CV

Education

• Ph.D in Social Computing and Crowdsourcing, Human Centered Computing, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2019 – Present
• MSc in Computer Science, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, 2018
• BA in Fine Arts, Hons, Academy of Fine Arts Brera, Milan, Italy, 2011

Work experience

• July 2019–Present: Ph.D. student • Social Computing • Human-Centered Computing Group, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
  • Utilizing a range of statistical and human-computer interaction methods, I investigate the effectiveness of various manipulations, such as algorithms, frameworks, and user recommendations, on teamwork and collaboration in online work settings. In addition to my primary research focus, I am also actively involved in collaborating with researchers on a variety of other topics such as emotional support for groups and bringing a diverse range of skills to the team. I am also a lecturer in Python programming and HCI methods at both the bachelor’s and master’s levels and regularly present recent research at international conferences. I am frequently responsible for supervising students as they work on their theses and helping them with planning and motivation.
• March 2019—April 2019: Research Assistant • EarSense • Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
  • I continued the work started in 2018 on the development of user-friendly low-power headphones for hands-off mobility. The work entailed the refinement of the signal processing with Python and C++ and the improvement of the hardware by iteratively researching optimal implementations.
• January 2019—February 2019: Research Assistant • Fake News • Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
  • I researched unsupervised machine learning methodologies, specifically autoencoders and deep neural nets, for the classification of fake news in natural language generation. I also explored the use of rule-based metrics for hallucination detection.
• October 2018—November 2018: Research Assistant • EarSense • Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
  • I assisted in the development of low-power movement-sensing in-ear headphones through the implementation of micro barometers. I was responsible for the design, conduct, and analysis of prototype testing, as well as the processing and extraction of data from the prototypes.
• June 2018—August 2018: Work Placement • Drug detection for the NHS • Wallscope, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
  • I completed a work placement and Master’s thesis focused on the development of Machine Learning techniques. Specifically, I developed two artificial neural network models for drug named entity extraction in collaboration with the Information Service Division. I created one convolutional neural network (CNN) model and one recurrent neural network model (RNN), both trained on medical text, with the goal of visualizing prescriptions across GP practices in Scotland.
• March 2015—October 2018: Self-Employment• Federica Designs • Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
  • Artistic director of a micro-company focused on the production and marketing of sustainable, high-end furniture made in the UK. As part of my work, I collaborated with the Social Enterprise Edinburgh Remakery, the West Lothian Council, and the Dalkeith Primary School to promote recycling through classes and demonstrations.
• June 2013—March 2015: Business partner • Vinella & Krupa • Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
  • Co-founder of a small furniture restoration and upcycling business, I was driven towards the rediscovery of traditional furniture decorating techniques in particular etching and figurative painting. The company gained some Princes Trust awards and took part in numerous fairs and publications across the UK.

Skills

• UX Research
  • Wireframing and prototyping
  • Scenarios, Personas, Context of Use
  • Literature and Market Research
  • User Research
  • Agile
• Python programming
  • Colab, Jupyter
  • OOP
  • functional programming
  • Data analysis
  • Data vizualization
  • Agent Based Modeling
  • Flask framework
• Web development
  • Responsive design
  • SQL
  • REST API
  • Javascript
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • jQuery
  • PHP
  • Node.js
• Source Control
  • Git
• More
  • Communication
  • Teamwork
  • Problem-solving

Publications

Capturing the city’s heritage on-the-go: Design requirements for mobile crowdsourced cultural heritage

Hannewijk, B., Vinella, F. L., Khan, V. J., Lykourentzou, I., Papangelis, K., & Masthoff, J. (2020). Capturing the city’s heritage on-the-go: Design requirements for mobile crowdsourced cultural heritage. Sustainability, 12(6), 2429.

Motivational Principles and Personalisation Needs for Geo-Crowdsourced Intangible Cultural Heritage Mobile Applications

Vinella, F. L., Lykourentzou, I., & Papangelis, K. (2020, July). Motivational Principles and Personalisation Needs for Geo-Crowdsourced Intangible Cultural Heritage Mobile Applications. In Adjunct Publication of the 28th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (pp. 362-369).

Users’ Preferences of Profiling Attributes on Crowdsourcing Team Formation Systems

Vinella, F. L., Lykourentzou, I., & Masthoff, J. (2021, November). Users' Preferences of Profiling Attributes on Crowdsourcing Team Formation Systems. In 2021 16th International Workshop on Semantic and Social Media Adaptation & Personalization (SMAP) (pp. 1-10). IEEE.

Symbiotic Child Emotional Support with Social Robots and Temporal Knowledge Graphs

Saccardi, I., Islakoglu, D. S., Neerincx, A., & Vinella, F. L. (2022). Symbiotic Child Emotional Support with Social Robots and Temporal Knowledge Graphs. arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.13229.

Crowdsourcing Team Formation With Worker-Centered Modeling

Vinella, F. L., Hu, J., Lykourentzou, I., & Masthoff, J. (2022). Crowdsourcing Team Formation With Worker-Centered Modeling. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 5.

How Personality and Communication Patterns Affect Online ad-hoc Teams Under Pressure

Vinella, F., Odo, C., Lykourentzou, I., & Masthoff, J. How Personality and Communication Patterns Affect Online Ad-Hoc Teams Under Pressure. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 119.

Forming Teams of Learners Online in a User as Wizard Study with Openness, Conscientiousness, and cognitive Ability

Vinella, F. L., Koppelaar, S., & Masthoff, J. (2022, July). Forming Teams of Learners Online in a User as Wizard Study with Openness, Conscientiousness, and cognitive Ability. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 30th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (pp. 283-292).

GMAP 2022: Workshop on Group Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization

Vinella, F. L., Delić, A., Barile, F., Lykourentzou, I., & Masthoff, J. (2022, July). GMAP 2022: Workshop on Group Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 30th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (pp. 280-282).

The Impact of Digital Nudging Techniques on the Formation of Self-Assembled Crowd Project Teams

Vinella, F., Mosch, R., Lykourentzou, I., & Masthoff, J. (2022, July). The Impact of Digital Nudging Techniques on the Formation of Self-Assembled Crowd Project Teams. In Proceedings of the 30th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (pp. 265-275).

Self-organizing teams in online work settings

Lykourentzou, I., Vinella, F. L., Ahmed, F., Papastathis, C., Papangelis, K., Khan, V. J., & Masthoff, J. (2022). Self-organization in online collaborative work settings. Collective Intelligence, 1(1), 26339137221078005.

Talks

Workshop Paper presentation: PATCH

July 11, 2020

Tutorial at PATCH 2020 @ UMAP 2020 Workshop on Personalized Access to Cultural Heritage, Online

Conference Paper presentation: SMAP

April 11, 2021

Tutorial at 16th International Workshop on Semantic and Social Media Adaptation & Personalization, Online

Pluim award for Information Technology

January 01, 2022

Award for outstanding teaching at Utrecht University, Departiment of Information and Computer Science, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

GMAP Workshop organization

July 06, 2022

Talk at UMAP ’22: 30th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization, Barcelona, Spain

Robot Workshop U-TALENT

December 05, 2022

Talk at Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Teaching

Computational Thinking with Python

Programming with Data

Adaptive Interactive Systems

Information Technology

Information Technology Innovation

Final Thesis Information Science Undergradute Degree

Recent* courses

• 2022 SIKS (The Netherlands Research School for Information and Knowledge Systems) workshop: From Data Lakes to Knowledge Graphs
• 2021 Writing a Scientific Paper Program (Annemarie van der Zeeuw)
• 2020 Start to teach course (Dr. Gemma Corbalan)
• 2019 PhD Introductory Course: Taking Charge of Your PhD, Utrecht University

Service and leadership

• 2021 GSNS Master’s introduction: talk about being a PhD candidate in Computer Science to Master students from Utrecht University.
• 2019 WICS (Women in Computer Science) Steering Committee Member.
• 2019 Member of the Information and Computer Science Department-wide PhD council, Utrecht University.