I teach Human-Computer Interaction and Experience Design at the University of Siena.

 

From 2013-2017 I was part-time Full Professor at the Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, chair of Culture-based Design. I’m currently Visiting Professor at the same department at the Eindhoven University of Technology.

I’m Rectors Delegate and Director of a large digital fabrication laboratory named Santa Chiara Fab Lab. The laboratory is conceived as a co-design space for developing new projects with a strong vocation to the development of a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholders culture. The Fab Lab collaborates with cultural and political institutions, districts, trades associations and third sector organisations promoting codesign in the field of cultural heritage, disability studies, health care, IoT.

I have an interdisciplinary background in philosophy, design and computing and a Ph.D. in Aesthetics of Interaction. 

In 2014 and 2015, I was visiting professor at the Advanced PhD “The Center for Advanced Studies – the development of interdisciplinary doctoral studies” at the Gdansk University of Technology (Poland) in the key areas of the Europe 2020 Strategy.
My research interests range over a broad range of topics including tangible and embodied interaction, experience design, human-robot interaction, and societal impacts of new technologies. I’m cited across these fields.

Im 2019, I received the honorary mention for contribution to Inclusion and Diversity and the best paper award for the paper “Is Deafness a Disability? Designing Hearing Aids beyond Functionality” at the ACM C&C/DIS Conferences in San Diego, California.

In August 2013, I received a honorary professorship at the Seogang College University, Seoul, Korea.

I have been a Principal Investigator on several EU funded projects. I have been expert advisor to many EU and international bodies, including EU Commission, EU Future & Emerging Technologies Programme, EU Intelligent Information Interfaces, Eurocontrol, EU Disappearing Computer, UX group at University of Warsaw (Poland), Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). 

I am a Member of the Italian SigCHI chapter and ACM. I have been a Program Chair and Associate Editor for the CHItaly Conference and Ro-Man conference. I have served Scientific and Organizing Committees in various areas of HCI, ID and Information Systems, including ACM CHI, ACM IDC, ACM DIS, IEEE ICRA, IEEE IROS, IEEE ICORR.