generative AI adoption frameworks, and autonomous agent systems. Concurrently, he investigates risk management in software ventures and fairness in educational ML applications, reflecting interdisciplinary work bridging software engineering with business, AI ethics, and educational technology.
Tommaso Feraco is an Assistant Professor at the University of Padova , focusing on the intersection of education , psychology , and behavioral science . His work examines how social, emotional, and behavioral skills (SEBS) influence academic performance, well-being, and developmental outcomes across diverse populations, including adolescents, adults, and individuals with specific learning disabilities. Research trends highlight his contributions to character strengths , self-regulated learning , and adaptability in educational contexts. He has also developed methodological tools to address clustering analysis limitations in data science. His recent publications investigate SEBS applications in career readiness , pro-environmental behavior , and mental health resilience .
Prof. Rocco OLIVETO is a Full Professor at the University of Molise, affiliated with the School of Biosciences and Territory. His research spans software engineering, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and healthcare technology. He focuses on empirical studies of developer practices, AI-driven code analysis, vulnerability detection in smart contracts, and human-centric computing. His work also addresses challenges in game development, mobile app optimization, and wearable health monitoring systems. Notable research areas include code readability assessment, machine learning applications in healthcare diagnostics, and the effectiveness of AI tools like GitHub Copilot. He has contributed to projects like QualAI (continuous quality improvement for AI systems) and 2Vita-B (cognitive and physical rehabilitation systems). His empirical studies often bridge academic research with real-world developer workflows, emphasizing practical applicability. Prof. Oliveto's recent work explores topics such as automated gameplay analysis for game debugging, detection of engagement issues in video games, and robust methods for identifying security vulnerabilities. He has also investigated Dockerfile quality, developer frustration metrics, and the ethical implications of AI in administrative document simplification.
Andrea Maurino is a Full Professor at the University of Milano-Bicocca and leads the Insid&s LAB. His research focuses on data quality, knowledge graphs, machine learning, and their applications in healthcare, finance, urban planning, and organizational analysis. He explores cutting-edge techniques like Large Language Models (LLMs) for decision support systems and semantic annotation of tabular data. Key research interests include improving data quality frameworks for large RDF datasets, developing enterprise knowledge graphs for organizational insights, and applying AI to social media analysis and hate speech detection. His work bridges theoretical advancements with real-world applications such as smart city mobility prediction and nutritional strategies for healthy aging. Notable contributions include scalable tools like ABSTAT-HD for knowledge graph profiling and the 3d-clost mobility prediction model. Maurino’s interdisciplinary approach integrates data science with fields like psychology (ICD-11 decision support) and environmental science (ESG activity detection in financial texts). His lab collaborates on projects like Food NET, combining nutrition science with social network analysis. While no formal awards are listed here, his prolific publication record reflects sustained innovation in data-driven methodologies.
Tushar Sharma is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, Canada. His research focuses on software code quality , refactoring , sustainable AI , and machine learning for software engineering (ML4SE) . He holds a PhD in Software Engineering from Athens University of Economics and Business (2019) and an MS in Computer Science from IIT-Madras (India). Current affiliations: Dalhousie University, SMART Lab, IEEE Senior Member Past experience: Siemens Research (2019-2021), Siemens Corporate Technology (2008-2015) Research interests span code quality assessment, technical debt management, and sustainable AI. He founded Designite , a widely used software design quality assessment tool, and contributed to the book Refactoring for Software Design Smells . Recent work examines energy-efficient language models for code, reproducibility issues in configuration scripts, and human-guided code smell detection. Publication trends reveal expertise in code smell detection, refactoring techniques, and green AI. His articles address topics like commit message generation, model quantization, and empirical studies on code quality. Collaborative efforts include tools like DesigniteJava 2.0 and frameworks for attention mechanisms in code language models. Scientific recognition: Dean's Research Excellence Award (2025), Best Artifact Award (SCAM 2023) Grants: Mitacs Accelerate grants ($225K, $15K, $30K), NSERC Discovery Grant ($154M CFREF climate action project), DRA computing resources ($51K) He actively contributes to academic service as PC Co-chair (ICSE 2024), editorial board member (JSS), and organizer of workshops on technical debt. His media coverage highlights environmental impacts of AI and software quality challenges.
Alessio Malizia is a Professor of User Experience Design at the University of Hertfordshire, UK, and concurrently holds a full Professorship at the Computer Science Department of the University of Pisa, Italy. His research focuses on Human-Centered Systems, Human-Centered AI, and Design Fictions, emphasizing ethical AI, user participation, and the integration of visual programming languages. He has held roles at institutions including Sapienza University of Rome, IBM, Silicon Graphics, and Xerox PARC, where he researched neural networks and gestural interfaces. His work bridges academia and industry, addressing challenges in healthcare, agriculture, and education. Malizia’s career includes visiting research at Xerox PARC, associate professorship at the University Carlos III of Madrid, and senior lecturer roles at Brunel University London. He is an ACM Distinguished Speaker and actively promotes democratizing AI through tools like BlocklyBias and PyFlowML. His research spans touchless interfaces, collaborative design methodologies, and AI explainability. Key contributions include frameworks for socio-technical process modeling in agriculture, tools for bias detection in AI data, and visual languages fostering user participation in ML systems. His work on telemedicine and healthcare AI emphasizes co-design and trusted AI systems. Recent studies explore end-user development for smart environments, digital agriculture, and computational thinking education through tools like TAPASPlay. Awards: ACM Distinguished Speaker Key Interests: Human-AI Interaction, UX Design, AI Ethics, IoT Ecosystems, and Co-Creation Methodologies Notable Projects: Figmant, ModeLLer, and the Chatbot Usability Scale validation His grants and collaborations focus on improving AI transparency, user-centered design processes, and participatory innovation in technology adoption across sectors.
Fabrizio Riguzzi is a Full Professor at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Ferrara, Italy. His academic career spans over two decades at the same institution, having served as Associate Professor (2014-2020) and Assistant Professor/Ricercatore (1999-2014). He is an active researcher in the fields of Logic Programming and Statistical Relational Artificial Intelligence with numerous publications and leadership roles in international conferences. His educational background includes: PhD in Electronic and Computer Engineering from the University of Bologna (1999) Laurea in Computer Engineering from the University of Bologna (1995) Riguzzi's research focuses on probabilistic approaches to artificial intelligence, particularly probabilistic logic programming and statistical relational AI. His work bridges symbolic reasoning with probabilistic methods, developing frameworks for uncertain knowledge representation and reasoning. He has made significant contributions to probabilistic answer set programming, neuro-symbolic integration, and applications in areas like network intrusion detection and knowledge graph completion. His research demonstrates how logical formalisms can be enhanced with probabilistic reasoning to tackle real-world problems with uncertainty. An analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong trend toward integrating neural and symbolic approaches in AI, with significant work on probabilistic answer set programming frameworks. His research spans theoretical foundations of probabilistic logic programming, practical implementations, and applications in cybersecurity, knowledge graphs, and decision-making under uncertainty. The interdisciplinary nature of his work connects computer science theory with practical AI applications. His notable awards include: Alain Colmerauer 10-Year Test-of-Time Award at ICLP 2021 Best Paper Award for "BUNDLE: A Reasoner for Probabilistic Ontologies" at RR-2013 Highly Commended Paper Award for "Probabilistic declarative process mining" at KSEM 2010 Riguzzi has supervised several PhD students to completion, including Elena Bellodi, Riccardo Zese, and Giuseppe Cota, who have gone on to win prestigious awards for their theses. He has served in numerous editorial roles, including Associate Editor of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research and Editor in Chief of Intelligenza Artificiale. His leadership extends to organizing major conferences like ILP 2018 and serving on program committees for top AI venues including IJCAI, AAAI, and ECAI. He is a member of the ML@unife research group and has developed several online systems including cplint, TRILL, and an Online AUC calculator. His work has fostered collaborations across the AI research community, particularly in the areas of probabilistic logic programming and neuro-symbolic AI.
Simone Paolo Ponzetto is an Assistant Professor (Juniorprofessor) at the University of Mannheim since 2013, affiliated with the Research Group Data and Web Science. His research focuses on Semantic Web technologies, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and knowledge acquisition, particularly leveraging collaboratively built resources like Wikipedia. Prior to Mannheim, he held postdoctoral roles at Sapienza University of Rome and research positions at the University of Heidelberg and Stuttgart. His work includes pioneering projects like BabelNet, a multilingual semantic network. Ponzetto earned his PhD in Computational Linguistics from the University of Stuttgart, with interdisciplinary contributions to coreference resolution, semantic relatedness, and ontology learning. Research Interests: Unsupervised/weakly-supervised knowledge extraction Multilingual ontology learning and semantic networks Lexical semantics (word sense disambiguation, semantic similarity) Discourse semantics (coreference resolution, coherence modeling) Professional Contributions: Guest editor for a Artificial Intelligence Journal special issue on AI and Wikipedia Area chair for EMNLP-CoNLL 2012 and EACL 2014 Program committee member for ACL, AAAI, and other top conferences Lab/Team: Active in the Research Group Data and Web Science at Mannheim, advancing AI and NLP applications in collaborative knowledge systems.
Ambra Ferrari is a Research Fellow at the Interdepartmental Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMEC) within the University of Trento. Her work focuses on cognitive development, multisensory perception, and neuroimaging techniques. She teaches courses such as Cognitive neuroscience of infant development and contributes to the Cognitive Neuroscience program in the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences. Her research integrates methodologies from neuroscience and psychology to study infant cognition, social development, and sensory integration. She develops computational tools like the WTools MATLAB toolbox for analyzing infant neural data. Ferrari's work bridges developmental psychology, psycholinguistics, and sensory neuroscience, emphasizing how prior expectations guide perception during communication. In teaching, she employs journal clubs and seminars to foster critical analysis of empirical studies and contemporary theories in cognitive development. Her courses aim to equip students with skills to evaluate experimental research and understand neurobiological foundations of cognition. Her laboratory (CIMEC) focuses on adaptive behavior, cross-modal plasticity, and embodied communication. Current projects explore statistical learning mechanisms, attention modulation in multisensory perception, and the role of gesture-prosody interactions in language comprehension.
Francesco Greco is a Research Fellow and Ph.D. student at the University of Bari Aldo Moro's Computer Science Department, actively contributing to the Interaction, Visualization, Usability & UX (IVU) Laboratory under Prof. Maria Francesca Costabile. He completed a visiting research position at King's College London's Cybersecurity (CYS) group from October 2023 to March 2024 under Prof. Luca Viganò's supervision. His academic qualifications include: Master's degree in Computer Science (2022, University of Bari, full marks with honors) Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Digital Communication (2020, University of Bari - Taranto, full marks with honors) Greco's research centers on Human-Computer Interaction and Usable Security , with specialized expertise in End-User Development , Internet of Things security , Computer Vision , and eXplainable AI for cybersecurity . His work develops human-centered security tools that translate technical findings into actionable user protections, particularly through phishing detection systems that generate intuitive explanations. Analysis of his 15 recent publications (2023-2025) reveals a cohesive research trajectory focused on XAI-driven security interventions . Key themes include timing optimization for phishing warnings, human factors in cybersecurity incidents, and LLM-based educational tools. His work consistently bridges theoretical HCI principles with practical security applications, as demonstrated by tools like APOLLO for phishing email analysis. Greco actively collaborates within the IVU Lab ecosystem and maintains international partnerships, including his recent work at King's College London. His research output demonstrates significant contributions to usable security frameworks and cybersecurity education methodologies.
Cristian Secchi is a Full Professor in the Department of Engineering Sciences and Methods at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. His research focuses on robotics, control systems, and human-robot collaboration with an emphasis on safety, automation, and industrial applications. He teaches courses such as Industrial and Collaborative Robotics and Control of Robotic Systems. Research Interests: Design and implementation of control architectures for collaborative robots. Development of safe human-robot interaction frameworks compliant with ISO/TS 15066 standards. Integration of AI (e.g., large language models) into robotic motion planning. Autonomous systems for urban environments and surgical robotics. Publications highlight advancements in: Energy-efficient trajectory planning. Adaptive control strategies for uncertain environments. Multimodal human-robot communication. Diagnosis of mechanical systems via signal analysis. He leads the ARSControl research group and actively contributes to evolving production systems through smart modular technologies. His work bridges theoretical control frameworks with practical industrial and medical applications.
Joanna Cecilia da Silva Santos is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame , where she leads the Security and Software Engineering research lab (S 2 E) . She earned her Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Computing and Information Sciences from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from Federal University of Sergipe (UFS) . Research Interests: Her work focuses on the intersection of Software Engineering and Software Security , with specific emphasis on Code Generation , Program Analysis , Software Architecture , and Quantum Software Engineering . Recent projects include evaluating large language models for code generation, detecting regular expression denial-of-service vulnerabilities, and creating taint-based analysis tools for Java security. 2025: Code generation benchmarks, LLM performance in programming assignments 2024: Frameworks for secure code generation, ReDoS analysis, static analysis of deserialization 2023: GitHub Copilot complexity prediction, vulnerability characterization 2022: Transformer-based code smell detection, security evaluation datasets Scientific Awards: 2017 Best Paper Award at ICSA 2020 JOBS Workshop Research Pitch Competition Winner 2023 Distinguished Reviewer at ESEC/FSE 2014 CAPES Scholarship for Masters at RIT 2013 3rd Place Paper at XIII ERBASE Her research group engages in empirical studies of code vulnerabilities, automated security tools, and educational applications of language models, with funding reflected in multiple peer-reviewed publications.
Gemma Catolino is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science, University of Salerno, and affiliated with the Software Engineering (SeSa) Lab. She has also served as an Assistant Professor at Tilburg University and Eindhoven University of Technology through the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science from September 2022 to December 2023, and previously as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Delft University of Technology and Tilburg/Eindhoven institutions. PhD in Computer Science, University of Salerno (2020), supervised by Prof. Filomena Ferrucci MSc in Management and Information Technology, University of Salerno (2016, magna cum laude) BSc in Computer Science, University of Molise (2014) Her research centers on empirical software engineering, focusing on both technical and social aspects affecting software development. Key areas include code smells, defect prediction, testability, changeability, and the emerging concept of “Community Smells”—social dysfunctions in developer teams. She investigates how human factors, team diversity (especially gender), and developer experience influence software quality and maintenance effort, often using mining software repositories and machine learning techniques. Her recent publications span high-impact journals and conferences such as IEEE TSE, EMSE, JSS, ICSE, and ICSME, with a strong trend toward integrating social and technical metrics for just-in-time defect prediction in mobile applications, analyzing community dynamics, and applying software quality metrics to cybersecurity contexts like dark web analysis. She has also contributed to MLOps and serverless computing. She has received several honors including a DEI research grant (2020), Best Technical Paper at BENEVOL 2019, first and second place in ACM Student Research Competitions (2018, 2017), and the Best Master Thesis award from the Italian Software Metrics Association (2017). Gemma Catolino has been actively engaged in academic service as a referee for top journals like IEEE TSE, EMSE, JSS, and IST, guest editor for special issues, and program/organizing committee member for major conferences including ICSE, MSR, SANER, and MobileSoft, where she served as Program Co-Chair in 2022. She has also contributed as a teaching assistant, lecturer, and course coordinator in machine learning and software engineering courses. She leads and contributes to research projects involving international collaborations, particularly with researchers such as Prof. Filomena Ferrucci, Prof. Andy Zaidman, Prof. Willem-Jam van den Heuvel, and Prof. Alexander Serebrenik. Her work bridges empirical software engineering with practical tool development and socio-technical analysis, positioning her at the forefront of modern software engineering research.
Marco Maggini is a Full Professor in the Department of Information Engineering and Mathematics at the University of Siena, a position he has held since joining the university in 1996. His academic career spans over 25 years with foundational expertise in computer engineering and artificial intelligence, focusing on theoretical and applied machine learning research. His educational background includes: Laurea degree (cum laude) in Electronics Engineering from the University of Florence (1991) Ph.D. in Computer Engineering and Control Systems from the University of Florence (1995) Prof. Maggini's research encompasses machine learning, neural networks, kernel machines, and the integration of symbolic and sub-symbolic knowledge systems. He extends these foundations into practical applications including web mining, search engine technology, pattern recognition, natural language processing, and computer vision. This interdisciplinary approach bridges theoretical computer science with real-world implementation challenges across multiple domains. Analysis of his 15 most recent publications (2023-2025) reveals a dominant focus on multilingual NLP applications, particularly educational puzzle generation for low-resource languages (Italian, Arabic, Persian, Turkish) using LLMs. His work demonstrates consistent innovation in named entity recognition, commonsense reasoning evaluation, and cross-lingual adaptation techniques. Secondary research threads include medical imaging segmentation, molecular property prediction, and AI security vulnerabilities, reflecting his broad technical mastery across computer vision, bioinformatics, and adversarial machine learning. No specific scientific awards were mentioned in the provided documentation, though his editorial roles indicate peer recognition within the academic community. While student mentoring details are absent from the source material, his position as Full Professor and leadership of SAILab imply active graduate supervision. His extensive publication record (120+ papers) and editorial service suggest significant research grant involvement, though specific funding sources remain undocumented. He directs the Siena Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAILab), which serves as an interdisciplinary hub for advancing machine learning theory and applications. The lab's current projects emphasize educational technology, multilingual NLP systems, and the integration of symbolic reasoning with neural architectures, maintaining strong industry and international academic collaborations.
Ivano Malavolta is an Associate Professor in Software Engineering at the University of Urbino , focusing on energy-efficient software, software architecture, and model-driven engineering (MDE). His research bridges robotics, mobile systems, and sustainability, emphasizing empirical methods and industrial applicability. Key Research Areas: Energy-efficient software, microservices, robotics systems, collaborative modeling, mobile application performance. Affiliations: Department of Software Engineering, University of Urbino. His recent publications highlight empirical studies on energy consumption patterns in robotics, mobile apps, and AI systems. He has contributed to frameworks like the Green Software Measurement Model (GSMM) and tools for architectural technical debt analysis. Notably, he has co-authored 15+ peer-reviewed articles in venues such as Journal of Systems and Software , Information and Software Technology , and ACM/IEEE conferences . His work often involves cross-platform comparisons (e.g., Electron vs. Web, Pandas vs. Polars) and systematic mappings of software engineering practices.
