Projects

I like research projects when they create the conditions to test ideas outside a benchmark and, ideally, to build something that somebody can actually use.

Projects I lead or have led

VISTA — Visual Assistance from Drones for Roadside Rescue

2024–2026 · Principal Investigator · Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport · €200k

VISTA investigates the use of drones, computer vision and AI to improve situational awareness and support post-crash emergency response. The project combines real-world experimentation with local authorities and emergency stakeholders with research on visual assistance from autonomous aerial platforms.

ACCESSO — Cash-Flow Management

2026–2027 · Scientific lead of the University research contract · €111.6k

Research and development of the Cash-Flow Management component within the ACCESSO project, funded under the PIA / PR Puglia FESR-FSE+ 2021–2027 framework.

ISCRA C / CINECA

2023–present · Principal Investigator

A sequence of competitive high-performance computing projects supporting our research:

• SPARTAN — Sparse Autoencoder-based Representation Tuning for Accurate Networks (2026–2027)
• ARTURO — Advancing Multimodal and Efficient Computer Vision for Autonomous Drones (2025–2026)
• MOSES — Multimodal Models for Semantic Image Understanding (2024–2025)
• DIANA — Deep Learning for Artwork Inpainting and Captioning (2023–2024)

PON AIM — Computational Methods for Cultural Heritage

2019–2023 · PON Attraction and International Mobility

My RTD-A position was funded through this programme, allowing me to develop a research line at the intersection of AI and cultural heritage that shaped much of my subsequent work on computer vision and visual arts.

Projects I contribute to

bioTIMBRE

2024–2027 · Spanish national research project

Research on robust hand-movement biometrics through computational and robotic methods, coordinated by the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

EDIH4DT

2024–2026 · European Digital Innovation Hub

Digital transformation activities for public administrations and companies.

SAFETY

2024–2026 · Accordi per l’Innovazione

AI and data-driven methods for personalised healthy-food pathways against obesity.

Earlier projects

Previous activities include NEED — Next-Gen Digital Diagnostics, a PNC-funded project on explainable and trustworthy AI for digital diagnostics; MIAFF — Modello Integrato di Analisi dei Fabbisogni Formativi, a PNRR project on training-needs analysis for small local authorities; FAIR — Future Artificial Intelligence Research, where I contributed to Spoke 6 on Symbiotic AI; and GRINS — Growing Resilient, INclusive and Sustainable, where I contributed to research on territorial sustainability.

Earlier work also includes the HAND PRIN project on handwriting analysis against neuromuscular diseases and a multidisciplinary Horizon Europe Seeds project on the digitisation and valorisation of written cultural heritage.