Curriculum

Bio

Filippo Poltronieri is a Researcher (RTD-A) at the Department of Engineering of the University of Ferrara, where he will take up a tenure-track position (RTT) on 1 January 2027. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Science from the University of Ferrara in 2021 and holds the Italian National Scientific Qualification (ASN) as Associate Professor (09/H1, 2024). He has been a member of the Distributed Systems Research Group since 2017 and is deputy coordinator of the Big Data & Compute Continuum Lab.

His research focuses on AI-driven management of cloud-native applications across the Compute Continuum (reinforcement learning, multi-objective optimization, Digital Twins, and LLM-based and neurosymbolic intent-based management) and on adaptive communications and distributed learning at the tactical edge. He is Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management and of the Journal of Network and Systems Management, and received the IEEE ComSoc CNOM Best Paper Award 2024.

Positions

  • From January 2027: Tenure-track Researcher (RTT), Department of Engineering, University of Ferrara
  • 2022–2026: Researcher (RTD-A), Department of Engineering, University of Ferrara; since 2023 on the National Research Centre in High Performance Computing, Big Data and Quantum Computing (PNRR, Spoke 1)
  • March–July 2023: Deputy Director of the advanced training course “Services and Innovation for Industry 4.0” (SII40), funded by the Emilia-Romagna Region for workers and recent graduates
  • 2020–2021: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Ferrara
  • 2016–2017, 2018: Visiting Research Assistant / Research Associate, Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC), Pensacola, FL, USA

Honors & Awards

  • IEEE ComSoc CNOM Best Paper Award 2024
  • Best Paper Award, 19th International Conference on Network and Service Management (CNSM 2023)
  • Best Paper Award, International Conference on Military Communications and Information Systems (ICMCIS 2023)
  • Best Student Paper Award, IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS 2020)
  • Editor’s Choice paper, Future Generation Computer Systems (2025)

Research Projects

  • Official member of the NATO STO IST-223 Research Task Group (since 2025)
  • Principal Investigator of the industrial research contract “Big Data Carpigiani” with ALI S.p.A. – Carpigiani (2022)
  • Researcher in the National Centre for HPC, Big Data and Quantum Computing, Spoke 1 “Future HPC & Big Data”, including the OPTIMUUM project with the University of Bologna and Politecnico di Torino
  • Contributor to the NATO IST-194 research group “Adaptive Networks at the Tactical Edge” (since 2022)

Selected Publications

Over 50 peer-reviewed publications (11 journal articles, 8 of them in Q1 journals). Google Scholar: h-index 15. Full list on Google Scholar.

  • J. Santos, M. Zaccarini, F. Poltronieri, M. Tortonesi, C. Stefanelli, N. Di Cicco, F. De Turck, “HephaestusForge: Optimal Microservice Deployment across the Compute Continuum via Reinforcement Learning”, Future Generation Computer Systems, vol. 166, 2025. Editor’s Choice. doi
  • D. Borsatti, W. Cerroni, L. Foschini, G. Ya. Grabarnik, L. Manca, F. Poltronieri, D. Scotece, L. Shwartz, C. Stefanelli, M. Tortonesi, M. Zaccarini, “KubeTwin: A Digital Twin Framework for Kubernetes Deployments at Scale”, IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, vol. 21, no. 4, 2024. doi
  • M. Fogli, C. Giannelli, F. Poltronieri, C. Stefanelli, M. Tortonesi, “Chaos Engineering for Resilience Assessment of Digital Twins”, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, vol. 20, no. 2, 2024. doi
  • L. Manca, D. Borsatti, F. Poltronieri, M. Zaccarini, et al., “Characterization of Microservice Response Time in Kubernetes: A Mixture Density Network Approach”, CNSM 2023. Best Paper Award and CNOM Best Paper Award 2024. doi
  • J. Santos, M. Zaccarini, F. Poltronieri, M. Tortonesi, C. Stefanelli, N. Di Cicco, F. De Turck, “Efficient Microservice Deployment in Kubernetes Multi-Clusters through Reinforcement Learning”, IEEE/IFIP NOMS 2024. doi
  • L. Ferrari, M. Zaccarini, J. Santos, F. Poltronieri, M. Tortonesi, C. Stefanelli, F. De Turck, “From Intent to Manifest: Evaluation of LLM-Driven Generation of Custom Resources in Kubernetes”, IEEE/IFIP NOMS 2026. doi

Teaching

  • Python Programming and AI-Assisted Coding (12 ECTS), B.Sc. in Management Engineering (L-8/L-9), since 2026/2027. The course is delivered mainly online and was designed following Smart Learning Design principles.
  • Web Systems Design (8 ECTS), M.Sc. in Computer and Automation Engineering (LM-32), alternate years, since 2025/2026
  • Co-teaching in Distributed Systems (LM-32, LM-18/32) and Artificial Intelligence and Big Data (L-31)
  • Past courses: Network Laboratory (L-31, 2021–2024) and Operating Systems / Networks and Internet (L-P03, 2024/2025); PhD modules on computational intelligence (2022–2024)
  • PhD co-supervision: Mattia Zaccarini (Ph.D. 2026) and Edoardo Di Caro (ongoing)
  • Member of the Joint Teacher–Student Committee (CPDS) of the Department of Engineering, as faculty contact for LM-32

Editorial & Community Service

  • Associate Editor: IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (since 2025); Journal of Network and Systems Management, Springer Nature (since 2023)
  • Conference organization: TPC Co-Chair, Experience Session, IEEE/IFIP NOMS 2025; Publicity Co-Chair, CNSM 2025; TPC Co-Chair, IEEE/IFIP Manage-IoT Workshop (2022–2025) and the MILCOM 2023 Workshop on Distributed AI/ML at the Resource-Constrained Edge
  • Tutorials and panels: tutorials at IEEE/IFIP NOMS 2024 and NOMS 2026; panelist on “Digital Network Twins for Network Management” at NOMS 2024
  • TPC member: IEEE/IFIP NOMS, CNSM, and IEEE MILCOM (2021–2025)
  • Reviewer for IEEE TNSM, IEEE TCC, IEEE TSC, IEEE TNSE, Computer Networks, and others

Collaborations

Florida IHMC (USA), IBM T.J. Watson Research Center (USA), St. John’s University (USA), Ghent University (Belgium), University of Bologna, Politecnico di Torino, Politecnico di Milano.

Open-Source Software

  • KubeTwin: Digital Twin framework for Kubernetes applications
  • SPF: Fog-as-a-Service platform based on Value of Information
  • Phileas: discrete-event simulator for Fog services
  • BDMaaS+: business-driven optimization of IT services in the hybrid cloud

Profiles