SEC scholar 25 May – 30 July 2026
Filippo Fabiani is an Associate Professor in the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca, Italy. He received his B.Sc. degree in Bio-Engineering, the M.Sc. degree in Automatic Control Engineering, and the Ph.D. degree (cum laude) in Automatic Control, all from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 2012, 2015, and 2019 respectively. In 2017-2018, Fabiani visited the Delft Center for Systems and Control at TU Delft, The Netherlands, where in 2018-2019 he spent one year as post-doctoral Research Fellow. Successively, in 2019-2022 he was Post-Doctoral Research Assistant in the Control Group at the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
His research to date has been at the intersection of machine learning, game theory and control engineering, and concentrates on developing both data-driven theoretical tools and algorithmic methods for modern control design. These include optimal control of multi-agent and uncertain systems such as power and traffic networks, and emerging control applications in smart grids and smart cities.
Fabiani’s plan during his SEC visit includes:
- Research collaboration project: Mostly with Prof. Belgioioso’s group, with the ultimate goal of jump-starting a joint project on data-efficient optimization for intelligent infrastructures.
- Scientific outreach: Two seminars on neural network paradigms for identification and control, and statistical methods for data-efficient decision making at Digital Futures “Seminar Series” and “Game on!”.
- Networking with faculty members: Professors affiliated with Digital Futures working in the broad areas of control systems, learning, and infrastructure networks. A non-exhaustive list includes Prof. Karl Henrik Johansson, Prof. Mikael Johansson, Prof. Qianwen Xu, and Prof. Jonas Martensson, as well as (ii) with industrial and societal partners of Digital Futures to form partnership for strategic collaborations.
- Participation in Digital Futures events: Planned in the period May-June 2026.
The majority of the visit time will focus on the first activity: starting a research collaboration with Prof. Belgioioso’s group at KTH in the area of data-efficient decision making by building upon recent contributions. The collaboration will explore the connection of this contemporary paradigm with established multi-agent coordination protocols (e.g., games), statistical learning (e.g., epsilon nets, differential privacy), and its application to large-scale systems (e.g., mobility and energy).
The expected impact of this collaboration aligns strongly with the societal contexts of “Smart Society” and “Digitalized Industry”. By combining machine learning tools with control-theoretic guarantees, it will hence support Digital Futures’ mission to develop reliable, transparent, and impactful digital technologies for society. Moreover, this will represent an opportunity to further strengthen the ongoing fruitful collaboration between KTH and IMT (see, e.g., Prof. M. Johansson and Prof. Wahlberg’s recent visits), and extend it to partnership in international funding calls.
Contact: filippo.fabiani@imtlucca.it
