GARZOTTO FRANCA

CURRENT POSITION
- Full professor in Information Engineering at University of Milan Bicocca (Dept. of Psychology) and research affiliate with Politecnico di Milano (Dept. of Electronics, Information and Bio-engineering -
- Vice-Director of  Inter-University Research Center “Me.Te” - colocated at University of Milan-Bicocca and Politecnico di Milano  (https://mete.polimi.it/)
- Director of i3lab - Innovative Interactive Interfaces Laboratory  (https://i3lab.polimi.it/) at Politecnico di Milano

EDUCATION 
- PhD Degree in Information and Systems Engineering - Politecnico di Milano 
- Master of Science Degree in Mathematics - University of Padova 

RESEARCH 
My research is in the field of Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) and focuses on the design, development, and evaluation of innovative technological solutions for individuals with special needs, particularly people with cognitive and language impairments. The main enabling technologies include Generative Artificial Intelligence, Interactive IoT, Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality, Voice Analysis, and Affective Computing. 
My most recent work focuses on proactive and multi-user LLM-based conversational agents aimed at enhancing communication and social skills. 
My approach is strongly multidisciplinary, bringing together computer scientists, bio-engineers, UX designers, linguists, psychologists, and neuroscientists. It is also participatory: real-world stakeholders are involved in our projects from the earliest stages, from problem framing to solution evaluation. 
In 2010, I founded i3Lab — the Innovative Interactive Interfaces Laboratory — a multidisciplinary research laboratory at the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering (DEIB), Politecnico di Milano, specialized in interactive technologies. In 2024, I founded the Inter-University research center “Me.Te — Methods and Technologies for the Empowerment of Persons with Cognitive and Linguistic Disabilities,” which brings together more than 30 researchers with diverse and complementary profiles from the University of Milano-Bicocca  and Politecnico di Milano.
Publication Impact: h-index: 47;  i10-index: 181; citations: 9458 (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=P6uIlrAAAAAJ&hl=it). I am ranked among the World’s Top 2% Scientists by the Stanford University Ranking

AWARDS
Recipient of two IBM Faculty Awards (2013 and 2017) , one EIT Innovators Award (finalist – 2016), two Polisocial Awards (2013 and 2017), ten Best Paper Awards at top-rated international conferences (past 10 years)

RESPONSIBILITY IN COMPETITIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS 
- 2015-2025: Scientific Coordinator of 12 international research projects funded by the European Commission and 7 national research projects. 
- 2025-present: Scientific Coordinator of Project DIMMI! (Regione Lombardia 2025-27) - Innovative technologies for Language Disorder; Project Coordination of Project “Intelligent Multimodal Agents for Children with Developmental Language Disorder” (Falck Foundation)

TEACHING
For over 30 years, I have taught Web Design, UX Design, and Human–Computer Interaction in the Master Program in Information Engineering and the Master Program in Design at Politecnico di Milano. My current courses are:
- Computer Graphics for the web (Bachelor Program in Psychosocial Sciences of Communication, University of Bicocca)
- Inclusive Multimodal Interaction (Master Degree in Communication Theory and Technology, University of Bicocca)
- Understanding the UX/UI Design Process (PhD program in Psychology, Linguistics, and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bicocca)
- Advanced User Interfaces (Master Degree in Information Engineering, Politecnico di Milano)

COMMISSIONS OF TRUST
- 2012-present: ERC (European Research Council) Reviewer and Review Panel Member
- 2010-present: Reviewer of European Commission Research projects - Horizon Program

MAIN PUBLICATIONS (past 3 years - Q1 ranked Journal Papers only)
See full list: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=P6uIlrAAAAAJ&hl=it
- E. Beccaluva, M. Giudici, E. Pasqua, F. Arosio, F Garzotto. The Acting Argument Paradigm: an Innovative Approach to Speech Therapy using the Moovy TUI. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) - to appear DOI: 10.1080/07370024.2023.2242837
- Mathyas Giudici, Pietro Crovari, and Franca Garzotto. 2025. Persuasive Conversational Agents for Environmental Sustainability: A Survey. ACM Comput. Surv. 58, 6, Article 139 (April 2026), 37 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3774751
- E. Bonelli, M. Secco, M. Gianotti, D. Di Marco, F. Garzotto, A. Colombo. 2025. Bridging Climbing and Interactive Smart Spaces for Children. Proc. ACM Interact. Mob. Wearable Ubiquitous Technol. 9, 4, Article 162 (December 2025), 24 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3770646
- F. Catania, J. W. Wilke and F. Garzotto, "Emozionalmente: A Crowdsourced Corpus of Simulated Emotional Speech in Italian," in IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech and Language Processing, vol. 33, pp. 1142-1155, 2025, doi: 10.1109/TASLPRO.2025.3540662.  
- D. Morra, G. Caslini, M. Mores, F. Garzotto, M. Matera, “MakeNodes: Opening connected-IoT making to people with intellectual disability”, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Vol. 190,2024, 103325, ISSN 1071-5819, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2024.103325. 
- F. Garzotto, M. Gianotti, A. Patti, F. Pentimalli and F. Vona, "Empowering Persons with Autism through Cross-Reality and Conversational Agents," in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2024.3372110. 
- E. Aida Beccaluva, F Catania, F. Arosio & F. Garzotto (2024)  Predicting developmental language disorders using artificial intelligence and a speech data analysis tool. Human–Computer Interaction, 39:1-2, 8-42, DOI: 10.1080/07370024.2023.2242837 
- M. Spitale, S. Silleresi, F. Garzotto and Maja J Matari´c. 2023 Using Socially Assistive Robots In Speech-Language Therapy For Children With Language. International Journal of Social Robotics - 15 (9), 1525-1542 doi: 10.1007/s12369-023-01028-7 doi: 10.1007/s12369-023-01028-7
- F. Catania, M. Spitale, F. Garzotto. 2023. Conversational Agents in Therapeutic Interventions for Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Survey. ACM Comput. Surv. 55, 10, October 2023 https://doi.org/10.1145/3564269