I am a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California (USC) and a Research Scientist at the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) in the research group led by Emilio Ferrara. I obtained my Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Bern (Switzerland), my M.Sc. from the Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy), and my B.Sc. from the Polytechnic University of Bari (Italy).

My research leverages machine learning, data science, and network science to detect, investigate, and mitigate online harms in socio-technical systems. I study malicious behaviors, misinformation, and manipulation dynamics on social media to design algorithms for their detection and identify actionable insights for their mitigation. My study and interest fall into research areas such as computational social science, AI for social good, and behavioral science.

At the Information Sciences Institute (ISI), I am currently co-PI of the DARPA-funded programs INCAS – which aims to develop techniques and tools to detect, characterize, and track geopolitical influence campaigns; and Civil Sanctuary – which fosters positive behavioral norms in online conversations through the use of AI moderators. I am also co-PI of the interdisciplinary project CARISMA, funded by the Swiss NSF, to support policymakers and regulators by establishing computational models to craft policy recommendations that can effectively mitigate online harms.

During my previous appointment at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), I was a research scientist at the Institute of Networking and Information Systems (ISIN) and the head of the Network Science research unit within the Department of Innovative Technologies (DTI).