Marco Roccetti

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• Professor (Full)
• Professor at University of Bologna

Using a segmented linear regression model, we examined the seasonal profiles of weekly COVID-19 deaths data, in Italy, over a three-year long period during which the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron and post-Omicron variants were predominant (September 2021 - September 2024). Comparing the slopes of the regression segments, we were able to discuss the variation...

(Preprint version V2.0) This study discusses the results obtained by upgrading an existing deep learning model with the knowledge provided by one of the oldest sets of grayscale satellite imagery, known as CORONA. We improved the AI model's attitude towards the automatic identification of archaeological sites in an environment which has been comple...

Big Data is still gaining attention as a fundamental building block of the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning world. Therefore, a lot of effort has been pushed into Big Data research in the last 15 years. The objective of this Systematic Literature Review is to summarize the current state of the art of the previous 15 years of research ab...

"Cite this article as: Roccetti, M., Berveglieri, F., Cappiello, G., In Proc. 25th International Conference on Intelligent Games and Simulation, GAME-ON 2024, 2024, Istanbul, pp. 20–24." Abstract - Major football events, such as the World Cup, have popularized the European football (i.e., soccer) beyond its traditional geographical borders, for ex...

"Cite this article as: Roccetti, M., Tenace, M., Cappiello, G. (2025). Prescient Perspectives on Football Tactics: A Case with Liverpool FC, Corners and AI. In: Aiello, L.M., Chakraborty, T., Gaito, S. (eds) Social Networks Analysis and Mining. ASONAM 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15214. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-...

After that the USA had dealt with a strong wave of COVID-19 infections, driven by the Alpha variant, the NFLSuper Bowl event took place: February 7, 2021, in Tampa,Florida. In this context, we have studied the dynamics of the decrease/increase rate of the new daily SARS-COV-2 infections in all the 51 states, before/after that event, investigating t...

We studied the weekly number and the growth/decline rates of COVID-19 deaths of the period from October 31, 2022, to February 9, 2023, in Italy. We found that the COVID-19 winter wave reached its peak during the three holiday weeks from December 16, 2022, to January 5, 2023, and it was definitely trending downward, returning to the same number of d...

(To appear in a revised form on Journal of Big data - Springer Nature) Big Data is still gaining attention as a fundamental building block of the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning world. Therefore, a lot of effort has been pushed into Big Data research in the last 15 years. The objective of this Systematic Literature Review is to summari...

We studied the weekly number and the growth/decline rates of COVID-19 deaths in the period October 31, 2022 – February 9, 2023, in Italy, finding that that COVID-19 winter wave reached its peak during the three holyday weeks extending from December 16, 2022 to January 5, 2023, and it was definitely trending downward, returning to the same number of...

Incidental learning is a human learning paradigm that takes its form as a response to unplanned initiatives, potentially occurring at any time and at any place. It is emerging as very promising in the case of learning a second language, as it multiplies the occurrence of unexpected and unintentional learning situations. Still open, and subject of d...

This paper illustrates the results obtained by using pre-trained semantic segmentation deep learning models for the detection of archaeological sites within the Mesopotamian floodplains environment. The models were fine-tuned using openly available satellite imagery and vector shapes coming from a large corpus of annotations (i.e., surveyed sites)....

We discuss the new paradigm of predictive health intelligence, based on the use of modern deep learning algorithms and big biomedical data, along the various dimensions of: a) its potential, b) the limitations it encounters, and c) the sense it makes. We conclude by reasoning on the idea that viewing data as the unique source of sanitary knowledge,...

During a sanitary crisis, excess mortality measures the number of all-cause deaths, beyond what we would have expected if that crisis had not occurred. The high number of COVID-19 deaths started a debate in Italy with two opposite positions: those convinced that COVID-19 deaths were not by default excess deaths, because many COVID-19 deaths were no...

This paper illustrates the results obtained by using pre-trained semantic segmentation deep learning models for the detection of archaeological sites within the Mesopotamian floodplains environment. The models were fine-tuned using openly available satellite imagery and vector shapes coming from a large corpus of annotations (i.e., surveyed sites)....

During a sanitary crisis, excess mortality measures the number of all-cause deaths, beyond what we would have expected if that crisis had not occurred. The high number of COVID-19 deaths started a debate in Italy with two opposite positions: those convinced that COVID-19 deaths were not, by default, excess deaths, because many COVID-19 deaths were...

In the perspective of landscape archaeology, remote sensing is a very important tool that allows to recognize and locate potential sites, which will then be "groundtruthed" through a surface survey. Remote sensing is, unfortunately, a very time-consuming process that scales terribly with the size of the area under investigation. In this paper we ex...

Objectives: To investigate the hypothesis of a seasonal periodicity, driven by climate, in the contagion resurgence of COVID-19 in the period February 2020-December 2021. Design: An observational study of 30 countries from different geographies and climates. For each country, a Fourier spectral analysis was performed with the series of the daily...

Objectives COVID-19 recurrent waves have ignited a debate on the role of seasonality in the contagion resurgence. Two opposite positions emerged. Those convinced of a sinusoidal seasonality recurring over one-year period driven by climate. Those believing that a fluctuation of the outbreaks repeats without limits, in the absence of control measures...

While the role played by air pollution and meteorological conditions on SARS-Cov-2 transmission is still subject of a scientific controversy, we have extended our analysis on this association by studying the impact of particulate on the beginning of the second wave in Emilia-Romagna (Italy), in the period October-November 2020. Again, we found many...

While the scientific community, health authorities, international media and the public are still arguing about several characteristics of this virus and the patterns of its spread, after 30 months of pandemics there are now some facts, along with their dynamics, over which a scientific consensus has been finally reached. In science, it is well know...

The ongoing development of eXtended Reality (XR) technologies is supporting a rapid increase of their performances along with a progressive decrease of their costs, making them more and more attractive for a large class of consumers. As a result, their widespread use is expected within the next few years. This may foster new opportunities for e-com...

While Europe was beginning to deal with the resurgence of COVID-19 due to the Delta variant, the European football championship took place from 11 June to 11 July 2021. We studied the inversion in the decreased/increased rate of new SARS-COV-2 infections in the countries of the tournament, investigating the hypothesis of an association. Using a Bay...

Understanding people’s attitudes toward sex robots will be essential to facilitate this technology’s likely assimilation into human relationships in a way that maximizes benefit and minimizes conflict within the privacy of people’s bedrooms. This online survey was developed to investigate attitudes toward sex robots. Questions were chosen to explor...

While Europe was beginning to deal with the resurgence of COVID-19 due to the Delta variant, the European football championship took place, June 11 - July 11, 2021. We studied the inversion in the decrease/increase rate of new SARS-COV-2 infections in the countries of the tournament, investigating the hypothesis of an association. Using a Bayesian...

Objectives COVID-19’s second wave started a debate on the potential role of schools as a primary factor in the contagion resurgence. Two opposite positions appeared: those convinced that schools played a major role in spreading SARS-CoV-2 infections and those who were not. We studied the growth rate of the total number of SARS-CoV-2 infections in a...

As Europe is experiencing a second violent CoVid-19 storm, with the PCR-based testing system deteriorating due to the high volumes of people to be tested daily, there is a general reconsideration of the mathematical theories at the basis of our contact tracing and testing approaches. Drawing upon the concept of super spreader, we propose the use of...

As Europe is experiencing a second violent CoVid-19 storm, with the PCR-based testing system deteriorating due to the high volumes of people to be tested daily, there is a general reconsideration of the mathematical theories at the basis of our contact tracing and testing approaches. Drawing upon the concept of super spreader, we propose the use of...

Objectives: CoViD-19's second wave started a debate on the potential role of schools as a primary factor in the contagion resurgence. Two opposite positions appeared: those convinced that schools played a major role in spreading SARS-CoV-2 infections and those who were not. We studied the growth rate of the total number of SARS-CoV-2 infections in...

This study investigates on the relationship between affect-related psychological variables and Body Mass Index (BMI). We have utilized a novel method based on machine learning (ML) algorithms that forecast unobserved BMI values based on psychological variables, like depression, as predictors. We have employed various machine learning algorithms, in...

As with most aspects of our lives in the last few years, medicine too has seen the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications with an equal amount of fear and fascination from the mainstream public. Scientists, though, tend to be more cautious in their opinions towards these new technologies, as AI in its essence is not new at all and has al...

Deep learning models are tools for data analysis suitable for approximating (non-linear) relationships among variables for the best prediction of an outcome. While these models can be used to answer many important questions, their utility is still harshly criticized, being extremely challenging to identify which data descriptors are the most adequa...

Archaeologists, like other scientists, are experiencing a data-flood in their discipline, fueled by a surge in computing power and devices that enable the creation, collection, storage and transfer of an increasingly complex (and large) amount of data, such as remotely sensed imagery from a multitude of sources. In this paper, we pose the prelimina...

A machine learning and data science project applied to archaeology

After a one-year long effort of research on the field, we developed a machine learning-based classifier, tailored to predict whether a mechanical water meter would fail with passage of time and intensive use as well. A recurrent deep neural network (RNN) was trained with data extrapolated from 15 million readings of water consumption, gathered from...

After a one-year long effort of research on the field, we developed a machine learning-based classifier, tailored to predict whether a mechanical water meter would fail with passage of time and intensive use as well. A recurrent deep neural network (RNN) was trained with data extrapolated from 15 million readings of water consumption, gathered from...

This study investigates the potential association between the daily distribution of the PM2,5 air pollutant and the initial spreading of COVID-19 in New York City. We study the period from 4 March to 22 March 2020, and apply our analysis to all five counties, including the city, plus seven neighboring counties, including both urban and peripheral d...

Further to an experiment conducted with a deep learning (DL) model, tailored to predict whether a water meter device would fail with passage of time, we came across a very strange case, occurring when we tried to strengthen the training activity of our classifier by using, besides the numerical measurements of consumed water, also other contextual...

On 21 February 2020, a violent COVID-19 outbreak, which was initially concentrated in Lombardy before infecting some surrounding regions exploded in Italy. Shortly after, on 9 March, the Italian Government imposed severe restrictions on its citizens, including a ban on traveling to other parts of the country. No travel, no virus spread. Many region...

The Nobel laureate Niels Bohr once said that: “Predictions are very difficult, especially if they are about the future”. Nonetheless, models that can forecast future COVID-19 outbreaks are receiving special attention by policymakers and health authorities, with the aim of putting in place control measures before the infections begin to increase. No...

As we prepare to emerge from an extensive and unprecedented lockdown period, due to the COVID-19 virus infection that hit the Northern regions of Italy with the Europe’s highest death toll, it becomes clear that what has gone wrong rests upon a combination of demographic, healthcare, political, business, organizational, and climatic factors that ar...

There is a core problem with the modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, based on the current new wave of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). Whether they have been used in healthcare or for exploring Mars, we, the programmers who build them, do not know well why they make some decisions over others. Many are putting into question, hence,...

Supervised Machine Learning (ML) requires that smart algorithms scrutinize a very large number of labeled samples before they can make right predictions. And this is not always true either. In our experience, in fact, a neural network trained with a huge database comprised of over fifteen million water meter readings had essentially failed to predi...

The quality and quantity of participation supplied by human beings during the different phases of the design and development of a software artifact are central to studies in human-centered computing. With this paper, we have investigated on what kind of experienced people should be engaged to design a new computational artifact, when a participator...

In this article we discuss what differentiates an artificial mind from a human one, during the process of making a choice. We do this without any intention to debunk famous arguments according to which there are aspects of human consciousness and expertise that cannot be simulated by artificial humanlike cognitive entities (like a robot, for exampl...

Take an AI learning algorithm and a human trainer with an experience in machine intelligence. Take piles of data, in the form of labeled examples. If you think that the task of training a machine that makes accurate decisions is easy as pie, you could not be further from reality. That is what has been missing from this story: getting off on the rig...

Is the Covid-19 pandemic going to force the fashion industry to rethink herself and push it to embrace digital technologies more and more? The answer is most likely "yes", but the question is somewhat ill-posed. In fact, the fashion world, especially haute couture, has always been very keen to innovation and experiment with technology. Even before...

Cosa non aspettarsi dalle macchine e come aiutarle a prendere decisioni migliori.

Many data scientists are currently pointing out that the amount of Machine Learning (ML) research that will cross into practice will depend, not just on the ability of the specialized algorithms used to scrutinize positive/negative examples, but also on the quality of the data exploited for training those algorithms. Our experience, while training...

Abstract In this paper, we describe the design of a machine learning-based classifier, tailored to predict whether a water meter will fail or need a replacement. Our initial attempt to train a recurrent deep neural network (RNN), based on the use of 15 million of readings gathered from 1 million of mechanical water meters, spread throughout Norther...

The full release and circulation of excavation results often takes decades, thus slowing down progress in archaeology to a degree not in keeping with other scientific fields. The nonconformity of released data for digital processing also requires vast and costly data input and adaptation. Archaeology should face the cognitive challenges posed by di...

Drawing on a 1-year application design, implementation and evaluation experience, this paper examines how engaging users in the early design phases of a software application is tightly bound to the success of that application in use. Through the comparison between two different approaches to collaborative application design (namely, user-centered v...

Machine learning and modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are influencing several aspects of our human lives. Many of these algorithms, based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), have been empowered to make decisions and take actions, based on the well-known notions of efficiency and speed. The aura of objectivity and infallibility of such...

Using AI-derived computerized techniques, we have modeled the large amount of online Reddit conversations exchanged among patients discussing around the prescriptions to take prenatal medical tests (both invasive and non-invasive). Our study has revealed that a patient's decision to take a specific test (thus possibly suffering medical implications...

We present an experimental study with three concurrent goals: a) to link AI-driven processes with some fundamental theoretical assumptions of management theory; b) to challenge the current assumption that modern synthetic intelligences might be easily "human-comparable"; c) to present the results a neural net has returned that was trained with real...

Background: Data concerning patients originates from a variety of sources on social media. Objective: The aim of this study was to show how methodologies borrowed from different areas including computer science, econometrics, statistics, data mining, and sociology may be used to analyze Facebook data to investigate the patients' perspectives on...

This article describes a study of a digital multimedia system that allows people to enjoy a narrative experience focusing on food and gastronomic culture. With this multimedia application, termed di Piazza in Piazza, people have gotten in contact with several types of digital content about culinary traditions and local Italian products, simply usin...

This paper completes an analysis started a few years ago which has exploited Facebook as a tool suitable for collecting and analyzing Crohn’s disease patients’ reactions to the Infliximab treatment. We here finish off such work by comparing the satisfaction recorded with the use of sentiment analysis techniques as provided by intelligent tools for...

This work presents a study inviting new reflections on our daily walking experiences as mediated by modern GIS-based route-mapping software tools, which has culminated into ColorPath: an app that allows walkers to follow creative urban paths computed on the basis of their walking preferences and expressed under the form of a color. In particular, u...

Back pain and upper extremities injuries due to overexertion account for over twenty percent of leave days from work in the US. This explains why a vast amount of initiatives have been, to this date, carried out aiming at reducing the occurrence of such type of injuries. However, although such type of lesions are among the most studied in occupatio...

For the citizens the EHR could be a kind of single point of access to the public health system. Citizens needs both to be familiar to that service and to use it. Currently, a very small portion of citizens uses the EHR. This raises several questions, the first one concerns the communication from the government systems with respect to the citizens....

This paper presents a study on urban data crowdsourcing driven by Geo-Zombie, a multimedia mobile application we designed and developed to engage pedestrians in taking note of urban architectural impediments and facilities by documenting them through pictures and multimedia data. Geo-Zombie aims at transforming the civic activity of contributing in...

Research efforts, in the area of virtual reality, have mostly concentrated on the design and implementation of devices supporting user presence in immersive environments. Much can be done, however, to further improve the experience of wearing a head mounted display, in order to forget being at home while playing a computer game or navigating a virt...

In this paper, we present two versions of a learning game developed respectively at the Grenoble Alpes and Bologna University. This research focuses on a digital game aimed at favouring the learners' playful attitude and harnessing it towards accuracy aspects of language learning (lexicon and morphology, here). The game, presently available for Eng...

Transportation policy and planning strategies, as well as Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), can all play important roles in decreasing pollution levels and their negative effects. Interestingly, limited effort has been devoted to exploring the potential of social network analysis in such context. Social networks provide direct feedback from...

Online medical information prosumerism is supported by search engines, web sites, forums and social networks, all tools which provide a timely browsing of the big data of medical information. Reliable medical ecosystems require an assessment of such data, to control its quality from both clinical and patient standpoints. In addition, independent of...

The use of game-based apps in e-learning has become a relevant trend with the diffusion of smart mobile devices. This is particularly true in language learning, where new captivating word games become a mean to enlarge vocabulary and improve the lexical accuracy of the user. This work presents MagicWord, a game based on widely known game mechanisms...

One of the most interesting innovations introduced by modern game console technologies has been that of new interaction systems which allow a large amount of people to interact all together with cultural artifacts and exhibits. Thank to them, human beings can interact with, manipulate and in some circumstances even hack digital contents, playing an...

In this paper we present results gathered from field trials while using a pervasive game, called Geo-Zombie. It intermixes reality with virtual zombies, providing a game experience to be lived in the urban environment. Geo-Zombie is designed for a specific goal: engaging people in collecting geo-referenced data about urban accessibility. The game h...

In this paper we present the design process and some interesting field t rial r esults of two d ifferent game applications, designed and developed in order to extend and motivate the community of mPASS. mPASS is an urban accessibility mapping system that allows citizens to collect reliable data about barriers and facilities via crowdsourcing and cr...

The preservation of cultural heritage is a multidisciplinary field of study that is aimed at analyzing and preserving ancient artifacts. Nowadays, cultural heritage investigators can make use of available non-invasive solutions able to provide useful information about materials, techniques, and retouches. Yet, investigations on artworks are manuall...

This short paper presents some preliminary results (both quantitative and qualitative) gathered from field trials with three different mobile apps that allow walkers to map urban accessibility barriers/facilities, while wandering around. The three apps were designed based on different gamification mechanisms, respectively exploiting: i) intrinsic (...

Anonymity, speed and big data are all ingredients at the basis of an intense online medical information prosumerism supported by search-engines, websites, forums and social networks. Fostering reliable medical ecosystems requires an exploitation of such data, controlling quality and delineating user behaviors. This strongly emerges with chronic pat...

Mobile communication devices are expected to overtake traditional desktop PCs and become the dominant point of entry to the Internet. This technology shift has boosted user demand for multimedia applications and services which are now typically accessed through the wireless interface. Users expect to be always connected and able to run a variety of...

The exponential growth of audiovisual and textual data is aggressively leading to the creation of tools and systems capable of selecting and recognizing given patterns of information. Such urge is at the basis of the development of machine learning techniques, techniques that are today employed to analyze all kinds of information. Computer gaming i...

Museums and similar institutions are historically locations where content is typically only intellectually appreciated following linear visiting patterns. No interactions, in fact, are typically implemented and no possible choice is drawn in front of a visitor regarding the exhibits that will be shown. In addition, exhibition experiences are typica...

We present a REST approach to build Health services on the Web. Our proposal originates by the necessity of evolving the current regional health service to accommodate emerging needs that are too complex to accomplish with the current system. The original system extends on the regional scale of Emilia-Romagna, and it is one of the most advanced in...

Intense vehicular traffic is recognized as a global societal problem, with a multifaceted influence on the quality of life of a person. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) can play an important role in combating such problem, decreasing pollution levels and, consequently, their negative effects. One of the goals of ITSs, in fact, is that of co...

OVER THE PAST few decades, computing researchers have developed a wealth of new systems to preserve and share cultural resources. Computing platforms give everyone access to high-resolution images of ancient cave paintings and Google artwork; 3D scanning systems digitize Michelangelo's sculptures and Pompeii's remains;7 and haptic devices allow use...

In the era of the Internet of Everything, users with handheld or wearable devices equipped with sensing capability have become producers as well as consumers of information and services. The more powerful these devices get, the more likely it is that they will generate and share content locally, through ad hoc opportunistic connectivity, leading to...

This paper studies the feasibility of playing a First Person Shooter interactive online game while traveling as a passenger on a car in an urban scenario where wireless connectivity is available through WiFi Access Points (APs). Knowing in advance the positions of APs, we propose a mechanism that is capable of predicting future connectivity times w...

Computer technologies have been adopted in many different venues, including public exhibitions and museums, as they can easily support the exchange of natural interactions and provide unimaginable exploration tools of masterpieces and exhibits. This has led many to design and implement a plethora of different technologies for the detection, trackin...

As mobile devices have pervasively become virtually available to all, cultural institutions have been increasingly investing resources in the creation of apps that can be enjoyed on the phone. Typically such apps are built custom for specific events or exhibitions, resulting in increased IT costs that well exceed the typical costs due to the mainte...

Museums and exhibitions traditionally present pieces of preserved human knowledge in a static manner, letting their public observe and analyze what can be heard or seen. Sight and hearing are hence the two senses, out of the five available ones, that are usually engaged in such scenarios. Recently, information and communication technologies have be...

We present some scenarios where a group of people walking around and linked together by a common intent can take advantage by communicating with each other by means of their smartphones and tablets implementing an ad-hoc network. We show the results of a study for extending to walking pedestrians of an optimal broadcast for platoon of vehicles trav...