PhD in Computer Science

2019 - 2023

University of Pisa, ISTI-CNR

My work aims to investigate how a humanoid robot with social skills, specifically robot personalities and adaptive behaviours, can improve HRI applied to a serious cognitive game scenario. In this Doctoral Thesis, I designed and implemented a robot's two opposite personalities, extravert and introvert. Additionally, using a Reinforcement Learning technique (Q-learning), I developed adaptive behaviours according to the robot personality chosen. The robot autonomously adapts its behaviours during user interaction, recognising the current user engagement state. In total, 83 users (40 older adults), divided into the different stages of development, evaluated the implemented system through four expert interviews and five user tests.
Other activities: Participation in the "Digital Interactive Smart Spaces" Summer School, Como 11-15 July 2022, a topic HCI covers in intelligent spaces. During the summer school, the requirements for designing and developing a prototype for an innovative and valuable solution in the smart spaces field were conceived and identified

Master Degree in Digital Humanities

2015 - 2018

University of Pisa, PI

The research was based on identifying the visual problems, particularly regarding colour perception, of older adults and on the possible solutions to improve the usability and navigability within an application that controls the lights in the house and helps older adults remember to take their medicines and appointments. A web application that meets the users' needs and improves the application's usability and navigability was designed and implemented. Finally, the developed and implemented application was evaluated through a user test to evaluate usability and accessibility on 19 older adults of an RSA.

Bachelor Degree in Comunication Science

2012 - 2015

University of Cagliari, CA

This thesis develops several arguments that support and explain the fact-checking process. Two partially automated methods of fact-checking are proposed in the thesis.

PostDoctoral Research

01/01/2024--present

HIIS-ISTI-CNR,Pisa

• I am included the robot personality module designed and developed in my PhD thesis in the SERENI project. The project aims to develop a biographical platform composed of a web application and serious games solution integrated into a humanoid robot to enhance cognitive and social functions in older adults, aiming to prolong independent living. The platform uses personalized serious games to engage seniors by creating playful situations that leverage personal memories, fostering interactive experiences. We performed a 2-month user test with 15 older adults with MCI to test the system.

Graduate Research Fellow

01/01/2023--31/12/2023

HIIS-ISTI-CNR,Pisa

• Research activities related to my PhD, mainly finishing the data analysis of the user tests performed during the PhD and writing and revising the Thesis. Worked on the SERENI project for the design and development of a serious game using the user's biographical memory on Pepper robot and moderated a user test in a clinic with 16 MCI users. I integrated the TTS and STT Google Speech API on Pepper and integrated ChatGPT4 connected with Pepper and DALL-E3. Concurrently, I am including the robot personality module designed and developed in my PhD thesis in the SERENI project application.
• Other activities: I tutored two students, one with a master's degree in Digital Humanities in designing a serious game for the cognitive training of older adults and one with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science for implementing a memory serious game in Pepper robot.

Research Associate

12/02/2020--16/12/2022

HIIS-ISTI-CNR,Pisa

• Research activities related to studying and developing adaptive behaviour in a humanoid social robot for cognitive stimulation through cooking serious games development in a humanoid robot Pepper within the Human Interfaces in Information Systems (HIIS) Laboratory.
• Other activities: support of 3 three-year thesis students respectively, two from computer science and one from computer engineering, for the realisation of Android applications: in particular, support in the development of a quiz serious game for a Pepper; support in the development of a serious game based on user personal memories (SERENI project) and for development of an application for the 'identification and classification of emotions starting from physiological data using machine learning technique. Development of the SERENI project web page.

Teaching Assistant

a.y. 2020-21

a.y. 2021-22

University of Pisa

• Course: Progettazione e programmazione web. BSc in Digital Humanities
• I supported the teacher in remote exercises regarding web programming in JavaScript. The exercises concerned the contents and topics explained by the professor to the students during the lectures. Specifically, my task during the exercises was to support the students while carrying out the assigned tasks, in particular, helping them if they did not understand the exercise, helping them solve problems and errors in the code, and providing explanations on any doubts encountered during the exercise.

Graduate Research Fellow

15/11/2018--31/10/2019

HIIS-ISTI-CNR,Pisa

• AAL Project Petal and the Music Quiz Game project. The main activity undertaken in the AAL Project Petal is the development and implementation of an IoT application. The aim is to provide some useful services for monitoring the activities done by the older adults at home. The data shown in this application are obtained using different sensors: Philips Hue Lights, Great Luminaire, smartwatch Kobwa Lemfo LEM7, Philips sensors (motion, ambient light, temperature, humidity), estimate beacon, Minew sensors (doors and window sensors).
• Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) the Music Quiz Game project.The researcher provides research materials about the topics of human-robot interaction and socially assistive robots and developed a primordial idea for the game. The researcher analyzed the state of the art of this field and started to implement scripts that modulate the behavior of the robot (es. movements, show emotions, modify animations). The programming language used was mainly Python combined with the software Choregraphe

Intership

09/2017--12/2017

HIIS-ISTI-CNR,Pisa

• Study of the state of the art of persuasive technologies.
• Study of the state of the art of using lights as a persuasion strategy, for improve the experience of an elderly person inside the home.
• Identify persuasive strategies within a personalization environment for interactive applications.