people
members of the lab
Giovanni Merlino is an associate professor in computer science engineering at the University of Messina, Italy.
His research focuses on mobile and distributed systems with particular emphasis on IoT and Cyber-Physical Systems modeled as software-defined infrastructure, especially in terms of hybrid IT/OT convergence and decentralization protocols.
He played a key role in designing the Stack4Things middleware.
He is co-founder of SmartMe.io, an academic spin-off and startup company, and co-inventor and holder of a patent.
He has authored over 130 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Francesco Longo serves as an associate professor in computer engineering at the University of Messina, Italy.
His research focuses on the design and implementation of secure and autonomous distributed systems.
He played a key role in designing the Stack4Things middleware.
Additionally, he co-founded SmartMe.io, a startup specializing in hardware and software solutions for designing and managing Cyber-Physical Systems.
He has authored over 150 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Giuseppe Tricomi holds a Ph.D. in Cyber Physical Systems from the University of Messina.
His research started from mobile and distributed systems but now is moving toward field about cooperation (orchestrated or federated) among Cyber-Physical Systems, adaptative environmental behavior, human-aware adaptability, Environmental Continuity, Intelligent Personal Assistants.
He partecipate in designing and extend the Stack4Things middleware.
He is currently on a leave to work as an assistant professor in Computer Science Engineering at the Department of Engineering of the University of Messina, after holding a fixed-term Researcher position at ICAR-CNR.
He was employed by the Italian Ministry of Defence from 2017 to 2023, and since 2023 by the Italian Ministry of Education.
He has authored over 40 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Luca D’Agati holds a Ph.D. in Bioengineering applied to Medical Sciences from the University of Messina.
His research activity focuses on distributed and Cyber-Physical Systems, Cloud–Edge Computing, Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Cities, and intelligent adaptive environments, with particular interest in compute continuum infrastructures and Cloud-native solutions.
He has contributed to several research initiatives involving smart environments, LPWAN and LoRa-based infrastructures, renewable energy communities, telemedicine platforms, Edge AI, and intelligent monitoring systems for IoT ecosystems.
He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Engineering of the University of Messina, where he carries out research activities related to secure distributed systems, Cloud continuum infrastructures, and next-generation IoT environments.
He has authored and co-authored several peer-reviewed scientific publications in the areas of IoT, distributed systems, Cloud and Edge computing, Smart Cities, and Cyber-Physical Systems.
Mohammad Ghavidel Vahid is a PhD student in Engineering, working on the softwarization of hybrid IT/OT infrastructure, under the supervision of Prof. Giovanni Merlino, with Prof. Guido Di Bella as co-supervisor
Fabio Mirto is a PhD student in Bioengineering, working on safe-by-design cyber-physical biomedical systems, under the supervision of Prof. Giovanni Merlino, with Prof. Francesco Longo as co-supervisor
Ilenia Ficili is a PhD student in Engineering, working on incremental federated learning, under the supervision of Prof. Antonio Puliafito
Ghena Barakat is a PhD student in Engineering, working on neurosymbolic AI for safety, under the supervision of Prof. Antonio Puliafito, with Prof. Giovanni Merlino as co-supervisor
Manuel Fabiano is a PhD student in Bioengineering, working on reinforcement unlearning techniques, under the supervision of Prof. Francesco Longo, with Prof. Giovanni Merlino as co-supervisor
Vincenzo Bucaria is a PhD student in Engineering, working on virtualization approaches for accelerators and FPGAs, under the supervision of Prof. Francesco Longo, with Prof. Giovanni Merlino as co-supervisor
Aamod Vyas is a PhD student in Engineering, working on agentic AI for education, under the supervision of Prof. Antonio Puliafito, with Prof. Giovanni Merlino as co-supervisor
Tancredi Orlando is a former PhD student in Bioengineering, working on runtime-based portability for biomedical embedded systems, under the supervision of Prof. Giovanni Merlino