Stefania Santini is a Professor of Systems and Control Engineering at the University of Naples Federico II, leading the Distributed Automation Systems (DAiSY) Lab. Her research focuses on nonlinear control, cyber-physical systems, time-delayed systems, and their applications in automotive engineering, transportation, smart manufacturing, and energy. She has held roles in the Academic Senate (2013–2021) and serves as Senior Editor for IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems and Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. She actively collaborates with industry on national/international projects, emphasizing resilience and innovation in distributed control systems. Her research investigates distributed automation challenges in multi-agent systems, networked control, and cyber-physical security. Notable areas include fault-tolerant control for autonomous vehicles, resilient microgrid management under cyber-physical threats, and digital twin-based predictive maintenance. Recent work explores AI-driven solutions in smart manufacturing and energy systems, combining domain-specific expertise with advanced control methodologies. Publications span control theory advancements (e.g., time-delay systems stability, event-triggered control) and applied domains (autonomous vehicle platoons, telescope tracking, healthcare analytics). She leads projects addressing real-world challenges like eco-driving optimization for electric vehicles and cyber-resilient infrastructure. Current efforts emphasize sustainability in smart cities and railway automation through hybrid reinforcement learning and optimal control architectures. Her contributions include over 150 peer-reviewed articles and patents, with active engagement in IEEE ITS initiatives. Research outcomes are validated through industry partnerships, lab experiments, and high-fidelity cyber-physical platforms. Key projects involve SME collaboration on predictive maintenance frameworks and microgrid resilience under communication delays/attacks.










