Colloquium Computer Science - Dr. Francesco Fontanella, University of Cassino

Titel: Machine learning for early diagnosis and management of developmental and cognitive disorders

Abstract:

Developmental and cognitive disorders encompass a broad spectrum of conditions, ranging from specific learning and attention disorders to mild cognitive impairment and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. These disorders can significantly worsen the quality of life of those affected and their families, and represent a burden on health systems. Also because of the ever-increasing incidence of these disorders, there has been growing interest in recent years in applying machine learning (ML)-based approaches for their early identification and ongoing monitoring. Many ML approaches are currently being used for this purpose, and several types of data are analyzed, including brain images, video and sensor data, and, more recently, handwriting.

In this talk, I will present the most recent results of using ML tools to deal with developmental and cognitive disorders. I will also discuss the issues still open and the future challenges that need to be addressed in order for ML to be widely adopted in this field.

Short bio:

Francesco Fontanella is currently an associate professor at the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering of the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Italy. His main research interests involve Machine Learning, Data Science, Complex Systems, and Evolutionary Computation. He applies the results of his research to the development of applications to deal with real-life problems. These problems include detecting and predicting neurodegenerative and Developmental diseases through handwriting analysis, writer identification in ancient manuscripts, and water pollution detection. He co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and contributed to several research projects. He is actively involved in organizing workshops at some of the top conferences in the field of computational intelligence. He also regularly serves as a guest editor and as an editorial board member of several international scientific journals.