(Tenure-Track Asst. Professor at Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy)

SIGNAL PROCESSING FOR ARTS & SCIENCE

(background art: Bruno Munari, Concavo Convesso, 1946)

ACADEMIC BIO

Roles:

  • Tenure-Track Asst. Professor (RTDb IIET/01A, ex ING-IND/31) at DII – Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy
  • Received the National Italian Habilitation as Associate Professor in Circuit Theory (09/E1) (validity 2020-2031)
  • Elected member of the steering committee of AIMI (Associazione di Informatica Musicale Italiana)
  • Professor of Circuit Theory (“Elettrotecnica”) and “Digital Circuits for Music Processing & Sound Synthesis”
  • Member of the Audio Engineering Society
  • Scientific Chair for Acusmatiq festival (2013-present)
  • Co-founder of the Acusmatiq-MATME association (2018-present) and the Italian Synth Museum (Museo del Synth)
  • Chair of the XXIII CIM (Ancona, 2022) and the 28th Int. Conf. on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx25, Ancona, 2025)
  • Coordinator of the Postgraduate specialization course “Nuove Tecnologie per la Performance” at UNIVPM
  • Tutor and co-tutor of several PhD students at UNIVPM and UNITN
  • PhD opponent/reviewer/committee for University of Milan, Polytechnic of Milan, University of Trento


Research:

  • Deep Learning for Signal Processing (Classification, Optimization, System Identification)
  • Assistive Technologies in Music (Music Therapy, Accessible Instrument Design)
  • Physics-based Sound Synthesis and Virtual Analog Modelling of Synthesizers
  • Wireless Networked Music Performance
  • Embedded Systems and Communication Protocols

Author and co-author of more than 60 scientific papers, 2 textbooks. Invited speaker and keynote speaker at several conferences.

List of publications

​Scopus profile
Scholar profile

INDUSTRIAL EXPERTISE

Roles:

  • R&D Consultant for Viscount International, has developed several products and sound generation engines, has coordinated the whole development cycle of the Physis+ line from scratch to production and test
  • Has founded a hi-tech startup company, DowSee Srl, and directed the works from 2012 to 2016. Currently the company works in the fields of IoT, machine learning and tailored software development.
  • Conducted R&D activities for numerous companies (fields: automotive audio, digital musical instruments, communication, lifts)
  • Created educational resources for companies in the musical industry field

Awards:

  • Telecom – Working Capital (Research Grant) 2011
  • eCapital (Seed Fund): 2012
  • ItaliaCamp (Startup accelerator)

ARTS & SOUND

Participated to the following performances as a technologist:

  • Waterfront @ Acusmatiq 2014: Solo nr.19 by K. Stockhausen performed by musicians floating on boats using WeMUST
  • Maritime Rites @ Acusmatiq 2015 by A. Curran, performed by musicians floating on boats using WeMUST
  • LOLA concert between Ancona and Cassino for Your Future Festival (video)
  • Networked Music Performance between Ancona and Berlin at Acusmatiq 2020, with Robert Lippok and Roberto Paci Dalò

​Participated to the following performances as artist/performer:

  • In C by Terry Riley, performed with vintage Italian synthesizers, sax, guitar and cello @ Museo del Synth 2018, (under the supervision of G. Antongirolami and G. Gentili)
  • Rima Glottidis, by L. Gabrielli and Økapi, a site-specific audio installation based on Deep Learning-generated voices, for Blooming festival 2018.
  • 3D sonification of My Kingdom by Future Sound of London, using moving cars @ Acusmatiq 2017
  • Modulo12 by L. Gabrielli, a site-specific performance with augmented cars and live electronics

Invited for a 2-day masterclass at the Conservatorio di Potenza, dealing with Live electronics and improvisation with software modular synthesizers (VCV Rack)

VOLUNTEER WORK

I’m active in my local community by learning and sharing knowledge on the following topics:

  • Artificial Intelligence: debunking, risks and opportunities
  • Information and media: information sources and diversity, data verification, chart understanding, statistics, bubbles and fake news
  • Gender equality, transfem theoretical approaches
  • EU refugees and asylum seeker rights, migration routes, history of oppressed peoples
A FEW WORDS ON THE TOP COVER

No, it is not computer graphics. It’s real art.

When I first stumbled into ​Bruno Munari’s work “Concavo Convesso” I was shocked. Building on simple materials and basic lighting, he had explained what we, in signal processing and functional analysis, call a projection, or a transform. Bruno Munari was an ingenious artist, mixing design, education and art in a very pragmatic way, with a humble attitude but ambitious visions.

In this work I see a lot of answers to signal processing questions. The device hangs on a thin wire and rotates freely, showing how the result of the projection differs depending on the way the light comes in. As a graduate student, when I was studying about Hilbert spaces and wavelet transforms, I was struck at how different scientific communities describe the same thing using different keywords and mathematical notations. 

Quite paradoxical. Signals convey information, but signal processing researchers sometimes lack the ability to share this information.

Signals convey information. They manifest the presence of life around us. Music can deliver emotional content. Speech can generate knowledge. Sounds reveal events in a living environment. Noise hides data deep behind apparently unintelligible phenomena.

Digital Signal Processing is a great playground where maths, systems theory, engineering and domain-specific knowledge meet. I like to devote my career to signals of all sorts.