Ruggero Donida Labati

Curriculum Vitae

June 10, 2024

Table Of Contents

1 Short biography
2 Teaching and support activities
3 Education and research activities in national and international institutes
4 National and international research projects
5 Participation in national and international research groups
6 Participation as a speaker in international conferences
7 Awards for the research activities
8 Professional activities
9 Research activity
10 Publications

1 Short biography

1.1 Contact Information

Ruggero Donida Labati
Associate Professor
Università degli Studi di Milano
Department of Comput Science
Via Celoria 18 - 20133 Milano (MI) - Italy
Telephone: +39 02 503 16377
Web: http://homes.di.unimi.it/donida
Email: ruggero.donida AT unimi.it

1.2 Education

• February 2013
  Ph.D. in Computer Science at Università degli Studi di Milano.
  Thesis title: “Contactless Fingerprint Biometrics: Acquisition, Processing, and Privacy Protection”.
  Supervisor: Prof. Vincenzo Piuri.
  Co-supervisor: Prof. Fabio Scotti.
• December 2008
  M.Sc. Degree in Computer Science and Information Technology from the Università degli Studi di Milano.
  Thesis title: “Algoritmi Adattativi per la Segmentazione di Immagini Iridee”.
  Supervisor: Prof. Fabio Scotti.
• October 2006
  B.Sc. Degree in Computer Science from the Università degli Studi di Milano.
  Thesis title: “Applicazioni Software per la Notifica via Posta Elettronica di Eventi Contestuali a Iter Approvativi Complessi”.
  Supervisor: Prof. Massimo Lazzaroni.

1.3 Employment history

• Associate Professor at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy (April 1, 2022 — Present).
• Assistant Professor (tenure track: RTD-B) at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy (April 1, 2019 — March 31, 2022).
• Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale (ASN) in Computer Science, for the sector 01/B1 - Informatica (scientific sector INF/01 - Informatica), II fascia (March 28, 2018 — March 28, 2024).
• Assistant Professor (RTD-A) at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy; research on signal/image processing and computational intelligence techniques for biometric systems (November 2015 — October 2018).
• Postdoctoral Research Associate (Assegno di ricerca di tipo A), Department of Computer Science, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy; research on signal/image processing and computational intelligence techniques for industrial and environmental applications (June 2014 — October 2015).
• Research Assistant (Assegno di ricerca di tipo B), Department of Computer Science, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy; research on signal/image processing and computational intelligence techniques for biometric systems (February 2013 — May 2014).
• Research Grant for Ph.D. Students, Computer Science Doctorate School (XXV cycle), Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy (January 2010 — December 2012).
• Research Grant (Assegno di ricerca di tipo B), Department of Information Technologies, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy; research on signal/image processing and computational intelligence techniques for biometric systems (March 2009 — December 2009).
• Software Developer, Harding-IT S.R.L., Crema, Italy; research activities, design, and implementation of micrometric laser measurement systems (June 2008 — November 2008).

2 Teaching and support activities

2.1 Responsible for courses

Teacher for the following graduate course, Laurea Magistrale in Artificial Intelligence for Science and Technology, Università degli Studi di Milano, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, and Università degli Studi di Pavia:

• A.Y. 2023—2024: Artificial Intelligence for Signal and Image Processing (complete course of 56 hours, in English);
• A.Y. 2022—2023: Artificial Intelligence for Signal and Image Processing (complete course of 56 hours, in English).

Teacher for the following undergraduate course, Laurea in Computer Science, Università degli Studi di Milano:

• A.Y. 2023—2024: Laboratorio di Sistemi Operativi II (48 hours);
• A.Y. 2022—2023: Laboratorio di Sistemi Operativi II (48 hours);
• A.Y. 2021—2022: Laboratorio di Sistemi Operativi II (48 hours);
• A.Y. 2020—2021: Laboratorio di Sistemi Operativi II (48 hours);
• A.Y. 2019—2020: Laboratorio di Sistemi Operativi II (48 hours);
• A.Y. 2018—2019: Laboratorio di Sistemi Operativi II (48 hours);
• A.Y. 2017—2018: Laboratorio di Sistemi Operativi II (48 hours);
• A.Y. 2016—2017: Laboratorio di Sistemi Operativi II (48 hours);
• A.Y. 2015—2016: Laboratorio di Sistemi Operativi II (30 hours).

Teacher for the following course, Specialization School of Medical Physics, Università degli Studi di Milano:

• A.Y. 2023—2024: Sistemi di Elaborazione dell¢Informazione (complete course of 15 hours);
• A.Y. 2022—2023: Sistemi di Elaborazione dell¢Informazione (complete course of 15 hours);
• A.Y. 2021—2022: Sistemi di Elaborazione dell¢Informazione (complete course of 15 hours);
• A.Y. 2020—2021: Sistemi di Elaborazione dell¢Informazione (complete course of 15 hours);
• A.Y. 2019—2020: Sistemi di Elaborazione dell¢Informazione (complete course of 15 hours);
• A.Y. 2016—2017: Sistemi di Elaborazione dell¢Informazione (complete course of 15 hours).

Teacher for the following undergraduate course, Laurea in Mathematics, Università degli Studi di Milano:

• A.Y. 2021—2022: Laboratorio di Programmazione 1 (16 hours);

2.2 Teaching activities for Ph.D. programs

Coordinator for the following course, Ph.D. School in Computer Science, Università degli Studi di Milano:

• A.Y. 2020—2021: Deep Learning in Biometrics (complete course of 10 hours, in English);
• A.Y. 2018—2019: Deep Learning in Biometrics (complete course of 10 hours, in English);
• A.Y. 2016—2017: Image Processing for Biometric Applications (complete course of 10 hours, in English).

Teacher for the following courses, Ph.D. School in Computer Science, Università degli Studi di Milano:

• A.Y. 2014—2015: Advanced Intelligent Systems (6 hours, in English);
• A.Y. 2014—2015: Fundamentals of Digital Signal Processing (6 hours, in English).

Teacher for the following course, Ph.D. School in Computer Science, Università degli Studi di Siena:

• A.Y. 2019—2020: Biometrics: Challenges and Research Trends (12 hours, in English).

2.3 Teaching activities for International Summer Schools

Teacher for the following course, 4EU+ Summer School on Artificial Intelligence, Gargnano del Garda, Italy, August 15--19, 2022:

• Artificial Intelligence for biometric technologies, systems and applications (complete course of 10 hours, in English).

2.4 Co-supervisor of Ph.D. thesis

Co-supervisor of a student of the Ph.D. School in Computer Science, Università degli Studi di Milano:

• Abhinav Anand, “Biometric Technologies for Ambient Intelligence”, March 2015 — February 2018 (XXX cycle), dissertation in February 2018.

2.5 Co-supervisor of theses

Co-supervisor of several theses at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Department of Computer Science:

• 32 first level theses;
• 10 second level theses.

The theses have mainly regarded innovative methods for biometric recognition systems, original algorithms for image processing, innovative methods based on computational intelligence techniques, and studies on operating systems. Some relevant topics are the following ones: innovative algorithms for touchless fingerprint recognition, original methods for processing iris images acquired in non-ideal conditions, and original methods for the automatic analysis of blood samples.

2.6 Other teaching activities

Support to teaching activities for the following courses, at the Università degli Studi di Milano (Art. 45 of the Regolamento Generale di Ateneo, ex-Art. 47 of the Regolamento Generale di Ateneo):

• A.Y. 2015—2016: Sistemi Operativi I e Sistemi Operativi II (18 hours);
• A.Y. 2014—2015: Sistemi Operativi I e Sistemi Operativi II (21 hours);
• A.Y. 2013—2014: Intelligent Systems (20 hours, in English);
• A.Y. 2012—2013: Sistemi Operativi I (10 hours);
• A.Y. 2011—2012: Sistemi Intelligenti per il Monitoraggio e il Controllo (20 hours);
• A.Y. 2010—2011: Sistemi Operativi (20 hours).

Teaching tutor for the following courses, at the Università degli Studi di Milano (Art. 45 of the Regolamento Generale di Ateneo, ex-Art. 47 of the Regolamento Generale di Ateneo):

• A.Y. 2014—2015: Sistemi Biometrici.

3 Education and research activities in national and international institutes

3.1 Participation in international schools

• “First IntelliCIS Training School” (sponsored by: COST: Action IC0806 - IntelliCIS),
  Albena, Bulgaria, October 10—13, 2011.
• “International Computer Vision Summer School” (sponsored by: Gruppo Italiano Ricercatori in Pattern Recognition, Springer Verlag, Università degli Studi di Catania, University of Cambridge, Consorzio Catania Ricerche, Toshiba Research Europe Ltd, STMicroelectronics),
  Ragusa, Italy, July 11—16, 2011.
• “International Summer School for Advanced Studies on Biometric Authentication: Forensics, Security and Remote Identification” (sponsored by: IEEE Biometrics Council, IAPR Technical Committee on Biometrics - TC4, Gruppo Italiano Ricercatori in Pattern Recognition, EU COST IC1106 Integrating Biometrics and Forensics for the Digital Age, EU Marie Curie Action BBfor2, Sagem Sécurité),
  Alghero, Italy, June 7—11, 2010.

3.2 Visit in international research centers

• Visiting Researcher at the Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Pune, India (March 2 — 12, 2023).
  The research activity has been performed in collaboration with Prof. Kethan Kotecha and Prof. Rahee Walambe, in the context of the project “Multimodal Explainability for Object Detection and Image Provessing in Drone Imagery”.
• Visiting Researcher at the Integrated Pattern Recognition and Biometrics Laboratory, Michigan State University, MI, USA (March 13, 2014 — June 17, 2014).
  The research activity has been performed in collaboration with Prof. Arun Ross, director of the dell¢Integrated Pattern Recognition and Biometrics Laboratory. The main focus consisted of realizing innovative biometric systems for less-constrained acquisition scenarios with respect to traditional biometric applications. In particular, he realized original methods for segmenting non-ideal iris images acquired from uncooperative users in uncontrolled light conditions. The achieved results permitted to continue the research collaboration with Prof. Arun Ross and to publish a paper on an international journal.

3.3 Courses on teaching activities

• “University Teaching: Core Skills”, Oxford University Press, September 30, 2020.
• “Faculty Development for University Teaching”, Università degli Studi di Milano, 2020.

4 National and international research projects

Principal investigator of research projects funded by the Università degli studi di Milano

• SEED 2019 "Bando Straordinario per Progetti Interdipartimentali"
  Title: Artificial Intelligence for image analysis in Forensic Anthropology and Odontology (AI4FAO).
  Project duration: March 2020 – November 2021.
  Financed amount: € 30,000.00.

Responsibility of research projects funded by the Università degli studi di Milano

• Piano di Sostegno alla Ricerca.
  Title: Innovative Biometric Technologies for Application Scenarios.
  Project duration: November 2017 — October 2018.
  Financed amount: € 2,307.69.
• Piano di Sostegno alla Ricerca.
  Title: Innovative Biometric Technologies for Application Scenarios.
  Project duration: November 2016 — October 2017.
  Financed amount: € 2,432.00.

Responsibility of research projects funded by the Italian Ministry of Research

• Finanziamento delle attività base di ricerca.
  Project duration: December 2017 — December 2019.
  Financed amount: € 3,000.00.

Participation as researcher in international research projects funded by the European Commission

• EU Horizon Europe Framework Programme 2020KDT JU Research and Innovation Actions (RIA).
  Title: Edge AI Technologies for Optimised Performance Embedded Processing (EdgeAI).
  Project duration: December 2022 — December 2025.
• Program: EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.
  Title: Machine Learning-based Networking and Computing Infrastructure Management for Beyond 5G (MARSAL).
  Project duration: January 2021 — December 2023.
• Program: EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.
  Title: Multi-Owner data Sharing for Analytics and Integration respecting Confidentiality and OWNer control (MOSAICrOWN).
  Project duration: January 2019 — December 2021.
• Program: EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.
  Title: Enforceable Security in the Cloud to Uphold Data Ownership (ESCUDO-CLOUD).
  Project duration: January 2015 — December 2017.
• Program: EU Seventh Framework European research project (FP7).
  Title: Automated Border Control Gates for Europe (ABC4EU).
  Project duration: January 2014 — March 2018.
  
• Program: EU Seventh Framework European research project (FP7).
  Title: Innovative Poplar Low Density Structural Pane (I-PAN).
  Project duration: October 2012 — September 2015.
• Program: EU Seventh Framework European research project (FP7).
  Title: Privacy and Identity Management in Europe for Life (PrimeLife).
  Project duration: March 2008 — June 2011.

Participation as researcher in national research projects funded by the Italian Ministry of Research

• PRIN - PNNRR 2022.
  Title: FRequency of ANatomical Traits for personal IdentifiCation (FRANTIC) .
  Project duration: October 2023 — October 2025.
• PRIN - PNNRR 2022.
  Title: Extended Partnership SEcurity and RIghts in the CyberSpace (SERICS) .
  Project duration: January 2023 — December 2025.
• PRIN 2017.
  Title: High quality Open data Publishing and Enrichment (HOPE).
  Project duration: September 2019 — August 2022.
• PRIN 2015.
  Title: Contactless multibiometric mobile system in the wild (COSMOS).
  Project duration: February 2017 — January 2020.
• PRIN 2010.
  Title: Data-Driven Genomic Computing (GenData 2020).
  Project duration: February 2013 — January 2016.
• PRIN 2008.
  Title: Privacy Aware Processing of Encrypted Signals for Treating Sensitive Information.
  Project duration: September 2008 — August 2010.

Participation as researcher in research projects funded by the Università degli Studi di Milano

• UNIMI per il futuro — 5 per Mille.
  Title: Adaptive Systems for Environmental Monitoring.
  Project duration: March 2010 — February 2012.

Participation as researcher in national research projects funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation

• Scientific cooperation Ialy-India.
  Title: Multimodal Exaplainability for Object Detection and Image Processing in Drone Imagery (IN22MO02).
  Project duration: December 2022 — December 2024.

Participation as researcher in international research projects funded by other international institutions

• Research projects funded by the Michigan State University.
  Title: Less-constrained Biometrics.
  Project duration: February 2014 — June 2014.

Participation as researcher in research projects funded by industries

• Research projects funded by EDISON S.p.A..
  Title: Computational intelligence and signal processing techniques for predicting electric power production in power plants based on renewable energy.
  Project duration: May 2014 — April 2015.
• Research projects funded by EDISON S.p.A..
  Title: Computational intelligence and signal processing techniques for predicting electric power production in power plants based on renewable energy - Feasibility study.
  Project duration: March 2013 — February 2014.

5 Participation in national and international research groups

5.1 Organizational activities for research laboratories

• Participation in the activities and management of the Industrial, Environmental, and Biometric Informatics Laboratory (IEBIL) at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Department of Computer Science (June 2015 — present).
• Participation in the activities and management of the Biometric Systems Laboratory (BMSL) at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Department of Computer Science (January 2009 — June 2015).
• Participation in the activities and management of the Industrial and Environmental Informatics Laboratory (IEIL) at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Department of Computer Science (January 2009 — June 2015).

5.2 Collaboration with national and international research groups

• Collaboration with the Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Pune, India (December 2022 — present).
• Collaboration with STMicroelectronics, Catania, Italy (September 2020 — present).
• Collaboration with the University of Wuyi, Wuyishan, China (September 2016 — Present).
• Collaboration with the Visual Information Processing and Protection, Università degli Studi di Siena, Siena, Italy (March 2009 — Present).
• Collaboration with the Integrated Pattern Recognition and Biometrics Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA (March 2014 — November 2019).
• Collaboration with the University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia (September 2013 — September 2018).
• Collaboration with the Face Recognition and Artificial Vision Research Laboratory for Advanced Security, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain (January 2013 — July 2017).
• Collaboration with the European Centre for Soft Computing, Mieres, Asturias, Spain (January 2013 — January 2016).
• Member of the Italian Committee of the EU COST Action “Intelligent Monitoring, Control and Security of Critical Infrastructure Systems - IntelliCIS” (2009 — 2013).

Some of the research activities have been carried out within national and international projects, in cooperation with the following institutes:

• Research centers: Eticas Researh & Consulting, Spain; European Centre for Soft Computing, Spain; Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Spain; Michigan State University, MI, USA; Politecnico di Bari, Italy; Politecnico di Milano, Italy; Politecnico di Torino, Italy; Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany; Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain; Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Italy; Università degli Studi di Bologna, Italy; Università degli Studi di Catania, Italy; Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy; Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy; Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Italy; Università degli Studi di Pavia, Italy; Università degli Studi di Roma 1 “La Sapienza”, Italy; Università degli Studi di Roma 3, Italy; Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy; Università degli Studi di Sassari, Italy; Università degli Studi di Siena, Italy; Università della Calabria, Italy; University of Novi Sad, Serbia; Wuyi University, China.
• Industries: British Telecom, UK; Chimar Hellas S.A., Greece; CiaoTech s.r.L, Italy; Cognitec Systems GmbH, Germany; Dermalog Identification Systems Gmbh, Germany; Edison S.p.A., Italy; EMC Corporation, Italian branch; Harding-IT s.r.l., Italy; IBL S.p.A., Italy; IBM Research GmbH, Switzerland; IDP Ingenieria y Arquitectura Iberia S.L., Spain; IMAL s.r.L, Italy; Indra Sistemas S.A., Spain; SAFE ID Solutions GmbH, Germany; SAP AG, Germany; STMicroelectronics, Italy; Stela Laxhuber GmbH, Germany; Vision-box S.A., Portugal.
• Art gallery: Carlo Virgilio & C. Arte moderna e contemporanea, Italy.

6 Participation as a speaker in international conferences

Seminars on the following research topics:

• “Artificial Intelligence for Biometric Recognition,” Xidian University, Xi'an, China, June 12, 2024;
• “Biometric Systems Based on Touchless Fingerprint Images,” Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India, March 10, 2023;
• “Biometric Systems Based on Artificial Intelligence,” Vidyalankar Institute of Technology, Wadala, India, March 9, 2023;
• “Artificial Intelligence for Biometric Systems,” St. Francis Institute of Technology, Borivali, India, March 8, 2023;
• “Artificial Intelligence for Biometric Systems,” Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Pune, India, March 5, 2023;
• “Decision Support Systems for Forensic Anthropology and Odontology,” 4EU+ European University Alliance, Online, March 17, 2022;
• “Touchless Fingerprint Biometrics,” Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain, April 15, 2015;
• “Wildfire Smoke Detection using Computational intelligence Techniques,” European Centre for Soft Computing, Spain, April 14, 2015;
• “Segmentation of Degraded Iris Images,” Michigan State University, MI, USA, June 16, 2014;
• “Unconstrained Iris Recognition: Segmentation and Identification Techniques,” Università, degli Studi di Milano, Italy, January 30, 2013;
• “Privacy in Biometrics: a Privacy-compliant Fingerprint Recognition System,” Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, January 22, 2013;
• “Wildfire Detection and Simulation Using Image Processing Techniques,” Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, January 17, 2013;
• “Soft Biometrics: Weight Estimation from Frame Sequences of Walking Individuals,” Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, January 9, 2013.

Invited keynote speaker at the following conferences:

• “Artificial Intelligence for Biometric Recognition Systems,” 4th International conference on Advanced Computing and Intelligent Technologies (ICACIT), Remote, December 13—14, 2024;
• “Artificial Intelligence for Biometric Technologies,” 4th International Conference on Information Technology (InCETe 2024), Uttar Pradesh, India, March 6—7, 2024;
• “Touchless Fingerprint Biometrics,” 2nd International Conference on Information Technology (InCETe 2022), Uttar Pradesh, India, March 3—4, 2022.

He presented 23 papers of which he is a coauthor in international scientific conferences.

7 Awards for the research activities

• The work "Privacy-preserving fingercode authentication" (authors: M. Barni, T. Bianchi, D. Catalano and M. Di Raimondo, R. Donida Labati and P. Failla, D. Fiore, R. Lazzeretti, V. Piuri, F. Scotti and A. Piva), published in the Proc. of the 2010 ACM Workshop on Multimedia and Security, pp. 231-240, September 9-10, 2010, won the "ACM SIGMM Test of Time Paper award 2022" in the category of "Multimedia Security and Privacy" (http://www.sigmm.org/news/acm-sigmm-test-time-paper-award-2022#:~:text=Recognizes%20the%20authors%20of%20a,%2C%20development%2C%20product%20or%20ideas).
• The work "I-SOCIAL-DB: A labeled database of images collected from websites and social media for iris recognition" (authors: R. Donida Labati, A. Genovese, V. Piuri, F. Scotti, S. Vishwakarma), published in the international journal Elsevier Image and Vision Computing, vol. 105, no. 104058, January 2021, pp. 1–9, was considered by the Editorial Board of the IEEE Biometrics Council Newsletter as one of the most significant works in the field of biometric recognition and therefore was included in the IEEE Biometrics Council Newsletter, vol. 40, December 2021 (http://ieee-biometrics.org/images/pdf/Vol40-Newsletter.pdf).
• The work "Biometric recognition in Automated Border Control: A survey" (authors: R. Donida Labati, A. Genovese, E. Muñoz, V. Piuri, F. Scotti), published in the international journal ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 46, no. 2, November 2016, pp. 24:1–24:39, was considered by the Editorial Board of the IEEE Biometrics Council Newsletter as one of the most significant works in the field of biometric recognition and therefore was included in the IEEE Biometrics Council Newsletter, vol. 29, April 2019 (http://ieee-biometrics.org/images/pdf/Vol29-Newsletter.pdf).
• The work "Toward unconstrained fingerprint recognition: a fully-touchless 3-D system based on two views on the move" (authors: R. Donida Labati, A. Genovese, V. Piuri, F. Scotti), published in the international journal IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Systems, vol. 46, no. 2, February 2016, pp. 202–219, was considered by the Editorial Board of the IEEE Biometrics Compendium as one of the most significant works in the field of biometric recognition and therefore was included in the IEEE Biometrics Compendium, no. 24, July 2016 (DOI: 10.1109/BIOMVJ.2017.0000024).
• In the context of the Master¢s degree thesis “Adaptive Algorithms for Iris Segmentation”, he significantly contributed to the design and the implementation of an approach for segmenting iris images captured at high distance, on the move, and in uncontrolled light conditions. The approach was submitted to the international competition “NICE.I (Noisy Iris Challenge Evaluation)”, sponsored by Elsevier Science and organized by the Soft Computing and Image Analysis Group (SOCIA Lab), Department of Computer Science, University of Beira Interior, Portugal (http://nicel.di.ubi.pt). The approach was ranked in the top 8 (out of 97), which were invited to submit a paper on the techniques to the special issue on “Iris Images Segmentation” of the “Image and Vision Computing” journal. The paper was subject to regular rigorous review process and was accepted.
• Won the following selections, research grants, and scholarships: Assistant Professor position (tenure track: RTD-B) at the Università degli Studi di Milano; Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale (ASN) in Computer Science, for the sector 01/B1 - Informatica (scientific sector INF/01 - Informatica), II fascia; Assistant Professor position (RTD-A) at the Università degli Studi di Milano; type A research grant at the Università degli Studi di Milano; type B research grant at the Università degli Studi di Milano; Ph.D. scholarship funded by the Italian Ministry of Research; type B research grant at the Università degli Studi di Milano.

8.1 Associations

• European Association For Signal Processing — EURASIP (2022 — Present).
• IEEE Italy Section Systems Council Chapter (2014 — Present).
• IEEE Italy Section Biometrics Council Chapter (2012 — Present).
• IEEE Italy Section Computational Intelligence Society Chapter (2010 — Present).
• IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (2012 — Present).
• IEEE Member (2012 — Present).
• EU COST Action “Intelligent Monitoring, Control and Security of Critical Infrastructure Systems - IntelliCIS” (2009 — 2013).

8.2 Organizational activities in scientific associations

Chair:

• Technical Area Committee EURASIP BForSec: Biometric, Data Forensic, and Security (January 2024 — December 2025).

Vice-Chair:

• Task Force on Biometrics of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Intelligent Systems Applications Technical Committee (November 2016 — Present);
• IEEE Italy Section Biometrics Council Chapter (October 2015 — December 2017);
• IEEE Italy Section Systems Council Chapter (September 2015 — December 2017).

Secretary:

• IEEE Italy Section Computational Intelligence Society Chapter (April 2013 — Present).

Member:

• Technical Area Committee EURASIP BForSec: Biometric, Data Forensic, and Security (December 2022 — December 2023);
• Pre-College Activities Subcommittee of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (January 2017 — January 2019);
• Pre-College Activities Subcommittee of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (January 2017 — January 2019);
• IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Travel Grant Subcommittee (January 2016 — January 2017).

Webmaster:

• IEEE Systems Journal (January 2013 — Present).

8.3 Organization of international conferences

Program co-chair:

• 2016 IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Virtual Environments for Measurement Systems and Applications (IEEE CIVEMSA 2016), Budapest, Hungary, June 27—29, 2016;
• 2016 IEEE Workshop on Environmental, Energy, and Structural Monitoring Systems (IEEE EESMS 2016), Bari, Italy, June 13—14, 2016;
• 1st IEEE Workshop on Security and Privacy in Cybermatics (SPiCy 2015), Florence, Italy, September 30, 2015;
• 2015 IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Virtual Environments for Measurement Systems and Applications (IEEE CIVEMSA 2015), Shenzhen, China, June 12—14, 2015;
• 2014 IEEE Workshop on Environmental Energy and Structural Monitoring Systems (IEEE EESMS 2014), Naples, Italy, September 17—18, 2014.

Area co-chair:

• 2024 European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO 2024), Lyon, France, August 26—30, 2024.

Special session co-chair:

• 2019 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Biometrics and Identity Management (IEEE CIBIM 2019), Xiamen, China, December 6—9, 2019.
• 2014 IEEE International Symposium on INnovations in Intelligent SysTems and Applications (IEEE INISTA 2014), Alberobello, Italy, June 23—25, 2014.

Organizer of special sessions:

• “Computational Intelligence in Biometrics and Identity Management”, 2018 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence for Security and Defense Applications (IEEE CISDA 2018), Bangaluru, India, November 19—21, 2018;
• “Computational Intelligence in Biometrics and Identity Management”, 2017 IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence for Security and Defense Applications (IEEE CISDA 2017), Hawaii, USA, November 27 — December 1, 2017;
• “Intelligent Systems for Industrial and Environmental Applications”, 2016 IEEE Intelligent Systems IS¢16, Sofia, Bulgaria, September 4—6, 2016;
• “Machine Learning Techniques for Fingerprint Biometrics”, 2015 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence: IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Biometrics and Identity Management (CIBIM 2015), Cape Town, South Africa, December 8—10, 2015.

Program committee member:
International Conference on Augmented Intelligence and Sustainable Systems — ICAISS (2022); International Conference on Evolutionary Computing and Mobile Sustainable Networks — ICECMSN (2022); International conference on Electronics and Sustainable Communication Systems — ICESC (2022, 2021, 2019); International Conference on Security and Cryptography — SECRYPT (2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013); International Conference on IoT Based Control Networks and Intelligent Systems — ICICNIS (2022); International Conference on Intelligent Computing, Information and Control Systems — ICICCS (2022); International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Control Systems — ICICCS (2022); International Conference on Soft Computing for Security Applications — ICSCS (2022); International Workshop on Biometrics and Forensics — IWBF (2022); International Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication — ICCMC (2022, 2021); International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Application Technologies — AIAT (2021, 2020); IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence: IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Biometrics and Identity Management — IEEE CIBIM (2021, 2020, 2019, 2015); International Conference on Robotics and Intelligent Control — ICRIC (2021); International Symposium on Computer Science and Intelligent Control — ISCSIC (2021, 2020, 2019); International Conference on Mining Intelligence & Knowledge Exploration — MIKE (2021); IEEE International Conference on Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing — IEEE UIC (2021); IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications — IEEE TrustCom (2021, 2020, 2019, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011); IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Virtual Environments for Measurement Systems and Applications — IEEE CIVEMSA (2021, 2020, 2014, 2013); International Conference on Big Data, Machine Learning & Their Applications — ICBMA (2021); International Conference on Edge Computing and Cloud Technologies — ICECT (2021); International Conference on Advanced Computational and Communication Paradigms — ICACCP (2021, 2019); Artificial Intelligence International Conference — A2IC (2020, 2018); International Symposium on Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications — ISTA (2020, 2017, 2016); IEEE Intelligent Systems — IEEE IS (2020, 2016); International Conference on Computational Science — ICSS (2020, 2019); IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement technology Conference — IEEE IM2TC (2020); International conference on Electronics and Sustainable Communication Systems — ICESCS (2020); International Symposium on Computer Science and Intelligent Control — ISCSIC (2020, 2019); International Conference on Image, Video and Signal Processing — IVSP (2020); International Conference on Pattern Recognition Applications — ICPRAM (2020, 2019, 2018); International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence — ICAART (2020, 2019, 2018); Symposium on Emerging Topics in Computing and Communications — SETCAC (2019, 2018, 2016); International Workshop on Trust, Security and Privacy for Big Data — TrustData (2019, 2017); WISTP International Conference on Information Security Theory and Practice — WISTP (2019, 2018, 2017); International Conference on Intelligent Technologies and Applications — INTAP (2019, 2018); International Conference on Emerging Security Information, Systems and Technologies — SECURWARE (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012); International Conference on Innovation and Intelligence for Informatics, Computing, and Technologies — 3ICT (2019); International Workshop on Mobile Applications — MobiApps (2019, 2017, 2014); IEEE Smart World Congress — SmartWorld (2019, 2018); IEEE International Conference on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing — IEEE DASC (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016); IEEE International Symposium on INnovations in Intelligent SysTems and Applications — IEEE INISTA (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014); International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Applications — INTELLI (2019, 2018); Engineering Applications of Neural Networks / Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovations — AIAI (2019, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012); International Conference on Engineering Applications of Neural Networks — EANN (2019, 2018, 2017, 2015, 2013); International Conference on Advanced Cognitive Technologies and Applications — COGNITIVE (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015); International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications & Informatics — ICACCI (2018, 2016, 2014); International Conference on Network and System Security — NSS (2018, 2017, 2016); International Symposium on Cloud Computing and Cyber-Security — SCCCS (2018, 2017); International Conference on Computational Science — ICCS (2018, 2017, 2016, 2015); Advanced Doctoral Conference on Computing, Electrical and Industrial Systems — DoCEIS (2018, 2017, 2016); Multidisciplinary International Conference of Research Applied to Defense and Security — MICRADS (2018); International Conference on Computing Analytics and Networking — ICCAN (2017); IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence for Security and Defense Applications — IEEE CISDA (2017, 2016, 2014); International Symposium on Computer Science and Intelligent Controls (2017); International Conference on Recent Advancements in Computer, Communication and Computational Sciences — RACCCS (2017, 2016); International Workshop on Cyber-Security in IoT-based Healthcare Systems & Cloud Computing — CS-HSC (2017); IEEE Workshop on Environmental Energy and Structural Monitoring Systems — IEEE EESMS (2017, 2016, 2015); International Conference on Information Systems Security — ICISS (2016); IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics — IEEE SMC (2016); IEEE International Conference on Open Source Systems and Technologies — IEEE ICOSST (2016); International Workshop on Trust, Security and Privacy for Big Data — BigTrust (2016); International Conference on Computer, Communication and Computational Sciences — ICCCCS (2016); International Conference on Applied and Theoretical Computing and Communication Technology — iCATccT (2016, 2015); International Conference on Computing, Communication and Automation — ICCCA (2016, 2015); International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing — ICAISC (2015); International Symposium on Web of Things — WoTBD (2015); World Congress IMEKO (2015); IEEE International Conference on Autonomic and Trusted Computing — IEEE ATC (2014, 2013); IEEE Workshop on Biometric Measurements and Systems for Security and Medical Applications — IEEE BioMS (2014, 2013, 2012); International Conference on Computer and Communication Technology — ICCCT (2014, 2013, 2012); International Conference on Electronic Publishing and Information Technology — ICEPIT (2014); IEEE International Conference on Smart Instrumentation, Measurement and Applications — IEEE ICS IMA (2013); IEEE International Symposium on Trust, Security and Privacy for Emerging Applications — IEEE TSP (2013); IEEE International Conference on Green Computing and Communications — IEEE GreenCom (2013); IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence for Measurement Systems and Applications — IEEE CIMSA (2012, 2011); IEEE International Conference on Virtual Environments, Human-Computer Interfaces and Measurement Systems — IEEE VECIMS (2012); International Conference on Autonomous and Intelligent Systems — AIS (2012).

Local arrangement chair:

• 2015 IEEE 2nd World Forum on Internet of Things (IEEE WF-IoT 2015), Milan, Italy, December 14—16, 2015;
• 2013 IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Virtual Environments for Measurement Systems and Applications (IEEE CIVEMSA 2013), Milan, Italy, July 15—17, 2013.

Publicity chair:

• IEEE Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Biometrics and Identity Management (IEEE CIBIM), Canberra, Australia, December 1—4, 2020;
• 11th WISTP International Conference on Information Security Theory and Practice (WISTP 2016), with technical co-sponsor Springer, Heraklion, Greece, September 28—29, 2017;
• 12th EAI International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks (SecureComm 2016), Guangzhou, China, October 10—12, 2016;
• 10th WISTP International Conference on Information Security Theory and Practice (WISTP 2016), with technical co-sponsor Springer, Heraklion, Greece, September 26—27, 2016;
• 9th WISTP International Conference on Information Security Theory and Practice (WISTP 2015), with technical co-sponsor Springer, Heraklion, Greece, September 24—25, 2015;
• International Conference on Mobile, Secure and Programmable Networking (MSPN 2015), with technical co-sponsor Springer, Paris, France, June 15—17, 2015;
• 2013 IEEE Workshop on Biometric Measurements and Systems for Security and Medical Applications (IEEE BIOMS 2013), Naples, Italy, September 9, 2013;
• 2012 IEEE Workshop on Biometric Measurements and Systems for Security and Medical Applications (IEEE BIOMS 2012), Salerno, Italy, September 14, 2012;
• 2011 IEEE Workshop on Biometric Measurements and Systems for Security and Medical Applications (IEEE BIOMS 2011), Milan, Italy, September 28, 2011;
• 2010 IEEE Workshop on Biometric Measurements and Systems for Security and Medical Applications (IEEE BIOMS 2010), Taranto, Italy, September 9, 2010.

Treasurer:

• 2018 IEEE International Environmental Engineering Conference (IEEE EE 2018), Milan, Italy, March 12—14, 2018;
• 2014 IEEE International Symposium on INnovations in Intelligent SysTems and Applications (IEEE INISTA 2014), Alberobello, Italy, June 23—25, 2014.

8.4 Editorial activity

Associate Editor of the following international journal:

• Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, Springer (September 2017 — Present).

Guest editor of the following special issue in international journal:

• Special Issue on Mobile and Wearable Biometrics, in Pattern Recognition Letters, Elsevier, 2021.

Member of the Editorial committee of the following special book:

• Recent Advances on Computational Intelligence in Defense and Security, Springer, 2015.

Member of the Editorial committee of the following special issue:

• Special Issue on Ambient Advancements in Intelligent Computational Sciences (A2ICS-2017), in Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems - Applications in Engineering and Technology, Springer, 2017.

Reviewer for several international journals:
IEEE Transactions on Image Processing; IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics & Security; IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems; IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurements; IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Systems; IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence; IEEE Transactions on Biometrics, Behavior, and Identity Science; IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence; IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems; IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing; IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society; IEEE Access; IEEE Computer; IEEE Systems Journal; IEEE Sensors Journal; IEEE Sensors Letters; IEEE Internet of Things Journal; IEEE Electronics Letters; ACM Computing Surveys; ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security; ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology; Elsevier Computers & Security; Elsevier Image and Vision Computing; Elsevier Pattern Recognition; Elsevier Pattern Recognition Letters; Elsevier Signal Processing; Elsevier Computer Vision and Image Understanding; Elsevier Information Sciences; Elsevier Biosystems Engineering; Elsevier Information & Communications Technology Express; Elsevier Journal of Information Security and Applications; Elsevier Forensic Science International; Elsevier Technology in Society; Elsevier Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering; Elsevier Expert Systems with Applications; Springer Soft Computing; Springer Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing; Springer Neural Computing and Applications; Springer The Visual Computer; Springer Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing; Springer International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery; IET Biometrics; IET Image Processing; IET Computer Vision; IET Signal Processing; Wiley ETRI Journal; EURASIP Journal on Information Security; SPIE Optical Engineering.

8.5 University services

• Member of Doctorate School of the Ph.D. Degree Program in Computer Science, Università degli Studi di Milano (A.Y. 2016—2017, 2017—2018, 2023—2024, 2024—2025).
• Representative of the Ph.D. students at the Department of Information Technologies, Università degli Studi di Milano (November 2010 — April 2012).

9 Research activity

The research activity achieved innovative results in different aspects of techniques and systems for intelligent signal and image processing; with the main focus on theoretical aspects, methodologies, technologies, and applications in the contexts of industrial, environmental and biometric applications.

Original adaptive methods (mostly based on deep learnin, artificial neural networks, statistical approaches, and knowledge extraction techniques) permitted to obtain efficient and optimized solutions in intelligent systems for information processing. In this field, he mostly focused on machine learning approaches for designing robust artificial neural networks, and on data analysis methods based on fuzzy logic.

The high robustness of the realized adaptive methods permitted to considerably reduce the operational and environmental constraints, guaranteeing high accuracy at the same time. The research performed in this field permitted to obtain relevant improvements of the human-machine interaction in the context of industrial applications, as well as in biometric recognition systems. In particular, he realized biometric recognition methods able to sensibly reduce the operational constraints with respect to the state of the art, and innovative techniques for the privacy protection of biometric data (based on cryptographic algorithms). These methods can increase the usability and acceptability of the systems in a relevant manner, without decreasing the recognition accuracy, thus representing enabling technologies for high-security applications and ambient intelligence scenarios.

Furthermore, he applied the obtained results to realize innovative solutions for the industrial and environmental monitoring, also in the context of projects financed by the European Commission.

9.1 Biometric systems

The research activity regarded the realization of innovative methods and algorithms for biometric systems applied for verification and identification, considering physiological as well as behavioral traits. He realized original methods for multidimensional signal processing and computational intelligence techniques for touchless biometric systems based on three-dimensional models. He considered the following biometric traits: fingerprint, iris, face, cardiac signals, voice, and soft-biometric traits (e.g., height, weight, and age). He also proposed innovative methods for protecting the privacy of biometric data, continuous identity verification techniques, and methods for improving the accuracy and usability of biometric technologies used in automatic border control systems, in ambient intelligence scenarios, and in forensic applications.

• Touchless fingerprint recognition and 3D-based methods
  He realized innovative biometric recognition methods based on the analysis of fingerprint images acquired using touchless techniques. In particular, he realized original hardware and software for high-security systems, which reconstruct and process three-dimensional finger models. He also implemented innovative techniques for extracting sweat pore features, and recognition techniques integrable in mobile devices. He validated the implemented methods using real data as well as innovative virtual environments for simulating three-dimensional fingerprint samples. Furthermore, he proposed quality assessment methods for touchless fingerprint samples.
• Iris recognition in non-ideal conditions
  The main focus of the research has been on adaptive algorithms for iris segmentation in ocular images acquired in uncontrolled conditions. He realized innovative methods robust to samples affected by poor illumination, occlusions (as eyelids, eyelashes, hairs, and glasses), gaze deviation with respect to the camera, low resolution, motion blur, and sensor noise. The achieved results permitted to participate to the international competition NICE.I (Noisy Iris Challenge Evaluation), sponsored by Elsevier Science and organized by the Soft Computing and Image Analysis Group (SOCIA Lab), Department of Computer Science, University of Beira Interior, Portugal (http://nicel.di.ubi.pt). The approach was ranked in the top 8 (out of 97), which were invited to submit a paper on the techniques to the special issue on “Iris Images Segmentation” of the “Image and Vision Computing” journal. The paper was subject to regular rigorous review process and was accepted. He also created a dataset of ocular images collected from websites and social media, which represent one of the biggest collections of iris samples coupled by the corresponding manually created segmentation masks.
• Face analysis
  The goals of the research activity consisted of designing novel approaches for identifying persons deceased in traumatic conditions and in techniques to extract soft biometric characteristics from face samples. The considered characteristics are the beauty, age, and expression. All the studies based on face images are based on deep neural networks.
• Continuous authentication and recognition of cardiac signals
  The main goal consisted of realizing innovative biometric recognition methods based on strong biometric traits acquirable continuously during time. He proposed methods for identity verification, identification, and continuous verification based on electrocardiographic as well as pletismographic signals. He also realized a system for estimating the driver attention level from PPG signals.
• Privacy protection of biometric data
  He analyzed different aspects of privacy and security, realizing innovative techniques to perform biometric recognitions in the encrypted domain and approaches for deidentifying the iris characteristics in high-resolution images colled from websites and social media.
• Biometric systems for automated border controls
  He analyzed in depth the biometric systems currently used at international border controls with the goal of improving their usability and accuracy. In particular, he realized original adaptive methods to improve the usability and accuracy of fingerprint recognition systems, and algorithms for increasing the accuracy of biometric systems already deployed in real scenarios, which are compliant with the current international regulations and guidelines for privacy protection.
• Biometric systems for ambient intelligence scenarios
  With the purpose of increasing the applicability of the biometric technologies in ambient intelligence scenarios, he realized novel methods for the analysis of physiological and behavioral characteristics, which can be used in uncontrolled scenarios characterized by uncooperative users. In particular, he proposed methods for the speaker identification integrable in devices with limited computational resources, methods for the analysis of soft-biometric traits from face images characterized by strong non-idealities, and methods for estimating the height and weight from frame sequences of walking individuals.

9.2 Computational intelligence techniques, architectures, and applications

The research activity regarded computational intelligence methods, with particular attention to the artificial neural networks. In this context, he analyzed different approaches from the theoretical, architectural and applicative points of view, realizing innovative methods for identification, classification, control, prediction, and multidimensional signal processing.

In particular, the realized innovative methods have permitted to create advanced industrial applications for monitoring production processes, environmental control, and quality evaluation.

• Theoretical contributions to the design and optimization of systems
  He analyzed intelligent methods for implementing and configuring optimized digital architectures, from the theoretical, architectural, and methodological points of view. In this context, he mainly considered applications based on computational intelligence, as artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic. In particular, he analyzed techniques for classification, approximation, prediction, estimation of three-dimensional models, control, and multidimensional signal processing (one dimensional signals, images, and three-dimensional models). He mainly focused on five topics: 1) adaptive methods for enhancement and feature extraction designed for multidimensional signals; 2) classification methods for particularly noisy signals acquired in non-ideal conditions; 3) measurement methods based on heterogeneous signals acquired using low-accuracy sensors; 4) three-dimensional reconstruction methods based on images acquired using multiple cameras; 5) prediction methods for time series characterized by high level of noise and missing data.
• Industrial applications
  With the goal of acquiring the experience needed to design innovative and general methods, and to test their efficiency in contexts characterized by particularly noisy data, he analyzed, experimentally evaluated and implemented real application scenarios based on multidimensional signal processing. He applied design methodologies for intelligent systems for the analysis, feature extraction, fusion, and classification of complex data in industrial applications of computer vision. He realized a deep learning approach to detect anomalities in iron production. He studied models for designing bridges. He realized methods to process multidimensional signals collected from heterogeneous sources, like wireless antennas and radars. He realized an innovative and fully automatic system for the real-time classification of wood samples based on the spectral fluorescence analysis. He proposed neural techniques for contactless measuring the volume of heterogeneous objects by analyzing multiple-view images. He realized innovative methods for three-dimensional particle size measurement based on computational intelligence techniques and image processing. He also realized a virtual environment for simulating falling particles, which has been used to design and optimize the final measurement system. Moreover, he used computational intelligence techniques to analyze big sets of data acquired from heterogeneous sources. In particular, he realized expert systems based on fuzzy logic for the analysis of geographical data, and proposed innovative methods based on artificial neural networks for predicting the production of renewable energy. Furthermore, the research activity regarded the automatic classification of cells affected by leukemia in microscopic images of blood samples. In this context, he collaborated in creating a public database of images, which become a reference point for the international research community studying image processing techniques for detecting the presence of cells affected by leukemia.
• Environmental applications
  He realized innovative algorithms, computational intelligence methods, and simulation techniques for environmental monitoring systems. The main focus consisted of systems for monitoring wildfires based on low-cost cameras.

9.3 Industrial research and development

From June to November 2008, he worked for the company Harding-IT S.R.L., Crema, Italy, performing research activities on micrometric laser measurement systems. He has been involved in the study, design, experimentation, and implementation of advanced algorithms for processing signals acquired by different kinds of sensors in micrometric laser measurement machines, mainly designed for mechanic and advanced manufacturing In this collaboration, he implemented a software for the evaluation of the measurement systems uncertainty, cooperating with Prof. Giulio Barbato of Politecnico di Torino, Italy.

10 Publications

See publications page

© 2012 Ruggero Donida Labati