Dr Giovanni Luca Masala

Dr. Masala has a PhD in Applied Physics (AI in medical applications) in 2006 and a "Laurea" (MSc+BSc degree) in Electronic Engineering (path in AI) in 2002, both at the University of Cagliari, Italy. Before joining the University of Kent, he was a Senior Lecturer and Leader of the Robotics Lab at Manchester Metropolitan University. Previously, he was a Lecturer at the University of Plymouth, leading the Big Data group.

Dr. Masala obtained grants for more than £1.2M (EPSRC, InnovateUK, EU) in AI topics. Examples of recent projects are EPSRC BRIDGES for Dementia Network (Building Research Innovation co-Developing Greater Empowerment and Support for people living with Dementia), EPSRC, TRANSFORM-VHT: Transforming Healthcare through Virtual Human Technology in Underserved Communities and EU Interreg 2 Seas 2014-2020 AGE Independently (AGE'IN), which explored the use of emerging technologies and robotics to support older adults.

Dr. Masala is an Associate Editor in the journals: Frontiers in AI and Robotics, Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, and Robot Learning. Furthermore, he has extensively published his research in more than 100 papers across ranked journals and conferences.

He is leading the “Cognitive Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CoRAS) lab”, at the University of Kent.

Giovanni belongs to the following research groups:

• Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics Group

Giovanni is interested in a range of topics:

• AI and Computer Vision in Healthcare and assistive technologies
• Cognitive Systems to create the next generation of smart robots
• Human-Robot Interaction(HRI)
• Deep Learning and LLMs

Giovanni teaches a range of modules for BSc and MSc students:

• Deep Learning (Convenor) 
• Cognitive Robotics (Convenor) 
• Computational Intelligence in Business, Economics & Finance.

Giovanni is looking for students interested in applications that match the research interests: Cognitive models in robotics, HRI and cooperative AI/robotics. He is also interested in a broad range of applications in healthcare (e.g. Computer Aided Detection Systems for radiological images, classification of data from wearable devices, etc).

The “Cognitive Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CoRAS)” laboratory at the School of Computing has access to several humanoids (NAO, Pepper) and socially interactive robot platforms (Buddy Pro, Q.BO One, Amy A1), mobile robots (Turtlebot Waffle Pi, Burger), pet-like companion robots and devices like AR Epson glasses and Microsoft HoloLens. 

• Senior Member of IEEE Computational Intelligence Society
• Fellow of The Higher Education Academy UK