October, 26 2026
Paper accepted on SIOPT!
I am glad to announce that our paper "Sequential test sampling for stochastic derivative-free optimization" with Anjie Ding and Luis Nunes Vicente (Lehigh University) has been accepted on SIOPT.
Embedded Files
February, 9 2026
Giving a lecture @ AiroYoung 2026 PhD School!
I am glad to give a lecture entitled "Frank–Wolfe and friends: a journey into projection-free optimization methods" at the AiroYoung 2026 PhD School. You can find the slides here.
January, 21 2026
Paper accepted on SIMODS!
I am glad to announce that our paper "Fast and Simple Multiclass Data Segmentation: An Eigendecomposition and Projection-Free Approach", joint with Chiara Faccio (University of Padova), Margherita Porcelli (University of Florence) and Martin Stoll (TU Chemnitz), has been accepted on SIMODS.
November, 3 2025
COAP 2024 best paper award!
I am glad to announce that our paper "Inexact direct-search methods for bilevel optimization problems", joint with Youssef Diouane (Polytechnique Montreal), Vyacheslav Kungurtsev (University of Prague) and Damiano Zeffiro (University of Padova) , won the COAP 2024 best paper award.
September, 29 2025
Paper Accepted on JCN!
I am glad to announce that our paper "An Efficient Network-aware Direct Search Method for Influence Maximization", joint with M. Bergamaschi (University of Padova), S. Venturini (Northeastern University) and F. Tudisco (University of Edinburgh) has been accepted on JCN.
August, 18 2025
Paper Accepted on COAP!
I am happy to announce that our paper "Probabilistic Iterative Hard Thresholding for Sparse Learning", joint with M. Bergamaschi (University of Padova), A. Cristofari (Univeristy of Tor Vergata, Rome) and Vyacheslav Kungurtsev (University of Prague) has been accepted on COAP.
June, 21 2025
Organizing the stream "Zeroth and first-order optimization methods" at EUROPT 2025.
I am organizing (together with Andrea Cristofari, Cesare Molinari and Silvia Villa) the stream "Zeroth and first-order optimization methods" at the 22nd Conference on Advances in Continuous Optimization (Europt 2025) which will be held at the University of Southampton, UK in the period 29 June - 2 July 2025. Check the details here.
June, 10 2025
Paper Accepted on EJCO!
I am happy to announce that our paper "Direct-search methods in the year 2025: Theoretical guarantees and algorithmic paradigms", joint with J. Dzahini (Argonne National Lab), C.W. Royer (Université Paris Dauphine), D. Zeffiro (University of Padova), has been accepted on EJCO.
June, 3 2025
Plenary Speaker at the Third Vienna Workshop on Computational Optimization 2025
I am one of the Plenary Speakers at the Third Vienna Workshop on Computational Optimization 2025 (VWCO25) which will be held at the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Vienna from 4-6 June 2025. The program will include 15 plenary talks and a number of contributed presentations.
Check the details here.
January, 31 2025
Paper Accepted on TMLR!
I am happy to announce that our paper "Relax and penalize: a new bilevel approach to mixed-binary hyperparameter optimization", joint with Marianna De Santis (Università di Firenze), Jordan Frecon-Patracone (Télécom Saint-Etienne), Saverio Salzo (Università "La Sapienza" di Roma), Martin Schmidt (Trier University) and Sara Venturini (MIT) has been accepted on TMLR.
January, 23 2025
Paper Accepted @ ICLR 2025!
I am happy to announce that our paper "dEBORA: Efficient Bilevel Optimization-based low-Rank Adaptation", joint with Emanuele Zangrando (GSSI), Sara Venturini (MIT) and F. Tudisco (University of Edinburgh) has been accepted at ICLR 2025.
November, 15 2024
Paper Accepted @ AICS 2024!
I am happy to announce that our paper "Exploring the Potential of Bilevel Optimization for Calibrating Neural Networks ", joint with Gabriele Sanguin (Università di Padova), Arjun Pakrashi and Marco Viola (University College Dublin) has been accepted at AICS 2024.
September, 16 2024
Paper Accepted on Annals of OR!
I am happy to announce that our paper "Frank–Wolfe and friends: a journey into projection-free first-order optimization methods", joint with I.M. Bomze (University of Vienna) and D. Zeffiro (University of Padova) has been accepted on Annals of OR.
July, 23 2024
Paper Accepted on Nature Human Behaviour!
I am happy to announce that our paper "What we should learn from pandemic publishing", joint with Satyaki Sikdar, Sara Venturini, Marie-Laure Charpignon, Sagar Kumar, Francesco Tudisco, Santo Fortunato and Maimuna S. Majumder has been accepted on Nature Human Behaviour.
March, 25 2024
Paper Accepted on COAP!
I am happy to announce that our paper "Projection free methods on product domains", joint with I.M. Bomze (University of Vienna) and D. Zeffiro (University of Padova), has been accepted on COAP.
April, 16 2024
Complexity of Social Phenomena @UniPD
Prof. S. Fortunato (https://www.santofortunato.net/) will give this amazing course.
Looking forward to it!
April, 3 2024
Introduction to Quantum Algorithms @UniPD
Prof. G. Nannicini (https://sites.usc.edu/nannicini/) will give this amazing course.
Looking forward to it!
March, 25 2024
Paper Accepted on SIAM Journal on Optimization!
I am happy to announce that our paper "Stochastic trust-region and direct-search methods: A weak tail bound condition and reduced sample sizing", joint with L.N. Vicente (Lehigh University) and D. Zeffiro (University of Padova), has been accepted on SIOPT.
March, 25 2024
Paper Accepted on COAP!
I am happy to announce that our paper "Inexact direct-search methods for bilevel optimization problems", joint with Youssef Diouane (Polytechnique Montreal), Vyacheslav Kungurtsev (University of Prague) and Damiano Zeffiro (University of Padova) , has been accepted on COAP.
February, 20 2024
Operations Research meets Data Science @UniPD
Prof. I. M. Bomze (https://homepage.univie.ac.at/immanuel.bomze/) will give this amazing course.
Looking forward to it!
February, 19 2024
Organizing the Derivative-free and Simulation-based Optimization Stream @ISMP 2024!
I am one of the organizers of the Derivative-free and Simulation-based Optimization Stream @ISMP 2024.
ISMP is a triennial conference on mathematical optimization, gathering scientists from around the world to present and share their most recent advances and development in the field. It is also a unique opportunity to discuss new challenges and opportunities in practice and theory of mathematical optimization.
ISMP 2024 will be held in Montréal, Canada, from July 21st through July 26th, 2024.
Check the details here.
February, 19 2024
DFOS 24 @ UNIPD!
The 2nd Derivative-free Optimization Symposium (DFOS) will be held from Monday, June 24th to Friday, June 28th, 2024 at the University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
This is a single-track symposium, highlighting the latest trends in Derivative-free Optimization (DFO), with invited speakers only. The main goal is to find new connections between research focused in DFO algorithmic design and novel applications of DFO. A single-track workshop facilitates the interaction among participants, strengthening possibilities of collaboration.
February, 16 2024
Paper Accepted on BMC Malaria Journal!
I am happy to announce that our paper "A machine learning approach for early identification of patients with severe imported malaria" joint with R. Mazzieri (University of Padova), Alessandra D’Abramo, Serena Vita, Angela Corpolongo, Claudia Palazzolo, Tommaso Ascoli Bartoli, Francesca Faraglia, Maria Letizia Giancola, Enrico Girardi and Emanuele Nicastri (National Institute for Infectious Diseases "Lazzaro Spallanzani"), has been accepted on BMC Malaria Journal.
January, 9 2024
Paper Accepted on Scientific Reports!
I am happy to announce that our paper "Collaboration and topic switches in science" joint with S. Venturini (University of Padova), Satyaki Sikdar (Indiana University), Francesco Tudisco (University of Edinburgh) and Santo Fortunato (Indiana University), has been accepted on Scientific Reports.
December, 4 2023
Advanced Topics in Data Science @UniPD
Prof. L. N. Vicente (https://coral.ise.lehigh.edu/lnv/) will give this amazing course.
Looking forward to it!
September, 22 2023
Paper Accepted on Euro Journal on Computational Optimization!
I am happy to announce that our paper "Laplacian-based Semi-Supervised Learning in Multilayer Hypergraphs by Coordinate Descent" joint with S. Venturini (University of Padova), A. Cristofari (University of Rome "Tor Vergata"), Francesco Tudisco (Gran Sasso Science Institute), has been accepted on EJCOMP.
September, 12 2023
Paper Accepted on Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications!
I am happy to announce that our paper "A Unifying Framework for Sparsity Constrained Optimization" joint with M. Lapucci, T. Levato (University of Firenze) and M. Sciandrone (University of Rome, "La Sapienza") has been accepted for publication on JOTA.
July, 7 2023
Paper Accepted on Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications!
I am happy to announce that our paper "Retraction based Direct Search Methods for Derivative Free Riemannian Optimization", joint with D. Zeffiro (University of Padova) and Vyacheslav Kungurtsev (University of Prague) has been accepted for publication on JOTA.
June, 2 2023
Paper accepted @ ICML 2023!
I am happy to announce that our paper, "Learning the right layers: a data-driven layer-aggregation strategy for semi-supervised learning on multilayer graphs" joint with S. Venturini (University of Padova), A. Cristofari (University of Rome "Tor Vergata"), Francesco Tudisco (Gran Sasso Science Institute), has been accepted on the proceedings of this year's ICML conference.
Congrats to Sara that was awarded with the ICML participation grant!
June, 2 2023
Congrats to Sara on her Post-doc Position!
Congratulations to our PhD student Sara Venturini that will be a postdoctoral fellow @ MIT Senseable City Lab, mentored by Carlo Ratti and Paolo Santi
Best wishes to Sara on her future career!!!
April, 18 2023
DFO Stream @ EUROPT 2023!
I am happy to announce that Andrea Cristofari, Damiano Zeffiro and I are organizing the Derivative Free Optimization Stream at the EUROPT 2023 Conference (August 23-25, 2023 - Corvinus University of Budapest).
April,16 2023
Two Abstracts accepted @ IC2S2 2023!!!
Happy to anounce that two abstracts got accepted at IC2S2 2023:
Sara Venturini, Satyaki Sikdar, Francesco Rinaldi, Francesco Tudisco, and Santo Fortunato, "Social Contagion in Science", Plenary Session (only 16 out of 918 were accepted as plenary talks!!!).
Sara Venturini, Satyaki Sikdar, Marie-Laure Charpignon, Sagar Kumar, Francesco Rinaldi, Francesco Tudisco, Santo Fortunato, Maimuna S Majumder, "The COVID-19 research outbreak: how the pandemic culminated in a surge of new researchers", Parallel Session.
April,16 2023
Two Abstracts accepted @ NETSCI2023!!!
Happy to anounce that two abstracts got accepted at Netsci2023:
Sara Venturini, Andrea Cristofari, Francesco Rinaldi, and Francesco Tudisco, "Learning the right layers: a data-driven layer-aggregation strategy for semi-supervised learning on multilayer graphs".
Sara Venturini, Satyaki Sikdar, Francesco Rinaldi, Francesco Tudisco, and Santo Fortunato, "Social Contagion in Science".
March,30 2023
We have a Post-doc opening in Optimization! Drop me an email if interested.
January, 11 2023
Paper Accepted on Journal of Global Optimization!
I am happy to announce that our paper "An oracle-based framework for robust combinatorial optimization", joint with C. Buchheim (TU Dortmund), M. De Santis (University of Rome "La Sapienza") and E. Bettiol (University of Paris Nord), has been accepted for publication on JOGO.
December, 14 2022
Data Science in Action @ Unipd!
We are organizing an innovative teaching event called Data Science in Action.
Happy to host great colleagues and looking forward to all those amazing talks!
November, 9 2022
Paper Accepted on Computational Optimization and Applications!
I am happy to announce that our paper "Avoiding bad steps in Frank Wolfe variants", joint with D. Zeffiro (University of Padova), has been accepted for publication on COAP.
September, 21 2022
Paper Accepted on Journal of Complex Networks!
I am happy to announce that our paper "Louvain-like Methods for Community Detection in Multi-Layer Networks", joint with S. Venturini (University of Padova), A. Cristofari (University of Rome "Tor Vergata"), Francesco Tudisco (Gran Sasso Science Institute), has been accepted for publication on Journal of Complex Networks.
July, 29 2022
Paper Accepted on Computational Optimization and Applications!
I am happy to announce that our paper "Minimization over the l1-ball using an active-set non-monotone projected gradient", joint with A. Cristofari (University of Rome "Tor Vergata"), M. De Santis and S. Lucidi (University of Rome "La Sapienza"), has been accepted for publication on COAP.
July, 8 2022
DFO Stream @ EUROPT 2022!
I am happy to announce that Ana Luísa Custódio and I are organizing the Derivative Free Optimization Stream at the EUROPT 2022 Conference (July 29-30, 2022 - Nova School of Science and Technology, Lisbon).
July, 8 2022
Talk @ DFO Workshop!
I am very excited I will be giving the talk "A weak tail-bound probabilistic condition for function estimation in stochastic derivative-free optimization" at the Workshop Derivative-Free Optimization: Linking Algorithms and Applications (July 17 - 22, 2022 - University of British Columbia Okanagan, Canada).
Here is a link to the paper.
July, 1 2022
New website out!
Happy to announce that the new website is finally out!
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse