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My (academic) life at a glance

I am a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at Plymouth University, UK, where I work as a member of the Adaptive Behaviour and Cognition Research Group, within the Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems, led by Prof. Angelo Cangelosi.

Most of my work is currently dedicated to VALUE, a RCUK Cognitive Systems Foresight Project coordinated by our university. My role within this project consists in designing a cognitive architecture for humanoid robots (the iCub robot being the reference platform) able to account for phenomena related to visual memory observed during experiments with human subjects.

My Ph.D. work, sponsored by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, was focused instead on the use of Evolutionary Robotics and Multi-Agent Systems methodologies for the design of autonomous controllers for Micro-Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The research has demonstrated, using both computer simulations and physical robotics platforms, how the above approach can be successfully applied to the domain of autonomous aerial robotics.

In the past I’ve carried out Artificial Life research, aiming to obtain a better understanding about the role played by attention and motivation in humans and animals. The investigation has been performed studying the behaviour of artificial organisms, living in computer simulated environments and dealing with complex ecological scenarios in which the ability to focus on some specific elements of the environment (based on their situation-based “motivational status”) was crucial for their survival.

Main research interests

My research interests span almost every area of Artificial Intelligence, with a particular emphasis on Machine Learning (neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, self-organising maps), Autonomous Robotics, Multi-Agent Systems and Cognitive Modelling.

My background

I was born in Sassuolo (MO), Italy, on August 1982 and I’ve spent the first part of my life living in a near small town called Roteglia (RE). I graduated in Economics, Networks, and Information at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in 2004. From the same university I received a MSc in Economics and Managements of Networks and Innovation in 2007 (with a final project supervised by Prof. Roberto Serra). Before moving to Plymouth for my PhD I spent few months in Rome, working at the Laboratory of Artificial Life and Autonomous Robotics (LARAL), within the National Research Council’s Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC-CNR), under the guidance of Prof. Domenico Parisi. In 2010 I spent a period of time as a visiting student at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems (LIS), directed by Prof. Dario Floreano, at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) (feel free to add accents here and there). In 2011, me and my girlfriend Sara have had a wonderful little boy called Samuel John.

Miscellaneous

During my (rare) spare time I enjoy reading books (on Anobii you can find a virtual representation of my bookshelf), listening music (again, have a look at last.fm) geeking around some useless but highly technological gadgets, doing watching sports (football and basketball are by far my favourites), playing poker (wondering when I’ll finally decide to commit myself to the development of a software able to crush online games on my behalf, and possibly in a better way), writing random essays on my personal blog (available in Italian only, sorry about that), and doing a wide range of additional activities targeted to keep my poor brain busy at any given time.

How to contact me

If you have something interesting that you would like to discuss, you can get in touch with me in several different ways. The cheapest and most effective one is probably using Skype, adding me to your contact list as fabio.ruini (please, write an introductory message when you do). Otherwise, good old-fashion emails sent at fabio.ruini@plymouth.ac.uk should do the job properly. If you don’t like these evil modern technologies at all, hidden somewhere on my desk there must be a telephone ringing when you dial the number +44 (0)1752 586289. Furthermore, I’ve been told that in our department we have a fax machine too. But, please, don’t do that to me!

Social networks

I’m also present on some of the most popular social networks available on the Internet. In addition to those listed above, you can find me on Facebook (where I also take care of the official page of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence), LinkedIn, and Mendeley.

Professional memberships

I’m member of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, INNS (International Neural Networks Society), and AI*IA (Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence).