About Me

Hi, I’m Dario Pasquali :wave:,
I’m a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology. My research focuses on two exciting areas. First, I leverage Cognitive Architectures and Deep Learning to empower the humanoid robot iCub with embodied and personalized Artificial Cognition. This involves enabling the robot to autonomously learn from everyday first-person experiences, with the goal of developing advanced social robots that can adapt seamlessly to the human world. Second, I’m developing MyCube, a medical device designed to assess, track, and train the objects manipulation skills of children and adults. I believe MyCube will significantly enhance our understanding and support of children’s well-being, especially those who are neurotypical.

Software Engineering is my primary expertise. I have extensive experience designing and implementing end-to-end architectures that integrate sensors and devices, with Machine Learning and LLM components, and high-level UX and behaviors. I collaborate daily with teams and mentor younger students, driven by my insatiable curiosity and knack for lateral thinking in problem-solving.

Beyond the lab, I’m passionate about cooking and homebrewing beer—it’s a lot like programming! I also enjoy playing board and card games with friends every week. As a Magic: The Gathering enthusiast, I’m always on the lookout for interesting strategies to bring to the table.

Work Experience

Post Doc

COgNiTive Architectures for Collaborative Technologies (CONTACT)

Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Genova, Italy)

Jul 2022 — Now

Actively working on National (FAIR) and European (ARIEL) research projects. Reference person in the laboratory for architectural and Software Engineering matters. Tutoring bachelor and master internship students, and mentoring PhD candidates.

Cognitive ArchitecturesDeep LearningData AnalysisResearch PlanningROSYARPPythonC++ICubRB-KAIROS+UR5e

Robotics Classes for Children

M. Fresu (Primary) & Maestre Pie (Middle) schools

Bologna, Italy

Jan 2023 — Now

In primary school, I used various robots tailored to different age groups to teach the basics of coding and how to utilize each robot's unique features. In middle school, I employed multiple mBot2 robots to instruct students on how to control them in a navigation setup, covering the fundamentals of telecommunication and optimization.

Lesson PlanningDivulgative Scientific LanguagemBlockScratchMBot2iRobot RootmTIny

Visiting Research

Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Lab (SIRRL)

University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada)

Jul 2021 — Nov 2021

Development of a textual adventure to challenge players against Social Engineering threats. Real-time control of the humanoid robot Furhat. Multi-modal acquisition and processing of physiological data from an Eyelink 1000, a Tobii Pro Glasses 2 and a Shimmer3 GSR+, used to predict humans' compliance. Evaluation of different intervention strategies for a robot to prevent users' compliance.

Physiological SensingMachine LearningDeep LearningYARPPythonFurhat

Ph.D Candidate

Robotics, Brains and Cognitive Sciences (RBCS) & ICT

Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Genova, Italy)

Nov 2018 — Jul 2022

Machine-learning based real-time evaluation of pupillometry, heart rate and electrodermal activity to predict the compliance with Social Engineering attacks, and detect human deception in human-robot interaction.

Data AnalysisResearch PlanningYARPPythonC++ICubMyKeepon

Big Data Architect

Data Reply

Milan & Bologna, Italy

Oct 2017 — Nov 2018

Design and development of architectures for the management and real-time processing of Big Data in the vehicle insurance field. Master's Degree dissertation project using DevOps principles and tools to fully automatise the development and deployment process of a movie recommendation service in a Big Data ecosystem.

AnsibleTerraformJenkinsSparkDevOpsCloudera CDHPythonScala

Education

Ph.D in Bioengineering and Robotics

Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia & University of Genova

2018 — 2022

International Doctorate, Summa cum Laude

BSc & MSc in Computer Engineering

University of Bologna

2012 — 2018

MSc: 110/110, Summa cum Laude
BSc: 101/110

Organied Events

GROUND 2023 Workshop - advancing GROup UNderstanding and robots' aDaptive behavior
Dario Pasquali, Giulia Belgiovine, Linda Lastrico, Giulia Pusceddu, Francesca Cocchella, Ana Tnaveska
ACM/IEEE Int. Conf. Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2023) - Busan, South Corea
2023

Website: https://ground-hri.github.io/workshop/1stEditionROMAN2023

GROUND 2024 Workshop - advancing GROup UNderstanding and robots' aDaptive behavior
Dario Pasquali, Giulia Belgiovine, Linda Lastrico, Giulia Pusceddu, Francesca Cocchella, Ana Tnaveska
Int. Conf. Robots, Science and Systems (RSS 2024) - Delft, Netherlands
2024

Website: https://ground-hri.github.io/workshop/

Journal Publications

Remember me - User-Centered Implementation and Training of Robot Working Memory for HRI in Industrial Settings
Bernotat Jasmin, Landolfi Lorenzo, \textbsPasquali Dario, Nardelli Alice, Rea Francesco
Frontiers in Robotics and AI
2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2023.1257690

Detecting Lies is a Child (Robot)'s Play: Gaze-Based Lie Detection in HRI
Pasquali Dario, Gonzalez-Billandon Jonas, Aroyo Mois Alexander, Sandini Giulio, Sciutti Alessandra, Rea Francesco
Int. J. Soc. Robot. 2021
2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/S12369-021-00822-5

Expectations Vs. Reality: Unreliability and Transparency in a Treasure Hunt Game with iCub
Aroyo M. Alexander, Pasquali Dario, Kothig Austin, Rea Francesco, Sandini Giulio, Sciutti Alessandra
IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.
2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2021.3083465

Can a Robot Catch You Lying? A Machine Learning System to Detect Lies During Interactions
Gonzalez-Billandon Jonas, Aroyo Alexander M., Tonelli Alessia, Pasquali Dario, Sciutti Alessandra, Gori Monica, Sandini Giulio, Rea Francesco
Frontiers in Robotics and AI
2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2019.00064

Conference Proceedings

That's not a Good Idea: A Robot Changes Your Behavior Against Social Engineering
Pasquali Dario, Kothig Austin, Aoryo Alexander M., Muñoz John, Dautenhahn Kerstin, Rea Francesco, Bencetti Stefano, Sciutti Alessandra
ACM Int. Conf. Human-Agent Interaction (HAI 2023)
2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3623809.362387

Working Memory-Based Architecture for Human-Aware Navigation in Industrial Settings
Pasquali Dario, Landolfi Lorenzo, Nardelli Alice, Bernotat Jasmin, Rea Francesco
ACM/IEEE Int. Conf. Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2023)
2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/RO-MAN57019.2023.10309344

Detecting Lies in the Wild: Creativity and Learning @ the Maker Faire Rome
Pasquali Dario, Rea Francesco, Sciutti Alessandra
AI*IA 2022 - 1st Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Creativity (CREAI2022)
2022

DOI: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3278/paper1.pdf

Human vs Robot Lie Detector: Better Working as a Team?
Pasquali Dario, Gaggero Davide, Volpe Gualtiero, Rea Francesco, Sciutti Alessandra
ACM/IEEE Int. Conf. on Social Robotics (ICSR)
2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90525-5_14

Magic iCub: A humanoid robot autonomously catching your lies in a card game
Pasquali Dario, Gonzalez-Billandon Jonas, Rea Francesco, Sandini Giulio, Sciutti Alessandra
ACM/IEEE Int. Conf. Human-Robot Interact.
2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3434073.3444682

Do You See the Magic? An Autonomous Robot Magician Can Read Your Mind
Pasquali Dario, M. Aroyo Alexander, Gonzalez-Billandon Jonas, Rea Francesco, Sandini Giulio, Sciutti Alessandra
ACM/IEEE Int. Conf. Human-Robot Interact. Workshop on Creative Content on Social Robotics
2020

DOI:

Perceived differences between on-line and real robotic failures
Aroyo M. Alexander, Pasquali Dario, Kothig Austin, Rea Francesco, Sandini Giulio, Sciutti Alessandra
RO-MAN 2020 - Trust. Accept. Soc. Cues Human-Robot Interact. - SCRITA
2020

DOI:

Your eyes never lie: A robot magician can tell if you are lying
Pasquali Dario, Aroyo Mois Alexander, Gonzalez-Billandon Jonas, Rea Francesco, Sandini Giulio, Sciutti Alessandra
ACM/IEEE Int. Conf. Human-Robot Interact. - Late Breaking Reports - LBR
2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3371382.3378253