People
Agostino Cortesi
Full Professor @ Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Email: cortesi@unive.itWebsite: http://www.unive.it/persone/cortesi
Agostino Cortesi, PhD, is a full professor of Computer Science at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy. He has held the position of visiting professor at several universities and research centers, including Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris, Ecole Polytechnique Palaiseau, IBM T.J.Watson Research Center, and University of Calcutta. His main research interests concern software engineering and static analysis techniques, with particular emphasis on security issues. He has also investigated the impact of semantics-based approaches in different applicative scenarios (watermarking, relational databases, robotics, etc.). He published more than 150 papers in high level international journals (including ACM TOPLAS and IEEE TSE) and proceedings of international conferences (including ACM POPL, ACM PLDI and IEEE LICS). His current h-index is 23 according to Scopus, and 31 according to Google Scholar. Currently, he serves as co-Editor in Chief of the book series “Services and Business Process Reengineering” published by Springer-Nature.
Pietro Ferrara
Associate Professor @ Ca' Foscari University Of Venice
Email: pietro.ferrara@unive.itWebsite: https://pietroferrara.github.io/
Pietro Ferrara is an expert of static analysis based on the abstract interpretation theory with a focus on the detection of security vulnerabilities and privacy leaks in object-oriented programs.
He joined the University of Venice in November 2019 as a tenure-track assistant professor, and he became associate professor in November 2022. Previously, from 2013 to 2019, he worked in industry gaining experience in delivering prototypes and commercial tools to customers filling the gap between scientific research and development, and delivery of software products, as well as technical and commercial presentation to customers, evaluation activities, and preparation of commercial and technical documentation.
In particular, he was the Head of Research and Development at JuliaSoft SRL (a spin-off of University of Verona focused on the static analysis of Java, Android, and .NET programs) from February 2016 to November 2019 where he supervised the development of the scientific core of an industrial static analyzer and the dissemination of its scientific results. He was a Research Staff Member in the group of Mobile Enterprise Software led by Marco Pistoia from July 2013 to December 2015, and a lecturer at ETH of Zurich in the Programming methodology group under the supervision of Peter Mueller from April 2009 to July 2013. He obtained my PhD degree in Computer Science from the Ecole Polytechnique of Paris and the Universita’ Ca’ Foscari of Venice on May, 22nd 2009. His PhD thesis advisors were Radhia Cousot and Agostino Cortesi. He defended his PhD thesis on May 22nd, 2009 at the Ecole Normale Superiore. In addition, he was an intern at Microsoft Research in Redmond in the PLA group from August 20th 2007 to November 9th 2007 under the supervision of Francesco Logozzo.
Paolo Falcarin
Associate Professor @ Università Ca' Foscari
Website: http://www.unive.it/persone/paolo.falcarinPaolo Falcarin is Associate Professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice since Septemebr 2021.
He was awarded his PhD in Software Engineering in 2004, and MEng in Computer Engineering in 2000 from Polytechnic University of Turin (Italy), where he worked as a research associate before joining the University of East London in 2010 as Senior Lecturer and then Reader in Computer Science, where he led the Secure Software Engineering research group.
His research interests include Software Protection and Security, Software Engineering and Distributed Systems; he has been Principal Investigator for UEL in the European FP7 project ASPIRE (Advanced Software Protection: Integration Research and Exploitation) jointly with six companies and universities from across Europe.
Paolo spent a sabbatical research leave in 2012 at Centre for Research on Evolution Search and Testing (CREST) in the Computer Science department at UCL (University College London). He has been visiting lecturer at Tongji University of Shanghai in 2009 and Hangzhou Dianzi university in 2016, and visiting researcher at ETH Zurich in 2003.
Paolo is associate editor of the Computers & Security journal, Program-Committee member of the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2023) and the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Big Data Computing, Applications and Technologies (BDCAT 2023), and Steering Committee member of the CheckMATE workshop.
Paolo is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a CSSLP certified security practitioner, an Oracle Certified Professional Java programmer, and an amateur chess player.
Alvise Spanò
Reasearcher And Assistant Professor (Non-Tenure) @ Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Email: alvise.spano@unive.itWebsite: http://github.com/alvisespano
I currently hold a Researcher and Assistant Professor (non-tenure) position in Computer Science at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy. My interests range from programming languages to software engineering, strongly emphasising type systems, compilers, software verification and coding methodologies.
During my research career I also explored other topics, such as Software Engineering and Security. Recently I have been working on the blockchain and languages for writing smart contracts. Among my research projects, a novel functional programming language was created by me, named Lw, with advanced features and forms of polymorphism. You can peek at this and other projects of mine on my personal GitHub repository.
Before my academic career, I had a career as a software developer. I spent more than 15 years as a professional developer for the industry, including years as an active open-source developer and a demoscene coder for the Amiga in the 90s.
Maikel Lázaro Pérez Gort
Non-Tenure Track Assistant Professor @ Università Ca' Foscari Di Venezia
Email: maikel.perezgort@unive.itWebsite: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maikel-Lazaro-Perez-Gort
Maikel Lázaro Pérez Gort is currently a non-tenure track assistant professor at Università Ca’ Foscari. He received the M.Sc. degree in applied informatics at Universidad Tecnológica de La Habana, Cuba, in 2010 and the Ph.D. degree in computer sciences at the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE) of Puebla, México, in 2020.
From 2006 to 2013, he was a full-time professor at Universidad Tecnológica de La Habana and a software developer in the Human Resource Management Systems (GREHU) project. He was also a part-time professor at Universidad Iberoamericana, Puebla, Mexico.
In 2008, he was a visiting researcher at the Department of Computer Science, University of Tampere, Finland. In 2010, he worked as a visiting professor at the University of Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela.
From 2014 to 2017, he worked on the Watermark Algorithms for Secret Communications project, which Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología granted. México. Also, from 2018 to 2020, he worked on the project Analysis and Design of Algorithms and Security Platforms for the Internet of Things, granted by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología. México
His research interests are relational databases theory, information security and privacy, and data usability and authenticity.
Gianluca Caiazza
Assistant Professor @ Ca' Foscari University Of Venice
Gianluca is an assistant professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy). He worked for his postdoc and PhD in the ACADIA Center at the University of Venice under the supervision of Professor Agostino Cortesi. From July 2018 to March 2019, he was a full-time researcher contributing to an international project among several Universities at Gachon Univerity (Seoul, South Korea) in the “A.I. and Smart Society Laboratory” under the guide of Professor Young-Im Cho.
He is mainly focused on security enhancements of cyber-physical systems (CPS) with particular emphasis on robotics and distributed connected devices, e.g. data distributed system (DDS), oneM2M.
His research aims to explore the trade-off between security and usability for Internet of Things (robotic) applications. Working on the widely used robotic middleware Robot Operating System (ROS), his work targets on providing automatic tools for security assessment and verification of the system. Currently, he focused on the mathematical verification of properties in a multi-agent distributed environment (e.g. smart cities scale) and privacy enforcement in dynamic networks.
Luca Negrini
Assistant Professor (Non-Tenure) @ Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Email: luca.negrini@unive.itWebsite: https://lucaneg.github.io
I got a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the University of Verona, followed by a five years industrial experience on development and applications of Static Analysis and Abstract Interpretation with the Julia static analyzer. I got my PhD in Computer Science in January 2023 at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, focusing on Multi-language Static Analysis. I then joined Ca’ Foscari as a research fellow, and I am currently an Assistant Professor (non-tenure) there.
Luca Olivieri
Assistant Professor (No-Tenure Track) @ Ca' Foscari University Of Venice
Email: luca.olivieri@unive.itWebsite: https://olivieriluca.github.io
I am an assistant professor (no-tenure track) in Computer Science working in software verification based on formal methods at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science, certified “Doctor Europaeus”, from the University of Verona (Italy) in April 2023. My PhD thesis titled “Blockchain Software Verification and Optimization” was in part carried out at the University of Rennes 1 (France). I earned a B.Sc and M.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Verona. After my M.Sc., I was hired as a Software Engineer and Research Scientist in the R&D team of JuliaSoft/Corvallis srl from April 2018 to June 2023. In these companies, my major contribution was developing Julia, an industrial static analyzer based on abstract interpretation for Java and C#. I also contributed to integrating Julia into the CodeSonar analyzer of GrammaTech Inc. In July 2023, I joined Ca’ Foscary University of Venice and the Software and System Verification (SSV) group as a PostDoc research fellow and am currently an assistant professor (no-tenure track).
My research interests include cyber security, software verification, blockchain, smart contracts, data protection, and program analysis through formal methods.
Souvick Das
Research Associate @ Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Email: souvik.cmsa019@gmail.comWebsite: https://github.com/svk-cu-nlp
Dedicated Researcher specializing in the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering with over 6 years of experience. Currently serving as a Research Associate at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, Italy, I am deeply passionate about advancing the field of AI while actively contributing to the software engineering community.
My expertise spans various areas within AI, including Natural Language Processing (NLP), Generative AI, and the development of RAG/Agentic pipelines. I excel in fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLMs) such as QLORA, LORA, SFT, and DPO to address the nuanced challenges within the software engineering domain. Published 10 articles in esteemed journals and conferences including IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, IEEE RE, Journal of Systems and Software, Elsevier. I am committed to advancing knowledge and fostering innovation.
Raunak Bag
Phd Student @ Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Website: https://pctechscribble.blogspot.comRaunak Bag completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Calcutta, India in 2019 and 2021. As part of his masters project he created an online collaboration application which brings people with ideas closer to those who can help them create, design and/or develop it under the supervision of Prof. Nabendu Chaki, University of Calcutta.
Raunak joined Ca’ Foscari University of Venice as a PhD student in January 2022 under the supervision of Prof. Agostino Cortesi. His research focuses on requirement specification and static analysis of robotic software. His current efforts are focused towards robotic system requirements validation by simulation approach. His other research interests are computer architecture, VLSI design and high-performance computing.
Currently, I am pursuing a PhD at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy, under the supervision of Prof. Agostino Cortesi and Prof. Pietro Ferrara. My research focuses on the intersection of blockchain security and AI, specifically on detecting vulnerabilities in Solidity smart contracts through the integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) and static analysis.
I earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from COMSATS University Lahore, Pakistan, in 2013, supported by a fully funded National Scholarship for Science and Engineering from Pakistan’s Ministry of IT. In 2018, I completed a master’s in Software Engineering at Sukkur IBA University, Pakistan.
Before starting my PhD, I accumulated 8 years of experience as a Lecturer in Computer Science at Sukkur IBA Community College and Shah Abdul Latif University, teaching core courses in Computer Science and Software Engineering.
Greta Dolcetti obtained a Bachelor’s Degree (September 2021) and a Master’s Degree (July 2023) in Computer Science, both issued by the University of Parma. She started working in the static analysis by abstract interpretation field during her Master’s thesis “Abstract Compilation Techniques for Static Analysis”, under the supervision of Professors Arceri and Zaffanella, where she implemented two abstract compilation techniques concerning the accuracy/efficiency trade-off.
Greta is now a Ph.D. student at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where her research interests are static analysis, abstract interpretation, and, more in general, formal methods for program verification with a major focus on data science and artificial intelligence.
During her Master’s degree, she collaborated with the Department of Food and Drugs at the University of Parma on a research project involving constraint programming and molecular modeling methods to predict possible protein mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Giacomo Zanatta
Phd Student @ Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Email: giacomo.zanatta@unive.itWebsite: https://www.giacomozanatta.com/
I am a PhD student in Computer Science, specializing in static analysis and program verification with a focus on robotic software and microservices. I am also exploring the explainability of neural networks using abstract interpretation. Formerly, I was a Technical Leader, managing software projects and leading a team of developers.
Giacomo Boldini is a Ph.D. student at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where his primary research interests lie in the domains of static analysis, abstract interpretation, and program verification. He obtained both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science at the University of Parma. His Master’s thesis, titled “Source code clustering via explainable code similarity based on control flow graph features”, centered around source code similarity and the development of explainable source code representation designed to facilitate machine learning methodologies in understanding code features and their similarities. During his Master’s degree at the University of Parma, he also worked on a project involving the optimization and parallelization of code, leveraging the power of NVIDIA GPUs and the CUDA programming model to enhance the performance of numerical analysis algorithms.
I started career as a Ph.D. student at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where the primary research area belongs from the domains of taint analysis, relational tainting, static analysis, abstract interpretation, and program verification. I received both of my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Calcutta, India.
My master’s thesis, titled as “Incorporating Multiple Bioassay and Cross Contamination Avoidance in Digital Microfluidic Biochip ”, centered around the Digital Microfluidic Biochips (DMFBs), commonly referred to as lab-on-a-chip where the research includes VLSI design. The design of a compact chip measuring 15×15 with a mere 13 pins was presented. This chip effectively integrates three distinct assay operations: nPI, PCR, and In-Vitro diagnostics, demonstrating promising completion times compared to existing commercial biochips. By reducing the overall pin count and improving the utilization factor, the chip becomes more cost-effective. Additionally, the routing scheme implemented ensures proficient prevention of cross-contamination issues while maintaining fluidic constraints.
I worked as a research fellow at Ca’Foscari University of Venice in the domain of “Data User Security Trust” where the experiment was based on the data leakage static analysis of python scripts extracted from jupyter notebooks containing sensitive Information of public administration using static analyzer LiSA (Library for Static Analysis).
Teodors is pursuing a PhD in CS at Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia after completing a professional B.Sc. (2021) and an M.Sc. (2023) in IT from Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies. Teodors has gained diverse experience across various domains, including .NET web development in Geographic Information Systems at Latvian State Forests, JavaScript backend development in the FinTech industry, and Java full-stack development in distributed systems integrated with Temenos Transact banking systems.
His academic efforts are equally varied. His bachelor’s thesis explored using OGC standards as an alternative to ArcGIS REST API for serving georeferenced data, while his master’s thesis delved into privacy identification in web browsing through device memory analysis.
Teodors also completed five Erasmus study mobilities across Southern Europe, attending institutions such as The Malta College of Arts, Science & Technology, Universidad de Málaga, and Università di Bari Aldo Moro, where he also did an internship specializing in machine learning and visualization. His most recent stop was an internship at Università Ca’ Foscari, where he was introduced to static analysis, which he now sees how to apply on the web in a distributed context, particularly in microservices.
Throughout his academic and professional journey, Teodor’s core interests have remained focused on APIs, web technologies, and distributed systems.
Aradhita Mukherjee
I earned my M.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Calcutta. During my PhD studies, I was fortunate to receive the Visvesvaraya Scholarship from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, which recognized my academic achievements and research potential.
I was awarded my PhD from the University of Calcutta in 2024. Following that, I began working as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Ca’ Foscari University starting on May 1, 2024, where I continue to engage in advanced research in my field. Prior to my postdoctoral work, I served as an Assistant Professor at Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology from April 2022 to April 2024. During my time there, I had the opportunity to teach and mentor students, further deepening my passion for education and research in computer science and engineering.
External members
Vincenzo Arceri
Non-Tenured Track Assistant Professor @ University Of Parma
Email: vincenzo.arceri@unipr.itWebsite: https://vincenzoarceri.github.io/
Vincenzo Arceri has a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science (July 2014) and a Master Degree in Computer Science and Engineering – Computer Systems Security curriculum – (July 2016), both issued by the University of Verona. He was an UROP Student at the Imperial College London (Summer 2016), under the supervision of Prof. Sergio Maffeis. Vincenzo Arceri joined the University of Verona in October 2016 as PhD student in Computer Science, under the supervision of Prof. Isabella Mastroeni and he got the PhD in May 2020, defending my PhD thesis titled “Taming Strings in Dynamic Languages – An Abstract Interpretation-based Static Analysis Approach”. From September 2019 to September 2021, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in the Software and System Verification research group.
Currently, Vincenzo Arceri is an Assistant Professor (non-tenure) in the Department of Mathematical, Physical, and Computer Sciences at the University of Parma, dealing with techniques to speed up static analyses, static analysis of Go language for blockchain applications, relational string analyses, and static analysis for dynamic languages.
Vincenzo Arceri’s main research interests include static program analysis, string analysis and verification (in particular for dynamic languages), abstract interpretation and, more in general, formal methods for program security.