Call for Admission

The call for applications for the XLII Cycle of the PhD Programme in Computer Science, academic year 2026–2027, is available.

Applications can be submitted through the PICA platform from 10 June 2026.

Deadline: 9 July 2026, 12:00 CET.

For the official call, FAQs, application procedures, and further information, please refer to the official University of Bari webpage:

Note: The official University of Bari webpage is the authoritative source for deadlines, requirements, available positions, scholarships, and application procedures.

Admission Procedure

The evaluation criteria for admission to the PhD Programme in Computer Science are available in Italian and English:

The list of candidates admitted to the oral test is available below:

The anonymous results of the oral test are available below:

The final ranking list for admission to the PhD Programme in Computer Science is available below:

PhD Students and Research Projects

PhD StudentResearch ProjectSupervisorCo-Supervisor(s)Funding
Lorenzo AbatescianniKnowledge-Centric Deep Learning for Railway Systems EngineeringGiovanna CastellanoGennaro Vessio; Vito Santacesaria (industry)Ai2 S.r.l. (co-funded)
Nicola BalzanoConfidential Computing and Post-Quantum CryptographyDanilo CaivanoEmanuele Carpanzano (industry)PREM AI S.r.l. (apprenticeship)
Roberto CapolongoAI for Cybersecurity in Mobile EnvironmentsDonato Impedovo—Department funds (BullyBuster – PRIN2017)
Mattia ColucciAdvancing Safety and Adversarial Robustness in AI-Based Autonomous SystemsAntonio PiccinnoGennaro VessioUniversity scholarship (open topic)
Cataldo DammaccoArtificial Intelligence for Public SafetyDonato Malerba—No scholarship
Emanuele FontanaInvestigating the Interpretability and Robustness of Internal Signals in Foundation ModelsGennaro VessioGiovanna CastellanoUniversity scholarship (open topic)
Sara LumacaMathematical and Artificial Intelligence Models for the Improvement and Innovation of Production ProcessesGiuseppe PirloVincenzo DentamaroPirelli Digital Solutions S.r.l.
Francesca MantiniArtificial Intelligence for Competitiveness and Digital Inclusion in Micro and Small Craft EnterprisesMarco de GemmisGiovanni DimauroCNA Puglia
Rebecca MargiottaCyber Risk Management through Cyber Ranges and Attack Surface ManagementMaria Teresa BaldassarreClaudio Tinelli (industry)Eulogic NT S.p.A.
Davide Pio PosaIncident Response in Multi-Domain Cyber-Social OperationsDanilo CaivanoMassimiliano Morga (industry)Ser&Practices S.r.l. (apprenticeship)
Fabrizio RosmarinoDevelopment of MLOps Pipelines for Earth Observation Data and Machine Learning AlgorithmsFabio CalefatoNicolò Taggio (industry)Planetek S.r.l. (co-funded)
Maryam SamiepourAI-Driven Credit Intelligence for Micro and Small Craft Enterprises: Predictive Scoring, Service Recommendation, and Territorial Socioeconomic ObservatoryAntonio PiccinnoPierpaolo BasileCOFIDI.IT

Study Plan and Courses

The XLII cycle includes advanced PhD-level courses covering several areas of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. PhD students are required to acquire at least 15 ECTS during the first two years and pass examinations corresponding to at least 8 ECTS.

CourseLecturer(s)HoursECTSYear
Sustainable and Secure AI

The course introduces principles and methodologies for building robust, trustworthy, and sustainable AI systems. Topics include adversarial learning, Data-Centric AI, robustness to distribution shifts, data quality, and responsible deployment of machine learning systems in critical domains.

ECTS breakdown: 3 ECTS lecture (24 hours)

Schedule: June 2027

Giuseppina Andresini (8 hours)
Vincenzo Pasquadibisceglie (8 hours)
Stefano Ferilli (8 hours)
24 3 First year
Graph-Based Techniques for Context-Aware AI

The course explores graph-based methodologies for designing context-aware AI systems, including knowledge graphs, graph neural networks, graph embeddings, link prediction, and multimodal graph learning for relational and structured data.

ECTS breakdown: 1 ECTS lecture (8 hours); 1 ECTS practical (15 hours)

Schedule: January–February 2027

Raffaele Scaringi (23 hours) 23 2 First year
Emotion Recognition Using Non-Invasive Biometrics

The course focuses on affective computing and emotion recognition using non-invasive biometric sensors. It covers sensor-based emotion analysis, feature extraction, supervised learning techniques, and applications in human-computer interaction and collaborative environments.

ECTS breakdown: 2 ECTS lecture (16 hours)

Schedule: 3–19 December 2026

Daniela Grassi (16 hours) 16 2 First year
Few-shot Learning for Deep Learning

The course presents advanced methods for learning from limited labeled data, including meta-learning, metric-based approaches, foundation models, self-supervised learning, and prompt-based adaptation techniques across vision, language, and multimodal domains.

ECTS breakdown: 1 ECTS lecture (8 hours); 1 ECTS practical (15 hours)

Schedule: January–February 2027

Pasquale De Marinis (23 hours) 23 2 First year
Heterogeneous Computation for Modern Applications

The course introduces heterogeneous computational architectures combining HPC, GPU acceleration, and hybrid classical–quantum workflows. Particular attention is devoted to intelligent interactive systems and adaptive AI-driven applications.

ECTS breakdown: 3 ECTS lecture (24 hours)

Schedule: February 2027

Corrado Loglisci (8 hours)
Angelo Impedovo (8 hours)
Giuseppe Palestra (8 hours)
24 3 First year
Advanced Interpolation for Image Processing

The course presents interpolation techniques for structured and scattered data, including spline methods, subdivision schemes, edge-guided interpolation, Lanczos interpolation, and thin-plate splines, with applications in image, medical, and geospatial processing.

ECTS breakdown: 1 ECTS lecture (8 hours)

Schedule: December 2026

Antonella Falini (8 hours) 8 1 First year
Human-Centered Cybersecurity

The course investigates cybersecurity from a human-centered perspective, covering usable security phishing, social engineering, authentication, mental models of cyber threats, and user-centered methodologies for secure system design.

ECTS breakdown: 2 ECTS lecture (16 hours); 1 ECTS practical (15 hours)

Schedule: First 2–3 weeks of December 2026

Giuseppe Desolda (8 hours)
Francesco Greco (23 hours)
31 3 First year
Advanced Topics in AI: Machine Learning and Behavioral Biometrics

The course examines AI and machine learning approaches for analyzing neurodegenerative diseases through imaging, behavioral biometrics, and multimodal data, with applications to diagnosis, prediction, and healthcare decision support.

ECTS breakdown: 1 ECTS lecture (8 hours)

Schedule: January–February 2027

Vincenzo Dentamaro (8 hours) 8 1 First year
Symbiotic AI for Natural Language Understanding and Knowledge Representation

The course introduces Symbiotic AI approaches combining natural language processing, knowledge representation, ontologies, knowledge graphs, reasoning systems, and large language models for interpretable and knowledge-driven AI.

ECTS breakdown: 2 ECTS lecture (16 hours); 1 ECTS practical (15 hours)

Schedule: TBA

Lucia Siciliani (31 hours) 31 3 First year
Serious Games for Healthcare: Design, Validation, and Biomarker Analysis

The course explores serious games as computational systems for healthcare, rehabilitation, and assessment. Topics include digital biomarkers, adaptive interventions, usability evaluation, and validation methodologies for interactive health technologies.

ECTS breakdown: 2 ECTS lecture (16 hours)

Schedule: January–February 2027

Alessandro Pagano (16 hours) 16 2 First year
Scientific Research Writing

The course develops advanced scientific communication skills, including paper structure, academic writing, bibliography styles, reviewer response, research ethics, and the responsible use of AI tools in scientific publishing.

ECTS breakdown: 1 ECTS lecture (8 hours); 1 ECTS practical (15 hours)

Schedule: 28 January; 2, 4, 9, 16, 18, 23 and 25 February 2027 (14:30–17:30, except 28 January: 14:30–16:30)

Antonietta Bagnardi (23 hours) 23 2 First and second years
Metaheuristics Optimization for Swarm Intelligence

The course introduces deterministic and swarm-intelligence optimization methods, including Particle Swarm Optimization and nature-inspired metaheuristics for search, path planning, and optimization problems in complex environments.

ECTS breakdown: 1 ECTS lecture (8 hours); 1 ECTS practical (15 hours)

Schedule: TBA

Antonella Falini (23 hours) 23 2 Second year
Learning Settings for Big Data

The course explores machine learning paradigms for large-scale and streaming data, including ensemble learning, stream learning, transfer learning, model reuse, scalability, and data heterogeneity in Big Data environments.

ECTS breakdown: 2 ECTS lecture (16 hours); 1 ECTS practical (15 hours)

Schedule: TBA

Michelangelo Ceci (8 hours)
Antonio Pellicani (23 hours)
31 3 Second year

Additional Training Activities

The programme includes several transversal and interdisciplinary activities, including:

  • scientific seminars and workshops;
  • PhD Days and public engagement initiatives;
  • conferences, doctoral consortia, and schools;
  • research project management and European funding systems;
  • open science and intellectual property training;
  • technology transfer and dissemination activities;
  • psychological counseling services for PhD students.

Students are encouraged to participate actively in the scientific life of the department and in international research networks.

Teaching Board

Coordinator

Prof. Giovanna Castellano

Members

Name Role SSD
Giuseppina AndresiniAssistant ProfessorINFO-01/A
Annalisa AppiceFull ProfessorIINF-05/A
M. Teresa BaldassarreAssociate ProfessorIINF-05/A
Pierpaolo BasileAssociate ProfessorIINF-05/A
Paolo BuonoAssociate ProfessorINFO-01/A
Danilo CaivanoFull ProfessorIINF-05/A
Fabio CalefatoAssociate ProfessorINFO-01/A
Michelangelo CeciFull ProfessorINFO-01/A
Claudia d'AmatoAssociate ProfessorINFO-01/A
Marco de GemmisAssociate ProfessorINFO-01/A
Vincenzo DentamaroAssistant ProfessorIINF-05/A
Giuseppe DesoldaAssociate ProfessorINFO-01/A
Antonella FaliniAssistant ProfessorMATH-05/A
Nicola FanizziAssociate ProfessorINFO-01/A
Stefano FerilliFull ProfessorINFO-01/A
Donato ImpedovoFull ProfessorIINF-05/A
Corrado LoglisciAssociate ProfessorIINF-05/A
Pasquale LopsFull ProfessorINFO-01/A
Donato MalerbaFull ProfessorIINF-05/A
Corrado MencarAssociate ProfessorINFO-01/A
Cataldo MustoAssociate ProfessorINFO-01/A
Nicole NovielliFull ProfessorINFO-01/A
Antonio PiccinnoAssociate ProfessorINFO-01/A
Gianvito PioAssociate ProfessorINFO-01/A
Giovanni SemeraroFull ProfessorINFO-01/A
Gennaro VessioAssociate ProfessorIINF-05/A