I am a Professor of Information Systems at HEC, University of Lausanne. Prior to joining HEC in 2016, I spent eight years in the industry. My last industry work was with Google in Zurich, Switzerland. Previously, I worked at Telefonica Research with Nuria Oliver and Rodrigo de Oliveira, in Barcelona, Spain. I received my PhD in Computer Science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland in June 2008, where I worked for the CRAFT laboratory, under the supervision of Pierre Dillenbourg. At EPFL, I conducted research on collaborative annotations of maps and remote gesturing.
Previously, I worked for two and a half years as a research assistant at the Media Lab Europe (MLE), in Ireland, under the supervision of Carol Strohecker. During this time, I had several study visits at the MIT Media Lab in Boston. I obtained a Master of Arts by Research from St. Patrick’s College, Dublin City University, in 2004. My master thesis documented the work I conducted at MLE on Microworlds for Ecology Explorations.
In my former life, I founded a Non-Governmental Organization to sustain elderly and autistic children in the region south of Rome, Italy.
My primary research interests are at the intersection of human-computer interaction (HCI), computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) and human learning. I seek to design systems that enable people to be better connected and in more flexible and dynamic ways. I am particularly interested in how to empower people through new technology and in giving them the opportunity to better participate in collective initiatives. I am also interested in persuasive computing applications that can improve the users’ experience of their daily activities, and propel positive changes in people’s behaviour.