Experience

  1. Assistant Professor

    Heriot-Watt University

    Responsibilities include:

    • Research and development in Embodied AI and Robotics
    • Teaching courses in Python and Java Programming as well as AI (i.e., NLP and Conversational Agents)
    • Supervision of students at both undergraduate and postgraduate level (including PhDs)
    • Research grants development

Education

  1. PhD in Robotics and Autonomous Systems

    Heriot-Watt University & University of Edinburgh
    This thesis explores how artificial agents can learn to understand and use natural language in a grounded, embodied way, similar to humans. Specifically, it leverages the concept of language games to study how vision and language models can learn to solve multiple tasks.
    Read Thesis

  2. MRes in Robotics and Autonomous Systems

    Heriot-Watt University & University of Edinburgh
    This thesis proposes a new neural memory component for task-oriented dialogue systems called the Dialogue Attention Buffer. This component allows end-to-end neural models to achieve state-of-the-art performance on the bAbI-dialogue task.

  3. MSc in Computer Science

    University of Bari, Aldo Moro

    Specialisation: Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Engineering Result: full marks with distinction

    Thesis title: ‘Converse-Et-Impera: a Conversational Content-based Recommender System based on Hierarchical Deep Reinforcement Learning’

  4. BSc in Computer Science

    University of Bari, Aldo Moro

    Result: full marks with distinction

    Thesis title: ‘Content-based Recommender Systems based on Linked Open Data’

Skills
Programming languages
Python
Java
C++
Go
Machine learning libraries
Tensorflow
PyTorch
scikit-learn
Huggingface Transformers
Cloud computing platforms
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
Database management systems
MySQL
MongoDB
DynamoDB
Amazon Neptune
Awards
Italy Made Me Award
The Embassy of Italy in London ∙ November 2024
Member of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems
European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems ∙ March 2024
Best short paper award at SIGDIAL 2023
Special Interest Group on Discourse and Dialogue (SIGDIAL) ∙ October 2023
Shortlisted for best PhD thesis Award 2022
The Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance ∙ May 2022
Languages
100%
English
100%
Italian