University of Bologna

Research

Our mission is to shape the future of computing and cyber-physical systems, making them increasingly efficient, secure, and fully autonomous.

In practice, our research comes to life across three main areas:

How we work

We don’t just study individual components. We adopt a holistic approach that bridges hardware architecture, software layers, and end applications. We develop and optimize cyber-physical, neuromorphic, and HPC technologies across the entire spectrum: from embedded and Edge devices to Cloud infrastructures.

Our goal

We want to drive the entire data chain—from the sensor to the supercomputer—at peak performance. All while minimizing energy and thermal consumption, and ensuring robust cybersecurity at every stage of the process.

Highlighted

All

2027

Beyond foundation models: Dimension-aware neural architecture search with small-data representation models for cryocooler lifetime prediction
Beyond foundation models: Dimension-aware neural architecture search with small-data representation models for cryocooler lifetime prediction
Gregor Molan, Grafika Jati, Francesco Barchi, Andrea Acquaviva, Aljaž Osterman, Martin Molan
Reliability Engineering & System Safety  ·  01 Jan 2027  ·  doi:10.1016/j.ress.2026.113105

2026

Elevating Datacenter Resilience with ThermADNet: A Thermal Anomaly Detection System
Elevating Datacenter Resilience with ThermADNet: A Thermal Anomaly Detection System
Mohsen Seyedkazemi Ardebili, Andrea Acquaviva, Luca Benini, Andrea Bartolini
Future Generation Computer Systems  ·  01 Jun 2026  ·  doi:10.1016/j.future.2025.108311
Targeting language models for compile-time computing resource optimization: A novel approach based on masked graph autoencoders
Targeting language models for compile-time computing resource optimization: A novel approach based on masked graph autoencoders
Federico Cichetti, Emanuele Parisi, Andrea Acquaviva, Francesco Barchi
Data & Knowledge Engineering  ·  01 Mar 2026  ·  doi:10.1016/j.datak.2025.102551
A transformer-based approach for source code classification for heterogeneous device mapping
A transformer-based approach for source code classification for heterogeneous device mapping
Marco Siino, Emanuele Parisi, Francesco Barchi, Andrea Acquaviva, Andrea Bartolini
Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence  ·  01 Jan 2026  ·  doi:10.1016/j.engappai.2025.112987
An OpenSSL Engine for Secure and Transparent Offloading of Cryptographic Operations to OP-TEE in Embedded IoT Platforms
An OpenSSL Engine for Secure and Transparent Offloading of Cryptographic Operations to OP-TEE in Embedded IoT Platforms
Tina Sayarmoafi, Francesco Barchi, Lorenzo Bottaccioli, Andrea Acquaviva, Edoardo Patti, Paolo Montuschi, Luca Barbierato
IEEE Internet of Things Journal  ·  01 Jan 2026  ·  doi:10.1109/JIOT.2026.3701432

2025

Foundation Models for Structural Health Monitoring
Foundation Models for Structural Health Monitoring
Luca Benfenati, Daniele Jahier Pagliari, Luca Zanatta, Yhorman Alexander Bedoya Velez, Andrea Acquaviva, Massimo Poncino, Enrico Macii, Luca Benini, Alessio Burrello
IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Computing  ·  01 Nov 2025  ·  doi:10.1109/TSUSC.2025.3592097
ANZIL: Attention-based network for zero-risk inspection of LiDAR point cloud in self-driving cars
ANZIL: Attention-based network for zero-risk inspection of LiDAR point cloud in self-driving cars
Grafika Jati, Martin Molan, Francesco Barchi, Andrea Bartolini, Giuseppe Mercurio, Andrea Acquaviva
Expert Systems with Applications  ·  01 Nov 2025  ·  doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2025.128412
Unleashing OpenTitan s Potential: a Silicon-Ready Embedded Secure Element for Root of Trust and Cryptographic Offloading
Unleashing OpenTitan’s Potential: a Silicon-Ready Embedded Secure Element for Root of Trust and Cryptographic Offloading
Maicol Ciani, Emanuele Parisi, Alberto Musa, Francesco Barchi, Andrea Bartolini, Ari Kulmala, Rafail Psiakis, Angelo Garofalo, Andrea Acquaviva, Rossi Davide
ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems  ·  13 Sep 2025  ·  doi:10.1145/3690823
Traffic Load Estimation via Time-Frequency Analysis of Dynamic Monitoring Data and Deep Learning
Traffic Load Estimation via Time-Frequency Analysis of Dynamic Monitoring Data and Deep Learning
Samuel Zanella, Francesco Barchi, Amirhossein Moallemi, Monica Longo, Mattia Salvaro, Paola Darò, Luca Benini, Andrea Acquaviva
Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering  ·  01 Jan 2025  ·  doi:10.1007/978-3-031-96110-6_75
Novel Physical Unclonable Function Implementation for Microcontrollers and Field Programmable Gate Arrays
Novel Physical Unclonable Function Implementation for Microcontrollers and Field Programmable Gate Arrays
Marco Grossi, Martin Omaña, Cecilia Metra, Andrea Acquaviva
IEEE Access  ·  01 Jan 2025  ·  doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3555438

2024

LIDAROC: Realistic LiDAR Cover Contamination Dataset for Enhancing Autonomous Vehicle Perception Reliability
LIDAROC: Realistic LiDAR Cover Contamination Dataset for Enhancing Autonomous Vehicle Perception Reliability
Grafika Jati, Martin Molan, Francesco Barchi, Andrea Bartolini, Giuseppe Mercurio, Andrea Acquaviva
IEEE Sensors Letters  ·  01 Sep 2024  ·  doi:10.1109/LSENS.2024.3434624
Energy efficient and low-latency spiking neural networks on embedded microcontrollers through spiking activity tuning
Energy efficient and low-latency spiking neural networks on embedded microcontrollers through spiking activity tuning
Francesco Barchi, Emanuele Parisi, Luca Zanatta, Andrea Bartolini, Andrea Acquaviva
Neural Computing and Applications  ·  01 Aug 2024  ·  doi:10.1007/s00521-024-10191-5
HazardNet: A thermal hazard prediction framework for datacenters
HazardNet: A thermal hazard prediction framework for datacenters
Mohsen Seyedkazemi Ardebili, Andrea Acquaviva, Luca Benini, Andrea Bartolini
Future Generation Computer Systems  ·  01 Jun 2024  ·  doi:10.1016/j.future.2024.01.031
TinyLid: a RISC-V accelerated Neural Network For LiDAR Contaminant Classification in Autonomous Vehicle
TinyLid: a RISC-V accelerated Neural Network For LiDAR Contaminant Classification in Autonomous Vehicle
Grafika Jati, Martin Molan, Francesco Barchi, Andrea Bartolini, Andrea Acquaviva
Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers  ·  07 May 2024  ·  doi:10.1145/3649153.3649201
NARS: Neuromorphic Acceleration through Register-Streaming Extensions on RISC-V Cores
NARS: Neuromorphic Acceleration through Register-Streaming Extensions on RISC-V Cores
Simone Manoni, Paul Scheffler, Alfio Di Mauro, Luca Zanatta, Andrea Acquaviva, Luca Benini, Andrea Bartolini
Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers: Workshops and Special Sessions  ·  07 May 2024  ·  doi:10.1145/3637543.3652879
AutoGrAN: Autonomous Vehicle LiDAR Contaminant Detection using Graph Attention Networks
AutoGrAN: Autonomous Vehicle LiDAR Contaminant Detection using Graph Attention Networks
Grafika Jati, Martin Molan, Junaid Ahmed Khan, Francesco Barchi, Andrea Bartolini, Giuseppe Mercurio, Andrea Acquaviva
Companion of the 15th ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering  ·  07 May 2024  ·  doi:10.1145/3629527.3652896
Assessing the Performance of OpenTitan as Cryptographic Accelerator in Secure Open-Hardware System-on-Chips
Assessing the Performance of OpenTitan as Cryptographic Accelerator in Secure Open-Hardware System-on-Chips
Emanuele Parisi, Alberto Musa, Maicol Ciani, Francesco Barchi, Davide Rossi, Andrea Bartolini, Andrea Acquaviva
Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers  ·  07 May 2024  ·  doi:10.1145/3649153.3649213
Hospital and Home Environments Automation for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Patients: Building Information Modeling and the Internet of Things in Digital Environments
Hospital and Home Environments Automation for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Patients: Building Information Modeling and the Internet of Things in Digital Environments
Francesco Alotto, Matteo Del Giudice, Roberta Surian, Nicola Rimella, Andrea Acquaviva, Edoardo Patti, Anna Osello
IT Professional  ·  01 May 2024  ·  doi:10.1109/MITP.2023.3323820
Enhancing workplace safety: A flexible approach for personal protective equipment monitoring
Enhancing workplace safety: A flexible approach for personal protective equipment monitoring
Alessia Pisu, Nicola Elia, Livio Pompianu, Francesco Barchi, Andrea Acquaviva, Salvatore Carta
Expert Systems with Applications  ·  01 Mar 2024  ·  doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2023.122285
DeepCodeGraph: A Language Model for Compile-Time Resource Optimization Using Masked Graph Autoencoders
DeepCodeGraph: A Language Model for Compile-Time Resource Optimization Using Masked Graph Autoencoders
Federico Cichetti, Emanuele Parisi, Andrea Acquaviva, Francesco Barchi
Lecture Notes in Computer Science  ·  01 Jan 2024  ·  doi:10.1007/978-3-031-70239-6_32

2023

On the Containerization and Orchestration of RISC-V architectures for Edge-Cloud computing
On the Containerization and Orchestration of RISC-V architectures for Edge-Cloud computing
Francesco Lumpp, Francesco Barchi, Andrea Acquaviva, Nicola Bombieri
Proceedings of the 3rd Eclipse Security, AI, Architecture and Modelling Conference on Cloud to Edge Continuum  ·  17 Oct 2023  ·  doi:10.1145/3624486.3624490

2022

Deep Learning Approaches to Source Code Analysis for Optimization of Heterogeneous Systems: Recent Results, Challenges and Opportunities
Deep Learning Approaches to Source Code Analysis for Optimization of Heterogeneous Systems: Recent Results, Challenges and Opportunities
Francesco Barchi, Emanuele Parisi, Andrea Bartolini, Andrea Acquaviva
Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications  ·  05 Jul 2022  ·  doi:10.3390/jlpea12030037
Making the Most of Scarce Input Data in Deep Learning-Based Source Code Classification for Heterogeneous Device Mapping
Making the Most of Scarce Input Data in Deep Learning-Based Source Code Classification for Heterogeneous Device Mapping
Emanuele Parisi, Francesco Barchi, Andrea Bartolini, Andrea Acquaviva
IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems  ·  01 Jun 2022  ·  doi:10.1109/TCAD.2021.3114617
Trimming Feature Extraction and Inference for MCU-Based Edge NILM: A Systematic Approach
Trimming Feature Extraction and Inference for MCU-Based Edge NILM: A Systematic Approach
Enrico Tabanelli, Davide Brunelli, Andrea Acquaviva, Luca Benini
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics  ·  01 Feb 2022  ·  doi:10.1109/TII.2021.3078186
Smart Contracts for Certified and Sustainable Safety-Critical Continuous Monitoring Applications
Smart Contracts for Certified and Sustainable Safety-Critical Continuous Monitoring Applications
Nicola Elia, Francesco Barchi, Emanuele Parisi, Livio Pompianu, Salvatore Carta, Andrea Bartolini, Andrea Acquaviva
Lecture Notes in Computer Science  ·  01 Jan 2022  ·  doi:10.1007/978-3-031-15740-0_27
Rule-Based Thermal Anomaly Detection for Tier-0 HPC Systems
Rule-Based Thermal Anomaly Detection for Tier-0 HPC Systems
Mohsen Seyedkazemi Ardebili, Andrea Bartolini, Andrea Acquaviva, Luca Benini
Lecture Notes in Computer Science  ·  01 Jan 2022  ·  doi:10.1007/978-3-031-23220-6_18

2021

Solar radiation forecasting based on convolutional neural network and ensemble learning
Solar radiation forecasting based on convolutional neural network and ensemble learning
Davide Cannizzaro, Alessandro Aliberti, Lorenzo Bottaccioli, Enrico Macii, Andrea Acquaviva, Edoardo Patti
Expert Systems with Applications  ·  01 Nov 2021  ·  doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2021.115167
Spiking Neural Network-Based Near-Sensor Computing for Damage Detection in Structural Health Monitoring
Spiking Neural Network-Based Near-Sensor Computing for Damage Detection in Structural Health Monitoring
Francesco Barchi, Luca Zanatta, Emanuele Parisi, Alessio Burrello, Davide Brunelli, Andrea Bartolini, Andrea Acquaviva
Future Internet  ·  23 Aug 2021  ·  doi:10.3390/fi13080219
TRIMMING FEATURE EXTRACTION AND INFERENCE FOR MCU-BASED EDGE NILM: A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH
TRIMMING FEATURE EXTRACTION AND INFERENCE FOR MCU-BASED EDGE NILM: A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH
Enrico Tabanelli, Davide Brunelli, Luca Benini, Andrea Acquaviva
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)  ·  28 May 2021  ·  doi:10.36227/techrxiv.14636919.v1
TRIMMING FEATURE EXTRACTION AND INFERENCE FOR MCU-BASED EDGE NILM: A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH
TRIMMING FEATURE EXTRACTION AND INFERENCE FOR MCU-BASED EDGE NILM: A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH
Enrico Tabanelli, Davide Brunelli, Luca Benini, Andrea Acquaviva
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)  ·  28 May 2021  ·  doi:10.36227/techrxiv.14636919
Flexible On-Line Reconfiguration of Multi-Core Neuromorphic Platforms
Flexible On-Line Reconfiguration of Multi-Core Neuromorphic Platforms
Francesco Barchi, Gianvito Urgese, Alessandro Siino, Santa Di Cataldo, Enrico Macii, Andrea Acquaviva
IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing  ·  01 Apr 2021  ·  doi:10.1109/TETC.2019.2908079
Comparative Analysis of Neural Networks Techniques to Forecast Global Horizontal Irradiance
Comparative Analysis of Neural Networks Techniques to Forecast Global Horizontal Irradiance
Alessandro Aliberti, Daniele Fucini, Lorenzo Bottaccioli, Enrico Macii, Andrea Acquaviva, Edoardo Patti
IEEE Access  ·  01 Jan 2021  ·  doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3110167

2020

Open collaborative writing with Manubot
Open collaborative writing with Manubot
Daniel S. Himmelstein, Vincent Rubinetti, David R. Slochower, Dongbo Hu, Venkat S. Malladi, Casey S. Greene, Anthony Gitter
PLOS Computational Biology  ·  04 Dec 2020  ·  doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007128
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Manubot
Manuscript Source
Website
open-science collaboration
Constructing knowledge graphs and their biomedical applications
Constructing knowledge graphs and their biomedical applications
David N. Nicholson, Casey S. Greene
Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal  ·  01 Jan 2020  ·  doi:10.1016/j.csbj.2020.05.017

2019

Benchmarking a Many-Core Neuromorphic Platform With an MPI-Based DNA Sequence Matching Algorithm
Benchmarking a Many-Core Neuromorphic Platform With an MPI-Based DNA Sequence Matching Algorithm
Gianvito Urgese, Francesco Barchi, Emanuele Parisi, Evelina Forno, Andrea Acquaviva, Enrico Macii
Electronics  ·  14 Nov 2019  ·  doi:10.3390/electronics8111342
A Cloud-Based On-Line Disaggregation Algorithm for Home Appliance Loads
A Cloud-Based On-Line Disaggregation Algorithm for Home Appliance Loads
Million Abayneh Mengistu, Awet Abraha Girmay, Chirstian Camarda, Andrea Acquaviva, Edoardo Patti
IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid  ·  01 May 2019  ·  doi:10.1109/TSG.2018.2826844

2018

Guest Editorial for the Special Section on Emerging Computational Paradigms
Guest Editorial for the Special Section on Emerging Computational Paradigms
Alberto Macii, Andrea Acquaviva
IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing  ·  01 Jul 2018  ·  doi:10.1109/TETC.2018.2851313
Sci-Hub provides access to nearly all scholarly literature
Sci-Hub provides access to nearly all scholarly literature
Daniel S Himmelstein, Ariel Rodriguez Romero, Jacob G Levernier, Thomas Anthony Munro, Stephen Reid McLaughlin, Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, Casey S Greene
eLife  ·  01 Mar 2018  ·  doi:10.7554/eLife.32822

2017

A Flexible Distributed Infrastructure for Real-Time Cosimulations in Smart Grids
A Flexible Distributed Infrastructure for Real-Time Cosimulations in Smart Grids
Lorenzo Bottaccioli, Abouzar Estebsari, Enrico Pons, Ettore Bompard, Enrico Macii, Edoardo Patti, Andrea Acquaviva
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics  ·  01 Dec 2017  ·  doi:10.1109/TII.2017.2702206