Gabriella Cortellessa

Gabriella Cortellessa

[M.S. Computer Science Engineering 2001, PhD Cognitive Psychology 2005]

CNR Research Scientist since April 2012.

Previously I was a fixed term researcher at the ISTC-CNR from July 2008 to March 2012 and a research fellow from 2001 to 2007. In 2003, I spent one year at the laboratory ICLL - Intelligent Coordination and Logistics Laboratory, of the Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA, USA), where I was involved in interactive problem solving, mixed-initiative systems and automatic synthesis of user-oriented explanations. The engineering education and the subsequent PhD in Cognitive Psychology fostered my interest in the design of interactive ICT systems and their ecological and long-term evaluation with real users.

Among the most significant experiences in projects it is worth mentioning my participation in the RoboCare project during which I expanded my experience on human-robot assessment methodologies. I also had an important role in the design and implementation of interactive services in the MEXAR2, RAXEM and RAXEM2 systems developed for the European Space Agency. I was project scientist in the European project called Pandora, in the role of work package leader and contributing to the design and construction of a module dedicated to the personalization of training stimuli administered to crisis manager in interactive and dynamic lessons customized according to the trainees' emotional state. In the Excite project I was responsible for the design of the long-term evaluation plan of a telepresence robot called Giraff. In GiraffPlus [2012-2014] I served as Scientific and Technical Manager and actively participated in the analysis of user requirements, the design of personalized proactive services and the ecological and long-term assessment of the system. GiraffPlus received a rating of Excellent by the European Commission in April 2015. I also participated in the SpeakyAcutattile project, funded under the Industry 2015 program and dedicated to the construction of an intelligent, multichannel and multimedia voice assistant, guiding the evaluation activity of the system with elderly and visually impaired users. Currently I am involved in three projects of the European AAL program: SPONSOR, MAESTRO and TV ASSISTDEM.

I was among the promoters of the series of workshops called SPARK (Scheduling and Planning Applications) co-located with the International Conference ICAPS, the IPS workshop (Italian Workshop on Planning & Scheduling) and the AI*AAL (Artificial Intelligence for Ambient Assisted Living) held in conjunction with the AI*IA conference. I am also regularly in the Program Committee of relevant international conferences including IJCAI, AAAI, ICAPS, ECAI, ICART, AI*IA. I was also Workshops Chair at ICAPS'13 and Track Chair of the Novel Applications Track at ICAPS 15&16.