Curriculum

Current Activities

Assistant Professor, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Topics of interest:

• Generative AI

• Generative semantic communication

• Hypercomplex and Quaternion neural network

• Multimodal Representation Learning

Completed Activities

PostDoc, Sapienza University of Rome

Topics covered: generative compressed sensing and hypercomplex neural networks.

Ph.D. candidate, Sapienza University of Rome

I successfully completed (with honors) the Ph.D. in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) at the Intelligent Signal Processing and MultiMedia (ISPAMM) Lab dealing with Generative Deep Learning, and low-complexity models for computer vision and audio processing. My research activities focused on lightweight and efficient deep generative models by defining them in hypercomplex domains such as quaternion one and exploiting hypercomplex algebras to capture latent internal relations in multidimensional inputs such as color images and multichannel audio. Advisors: Prof. Aurelio Uncini, Prof. Danilo Comminiello.

Research Scientist, Bambino Gesù Hospital

I have been part of the Innovation and Research team of the hospital, working in the EU-JAV project founded by the European Union’s Health Programme. We study the sentiment around vaccine and vaccine hesitancy in social networks.

Research Scientist, Sapienza University of Rome

I was part of the ERC project Inscribe which explored the three earliest Aegean scripts in Europe. The aim was to analyze through deep learning techniques the relationship between these scripts and to apply a multi-stepped decipherment strategy.

Data Science Course Lecturer, Skienda

I held lectures on the data science main concepts and on introduction to Python to graduate students to be hired by the company.

Journals and Conferences Roles

• Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems (TNNLS).

• Associate Editor for Elsevier Digital Signal Processing (DSP).

• Guest Editor of the IEEE/CIC China Communications Special Issue on "Semantic Communications: Theories, Technologies and Applications", Feature Topic, Vol. 21, No. 7, 2024.

• Workshop Organizer ICML2025 Workshop on Machine Learning for Wireless Communication and Networks (ML4Wireless), ICML 2025.

• Special Session Chair for IJCNN 2025.

• Technical Chair for the IEEE Symposium on CI in Image, Signal Processing and Synthetic Media (IEEE CISM) at IEEE SSCI 2025.

• Competition Chair for IEEE Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP) 2024.

• Publicity Chair for the IEEE Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP) 2023.

• Special Session Organizer "Generative Semantic Communication: How Generative Models Enhance Semantic Communications" at IEEE ICASSP 2024.

• Special Track Organizing Committee Member for the special track "Multimodal Learning in Biomedical Applications", IEEE CBMS 2024.

• Session Chair at MLSP, ISCAS, and ICASSP.

• Area Chair for IJCNN 2025.

• Area Chair for ICASSP 2026.

• Reviewer for IEEE TNNLS, IEEE TSP, IEEE TCCN, IEEE WCL. 

• Reviewer for NeurIPS, ICLR (Notable Reviewer for ICLR2025), IEEE ICASSP, IEEE MLSP.

Awards

• Young Researchers Award - Special Mention in AI by Gruppo 2003 for the research conducted on lightweight neural networks via parameterized hypercomplex convolutions (Paper here), 2025.

• Doctoral Dissertation Award Runner-up by the International Neural Networks Society (INNS) for the PhD thesis "Hypercomplex Generative Models: AI Beyond Clifford Algebra".

• Doctoral Thesis "Elio Di Claudio" Award by the Department of Information Engineering, Electronics, and Telecommunications of Sapienza University of Rome for the PhD thesis "Hypercomplex Generative Models: AI Beyond Clifford Algebra".

• Caianiello’s Best PhD Thesis Award by the Italian Society on Neural Networks for the PhD thesis "Hypercomplex Generative Models: AI Beyond Clifford Algebra".

• Best Manuscript Award for the nonlinear circuits and system track at ISCAS 2022.

• Best Scientific Contribution Finalist for the paper "Generative Semantic Communication: Diffusion Models Beyond Bit Recovery", RESTART Plenary Workshop, Catania, July 2024.

• Top 5% Outstanding Paper Honorable Mention for the paper "PHYDI: Initializing parameterized hypercomplex neural networks as identity functions" at IEEE MLSP 2023.

• Top 10% Outstanding Paper Honorable Mention for the paper "Dual quaternion rotational and translational equivariance in 3D rigid motion modelling" at IEEE MLSP 2023.

• Notable Reviewer at ICLR 2025.

• Top 5% of the students of the Data Science Master's degree at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.

Invited Talks

• Multimodal Learning Beyond Cosine Similarity, Singapore Management University, Singapore, April 2025.

• From noise to innovation: generative models in ICT, Petaspin School, Messina, Italy, December 2024.

• Multimodal Representation Learning and Alignment Beyond Cosine Similarity, New York University, NYC, USA, November 2024.

• Generative Models for Semantic Communications, ET 2024, Bari, Italy, June 2024.

• Demystifying Hypercomplex Algebra, Università di Pavia, Italy, March 2024.

• Diffusion models beyond bit recovery, BrainLink Workshop, Korea, November 2023.

• Generative Semantic Communication: How Generative Models Enhance Semantic Communications, Workshop on Semantic Communication for 6G, in conjunction with IEEE SECON 2023, September 2023.

• Un tuffo nei modelli generativi, ProfessionAI Live Meeting, 2022.

• Simplify by hypercomplex: going beyond the real domain, Harmonai Hangs, August 2022.

• Generative Deep Learning in the Quaternion Domain, IBM Research, Zurich, April 2021.

• Quaternion Variational Autoencoders, Sussex University, Brighton, UK, November 2020.

Projects and Funding

• PI of the funded "Avvio alla Ricerca"  project "Increasing deep generative models reproducibility and expressivity through quaternion algebra", 2022.

• PI of the funded "Terza Missione"  project "YRIA: Young Researchers in Action", 2024-2025. 

• PI of the funded CINECA ISCRA C project, granted 80000 computation hours on the Leonardo Cluster, 2024.

• PI of the funded CINECA ISCRA C project, granted 56000 computation hours on the Leonardo Cluster, 2025.

• PI of the funded CINECA ISCRA C project, granted 80000 computation hours on the Leonardo Cluster, 2025.

Publications

The complete list is available on the page Publications.

Supervision

Ph.D. Co-Supervision (Principal Supervisor: Prof. Danilo Comminiello)

• Eleonora Lopez, Ph.D. in Information and Communication Technologies, Sapienza University of Rome, 2021-2025.

• Luigi Sigillo, Ph.D. in Information and Communication Technologies, Sapienza University of Rome (ongoing).

• Christian Marinoni, Ph.D. in Information and Communication Technologies, Sapienza University of Rome (ongoing).

• Giordano Cicchetti, Ph.D. in Information and Communication Technologies, Sapienza University of Rome (ongoing).

M.Sc. Thesis Co-Supervision (Principal Supervisor: Prof. Danilo Comminiello)

• Mattia Pannone, M.Sc. Thesis Student in Engineering in Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, 2025.

• Emanuele Frasca, M.Sc. Thesis Student in Engineering in Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, 2025.

• Emanuele Rucci, M.Sc. Thesis Student in Engineering in Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, 2025.

• Francesco Fé, M.Sc. Thesis Student in Engineering in Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, 2024.

• Federico Ambrogio, M.Sc. Thesis Student in Engineering in Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, 2024.

• Mattia Seu, M.Sc. Thesis Student in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Sapienza University of Rome,2024.

• Giovanni Pignata, M.Sc. Thesis Student in Engineering in Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, 2024.

• Andrea Rodriguez, M.Sc. Thesis in Engineering in Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, 2023.

• Daniela Moretti, M.Sc. Thesis in Engineering in Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, External Advisor: Claudio Greco (ELMAN), 2023.

• Marawan Hassaan, M.Sc. Thesis in Engineering in Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, 2022.

• Gioia Mancini, M.Sc. Thesis in Control Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, 2022.

• Christian Brigone, M.Sc. Thesis in Control Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, 2022.

• Luigi Sigillo, M.Sc. Thesis in Engineering in Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, 2022.

• Giuseppe Ciocci, M.Sc. Thesis in Engineering in Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, 2021.

• Eleonora Lopez, M.Sc. Thesis in Engineering in Computer Science, Sapienza University of Rome, 2021.

• Marina Carnemolla, M.Sc. Thesis in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Sapienza University of Rome, 2021.

• Edoardo Cicero, M.Sc. Thesis in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Sapienza University of Rome, 2021.