Starting on 11 June 2024, Rennes hosted the TNC24 (https://tnc24.geant.org/), the largest and most prestigious research and education networking conference. SoBigData, with Sara Lelli and Valerio Grossi, was there to present training initiatives related to the research infrastructure.

As the "Empowering Data for Social Good" summer school comes to a close, we reflect on an incredible week filled with learning, collaboration, and groundbreaking ideas. The final session, where students presented their innovative research projects, was a fitting conclusion to an inspiring event.

This Blog shares my experience visiting the KDD research lab at the National Research Council (CNR) in Pisa. The lab has knowledge discovery and data mining expertise for efficient mobility-based social services (e.g., transportation, human mobility). Dr. Mirco Nanni and his team hosted me for a two-week visit to their research lab. The team has expertise in sequential data analytics and the development of explainable and trustworthy models.

In the past year I had the great pleasure of visiting Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and my friend and colleague Professor Carlos (Chato) Castillo, to work on Modelling and Measuring Algorithmic Bias and Fairness. My visit had two parts, one in April of 2023 and one in February of 2024. This was the first time I visited the UPF Campus, and I was very impressed by the industrial and urban design of the buildings and the neighbourhood, as well as by the energetic and relaxed atmosphere of the campus.

Over the last eight weeks, from January 15th to March 9th 2024, I had the great pleasure of visiting Pisa as a guest at the esteemed National Research Council (CNR), hosted by Dr. Maurizio Tesconi and his team at the Cyber Intelligence Lab. There, I closely collaborated with members of the lab, including Lorenzo Mannocci, Serena Tardelli and Stefano Cresci, on integrating multilayer network methodologies for identifying coordinated behaviour in social networks.

Community detection is one of the most studied problems in social network analysis. 

Together with Giulio Rossetti and other colleagues from CNR Pisa and KDD-lab, we have worked on this question, notably developing a python library (CDLIB), including more than 50 algorithms taken from the literature. 

The new call for the SoBigData Award for Diversity and Inclusion is out now! This initiative aims to address the persistent underrepresentation of certain genders and minorities in computer and data science fields.

The award is designed to encourage and support participation from underrepresented groups in the upcoming 25th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Data Management, scheduled to take place from June 24th to June 27th, 2024, in Brussels, Belgium. 

In June 2023, I embarked on an extraordinary journey under the auspices of the SoBigData++ project, a beacon for data-driven innovation in Europe. My destination was the prestigious Institute of Information Technology (ISTI) at the Italian National Research Council in Pisa, Italy.