I am deeply fascinated by how machines can be programmed to simulate human intelligence, support domain experts in tackling complex problems, and uncover meaningful patterns hidden within large-scale datasets.
Here is a selection of my publications, organized by year. For a comprehensive and up-to-date list, please visit my scholarly profiles, linked from the home page.
Throughout my life, I have undertaken a variety of manual and intellectual jobs, and I have learned that—regardless of the task—excellence comes naturally when you are truly passionate about what you do. Research, however, has proven to be the most challenging endeavor I have ever undertaken. It is inherently multifaceted and requires a combination of technical and interpersonal skills that can only be developed through continuous growth and learning.
Despite these challenges, research is extraordinarily stimulating. Since embarking on this journey, Mondays have never felt exhausting—perhaps because, in research, you never truly disconnect!
❤️ Be passionate: Without passion, surviving in the academic world is nearly impossible.
💪 Work hard: I firmly believe that if you put in the effort, something good will eventually happen.
❓ Embrace doubt and uncertainty: This is where research truly begins; without them, you are not really doing research.
🎯 Choose the right topic: Academia can be highly competitive and is often driven by quantitative metrics such as publications and citations. Working on a "hot" topic may increase your visibility, but niche topics can also flourish with the right strategy.
🌍 Know the community: Build relationships—they should know you, and you should know them. Every research community also has its own paradigms, benchmarks, venues, and standards that are worth understanding.
👩🔬 Intuition vs. experience: New ideas often begin with intuition, but designing technically sound experiments and writing high-quality papers comes with experience. Early in your career, work alongside experienced researchers and learn from them.
🛠️ Start small: New ideas rarely emerge out of nowhere. Begin by replicating a recent study from a leading conference or journal. This provides a solid baseline for comparison and may reveal open questions worth exploring.
🔗 Tackle open problems: Every research community faces challenges that must be addressed to advance the state of the art. In machine learning, this may involve adapting existing methods to new problems or proposing novel approaches that outperform current solutions.
📚 Choose the right venue: Look at where the authors you frequently cite publish their work; this can help you identify the most appropriate venue for your paper. Above all, avoid predatory journals—one strong publication is far more valuable than many weak ones.
👥 Know your audience: Assume a reasonable level of expertise and avoid being overly didactic.
⏳ Structure your article like an hourglass: Start from the big picture, narrow down to the technical details, and broaden the discussion again in the conclusions.
✍️ Write with care: Use LaTeX for precision and pay attention to structure, grammar, punctuation, equations, figures, and formatting. If you do not care about your paper, why should reviewers?
🚫 Avoid overdoing self-citations: Be selective and balanced.
🙏 Respect reviewers: Acknowledge their voluntary work and carefully consider their feedback.
🌟 Be humble: Temper overly enthusiastic claims. Your work matters, but it is only one piece of a much larger puzzle and will always be open to improvement—or even falsification. Even Einstein presented his theories with remarkable caution.
I firmly believe that life is shaped by key moments—sometimes sparked by unconscious choices—that can unexpectedly change its course. One such moment for me is captured in this photo: receiving the Best Presentation Award at SFLA 2018 from Prof. Giovanna Castellano. The prize? A book on Fuzzy Logic by Lotfi Zadeh (which my pug later decided was surprisingly delicious!).
Looking back, that moment marked the beginning of a new chapter in my academic journey. And I truly believe that the best is yet to come!