Career: Giancarlo Fortino is currently a Full Professor of Computer Engineering (since 2018) at the Department of Informatics, Modeling, Electronics and Systems (DIMES) of the University of Calabria (Unical), Rende (CS), Italy. In 2013, he took the Italian Scientific Habilitation for Full Professorship (ASN 2012). He received a Laurea Degree (BSc+MSc) in Computer Engineering and a PhD in Computer Engineering from Unical, Italy, in 1995 and 2000, respectively. He was assistant professor and associate professor at Unical respectively in the periods 2001-2006 and 2006-2018. He has been a visiting researcher at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI), Berkeley, USA, in 1997 and 1999, and visiting Prof at Queensland Univ. of Technology (QUT), Australia, in 2009. He was nominated Guest Prof in Computer Engineering of Wuhan Univ. of Technology (WUT) on April, 18 2012 and from April 2015 to Dec 2017 he was Adjunct Full Prof of Computer Engineering at WUT in the framework of High-End Foreign Experts in China program he won in 2015. He is also Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at ICAR-CNR (Italian National Research Council) since 2015. He is also distinguished professor of HUST and Huazhong Agricultural University, and CAS PIFI visiting scientist of Shenzhen Institutes for Advanced Technologies.He is also high-end expert of the Henan province in China.
Research Activity: His research interests include Wearable Computing Systems, Internet of Things, agent-based computing, wireless sensor networks, edge/cloud computing. Currently, his research is mainly devoted to the definition of models, middleware, platforms and methodologies for the next-generation (i) wearable computing systems based on body sensor networks and (ii) smart object-oriented Internet of Things. Important research outcomes, also in terms of prototypes, are the SPINE (Signal Processing In-Node Environment: spine.dimes.unical.it) and ACOSO (Agent-based COoperating Smart Objects) methodology and tools supporting the development of wearable and/or cognitive IoT systems from analysis to implementation. He is the founder and leader of the Smart, PErvasive and Mobile systems Engineering (SPEME) Lab (speme.dimes.unical.it) which is engaged in cutting-edge research and development of innovative methods and systems for engineering distributed intelligent, pervasive, mobile, and multi-sensorial systems. He is also co-founder and co-director of (i) the Joint-Lab on IoT Technologies oriented to Smart Logistics established between Unical and WUT on Jul 2012, (ii) the Joint-Lab on IoT Technologies oriented to Smart Port established between Unical and Shanghai Maritime Univ. on Nov 2017, and (iii) the Joint-Lab on IoT Technologies oriented to Smart Agriculture established between Unical and Huazhong Agricultural University on Nov 2019.
Research Projects: He has been involved in many research and development projects in the research/technical areas of wearable computing, IoT, wireless sensor networks, intelligent and mobile agents. He gained funding for more than 10Meuros in regional (POR), national (PON,PRIN,POS) and Int'l projects (Italy/Spain and Italy/China bilateral mobility programs, FP7, ENIAC, H2020). He is the National coordinator of the PRIN 2020-COMMON-WEARS and of the POS project Radioamica, and the Unical responsible of the PRIN 2017-Fluidware. He is the deputy coordinator of the HE MLSysOps project and was the deputy coordinator of the EU-funded H2020 project INTER-IoT (Interoperability of IoT Platforms). INTER-IoT took an innovation award from EC. He is the responsible of the open-source project SPINE-BoK (Signal Processing In-Node Environment: https://projects.dimes.unical.it/spine-bok/), launched with Telecom Italia, UC Berkeley and UT Dallas in 2008, for the development of body sensor networks-based wearable systems. He was the Unical PTC of the ENIAC Project E2SG (Energy to Smart Grid), 2012-15; E2SG won the ECSEL Innovation Award at the European Nanoelectronics Forum 2015.
Young Researchers' Formation: since 2006, he supervised 8 PhD students from Unical and 8 from foreign Universities (QUT, WUT, HUST, TU/e, 8 may 1945 University-Algeria). Currently, he is (co)supervising 5 PhD students at Unical and 2 joint PhD students from WUT and IUR, respectively.He is the chair of the PhD School in ICT of DIMES at Unical.
Publications and Awards: He is author of 650+ papers in int’l journals, conferences and books (300+ in the IoT area). In particular, he published more than 260 articles in ISI-impacted journals including IEEE Trans./Journals and Magazines and premier Elsevier Journals. He was awarded with a) 2014 Andrew P. Sage Best IEEE SMC Transactions Paper: Fortino, G.; Giannantonio, R.; Gravina, R.; Kuryloski, P.; Jafari, R., "Enabling Effective Programming and Flexible Management of Efficient Body Sensor Network Applications," IEEE Trans. on Human-Machine Systems, 43(1), pp.115-133, 2013; b) EAI/ACM Bodynets 2015 best paper entitled "Using Cloud-assisted Body Area Networks to Track People Physical Activity in Mobility".
Bibliometrics: According to Clarivate he is Highly Cited Researcher 2020-2023 in Computer Science (among 115 researchers worldwide). According to SCOPUS (17 May 2024) he has: h-index=71, citations=18176, articles number=634, whereas the bibliometrics according to the current Italian National Scientific Habilitation (with respect to the threshold values for committee full prof) are: h-index (last 15 years)= 71/14, citations (last 15 years) = 17365/643, number of journal articles (last 10 years) = 239/15. According to Google Scholar (17 May 2024) he has: citations= 24976, h-index=82, i10-index=349 (since 2019: citations=18891,h-index=69,i10-index=272).
Professional Research Services: He is the founding editor in chief of the IEEE Book Series on “Human-Machine Systems” and of the Springer Book Series on "Internet of Things: Technology, Communications and Computing”, and currently serves in the editorial board of 20+ Journals including IEEE (Trans. on Affective Computing, Human-Machine Systems, and Artificial Intelligence, IoT J., JBHI, Sensors J., Access, SMC Magazine, OJEMB, OJCOM), Elsevier (Information Fusion, EAAI), Springer (CASM, MAGS), and other publishers (Sensors, SCPE). He chaired 120+ (mainly IEEE) Int'l conferences/workshops (particularly, he was the general chair and founder of the 1st edition of the 2020 IEEE Human-Machine Systems conference), organized 80+ special issues in well-known ISI-impacted Int'l Journals, and participated in the TPC of about 650 conferences (mainly IEEE). He also served as invited reviewer for the majority of premiere Int'l journals in his research area (IEEE and ACM trans. Journals and magazines as well as Elsevier and Springer journals). He participated as speaker to 100+ Int'l conferences where he gave paper presentations and where sometimes was involved in panel sessions and invited talks and keynotes.
Int'l Activity: He is currently the Unical Rector’s delegate to International Relations (specifically the coordination of extra-EU actions and China/Australia relations). He established many collaborations with researchers mainly coming from foreign research institutions: US Universities (UC Berkeley, UT Dallas, WSU, NU, NYU), European Universities (UPV, Uni. Granada, UCD, UCL, Imperial College, TUB, TU/e, Univ. of Reading, Univ. of Gdansk and Warsaw, Univ. of Compiegne), Australian Institutions (QUT, Univ. of Melbourne, CSIRO), Chinese Universities (WUT, Dalian Univ. of Technology, Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technology, Shanghai Maritime Univ., CAS SIAT, HZAU), other extra-European Universities (Moroccan ENSIAS, University of Chile, NUS, etc), and Industry research centers (NTT Data, TIM, Clarity Center Ireland, Shimmer Research, TELSTRA, etc.). He delivered 130+ invited seminars/talks at some of the aforementioned institutions. He also promoted the establishment of 60+ international agreements between Unical and most of the aforementioned institutions for research student exchange and joint PhDs.
Teaching Activity: He was the Director of the II level Master on INTER-IoT (Integrator and Manager of IoT Systems), 2019-21. He currently teaches several BSc- and MSc-level courses in the computer/electronics engineering area at Unical: Computing Systems Architectures and IoT Systems programming. He also gave classes in ICT master-level/PhD degrees, in Italy and abroad (Spain and China): IoT systems and wireless sensor networks. Overall, in his career, he provided 575+ didactic institutional credits. Moreover, he is very active in supervising students in developing their MSc-level degree thesis on hot research topics.
Technology Transfer: He is very active in technology transfer and in 2010 he founded (and is currently the CEO) SenSysCal Srl, a spin-off of Unical, whose mission is the development of innovative systems and services based on IoT technology. He recently founded another start-up named BigTech. He also holds a patent (ITCS2011A000014) on a cuff-less, portable, sensor-based system for measuring the human blood pressure 24/7, under movement and in real-time. He recently founded another start-up named Bigtech S.r.l.
IEEE Professional Activity: He is IEEE Fellow (member of the IEEE Computer, Communications, SMC societies), co-founder and co-chair of the IEEE SMC TC on "Interactive and Wearable Computing and Devices" and the IEEE Systems Council TC on “Hyper Intelligence”, member-at-large of the BoG (Board of Governors) of the IEEE SMC Society (term 2021-23), Chair of the IEEE SMC Italian Chapter, and member of the IEEE Press BoG. He was appointed as Distinguished Lecturer of the Sensors Council for the term 2021-2023.
