Vincenzo LOIA | Curriculum

* Biography

Vincenzo Loia graduated in Computer Science at the University of Salerno in 1985, and received his PhD in Computer Science in 1989 at the Université Pierre & Marie Curie Paris VI, France. He is currently a Computer Science Full Professor at the University of Salerno, where he served as a researcher from 1989 to 2000, and as associate professor from 2000 to 2004. Since the beginning of his career he has shown a deep and operational research interest, in particular in the use of innovative approaches for complex problems solving through the use of new paradigms of software design and programming, i.e. those of agent and multi-agent systems; in the design and experimentation of systems for approximate reasoning, through the synergistic use of standard semantic technologies, Description Logic and Fuzzy Logic; in the definition of original conceptual data analysis methodologies for knowledge extraction from unstructured sources; in the implementation of decision support systems conveyed by artificial intelligence models, cognitive architectures, computational intelligence and granular computing.
With respect to the latter, he demonstrates the capability to understand, apply and contribute to research on models, such as Granular and Cognitive Computing, which strongly base their principles on aspects concerning the study and analysis of human cognitive processes. These research interests have characterised his international outreach through which he has established a rich network of scientific collaborations with researchers worldwide (including a close relationship with the founder of the Fuzzy theory, Lotfi Zadeh).
Over the years, the pillars of his scientific research have been applied in various application domains, from medicine to law, and more recently in the cyber-intelligence field. It is exactly in this latter context, that he shows his great aptitude to multidisciplinary, by coordinating the scientific committee of the "Multidisciplinary Observatory for the fight against organised crime and terrorism", which implements ongoing scientific research applied to the Computational Intelligence area and aimed at contrasting terrorist activities spread on the Web and Deep Web, to support information analysis projects for crimes of the DNA (National Anti-Mafia and Counter-Terrorism Directorate). Moreover, his competences are used to support research related to the 4th industrial revolution, as demonstrated by his scientific responsibility and participation in national projects on smart manufacturing (Leonardo 4.0 - €10M), and international projects on cyber physical systems (CPS4EU - €100M).
Lastly, both in the project area and in scientific research, he has shown remarkable team-building skills, bringing together heterogeneous knowledge around original and innovative ideas. All this is witnessed by the large number of co-authorships, on scientific publications, with colleagues from other scientific- disciplinary fields and by the collaborations, established in the framework of research and development projects, with corporate partners and departments in scientific areas, including also those different from Computer Science.


* Scientific Profile

He serves as:
- Editor-in-Chief and Founder of the international journal "Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing", Springer- Verlag;
- Editor-in-Chief of the international journal "Evolutionary Intelligence", Springer-Verlag,
- Editor Responsible for Special Issues of the international journal "Soft Computing", Springer-Verlag;
- Co-Editor in Chief of the international journal "Information Processing Systems";
- Associate Editor of the journals IEEE Transaction Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Systems; IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems; IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems.
He had several roles in the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, including:
- Chair of Emergent Technologies Technical Committee (ETTC), - Chair of Task Force "Intelligent Agents",
- Chair of Task Force "Ambient Intelligence",
- Chair of IEEE CIS Italian Chapter,
- Vice-Chair IEEE Intelligent Systems Applications Technical Committee.
He wrote about 350 scientific papers, which have been published in proceedings of international conferences, book chapters, international journals. His H-index is 36.
In the last ten years, he was Committee Member at more than 40 IEEE Society conferences. He was keynote speaker in several international conferences in Europe, USA, Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea.


* R&D Initiatives Profile

He participated at more than 20 research projects, and in the last years he has been Scientific Director of the following projects:
- HABITAT - Harbour Traffic Optimisation System - project amount €15M;
- Innovative tools and solutions to support the maintenance management of electricity grids with the massive use of renewable energy generators- project amount €5.6M;
- New paradigms and technologies for Collective Knowledge in E-Society - project amount €4M;
- LEONARDO 4.0 - project amount €10M.
He has been Auditor in several MIUR Committees (JTI ARTEMIS, Large Strategic Projects (GPS), Auditor art. 12 according to DM 593/2000, Projects art. 9/6 Law 297/1999), EU FP7 Committees, Research Projects Auditor for the PRC (Popular Republic of China) in Hong-Kong region.


* Institutional positions and activities

He has held several institutional positions (University of Salerno):
- Director of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science (Dip. di Matematica e Informatica) (from November 2006);
- Director of the Department of Computer Science (Dip. di Informatica) (from December 2012);
- Director of the Department of Business Sciences - Management & Innovation Systems (DISA-MIS) (Dip. di Scienze Aziendali - Management & Innovation Systems) (from October 2015);
- Coordinator of the College of Department Directors (from September 2014);
- Member of the Academic Senate of the University of Salerno (from February 2016 to October 2019);
Currently he is:
- Rector of the University of Salerno (since November 2019).
- Scientific Director of the Multidisciplinary Observatory for the fight against organised crime and terrorism, established between University of Salerno and Direzione Nazionale Antimafia e Antiterrorismo (DNA, National Anti-mafia and Counter-Terrorism Directorate) (since 2018).
- Coordinator of the Mobility, Teaching and Research Programs in the Artificial Intelligence, Mathematics and Computer Science fields, International Cooperation with the National University of Tainan, Taiwan (since 2009).


* Teaching Activities

During his academic career, prof. Loia has held several teaching positions in various Degree Courses at the University of Salerno, including Computer Science Fundamentals, Multi-Agent Systems, Semantic Web, Methodologies and Tools for It Project/Service Management, Safe Systems, Situation Awareness Systems, Safe and Awareness Systems, Cognitive Defense Systems, Situation Awareness and International Security.
He has also been invited as Visiting Professor in Degree Courses, Masters and training seminars at prestigious national and international Universities.