Gaetano Saurio

Gaetano Saurio

PhD candidate in Data Science Sapienza, University of Rome

Curriculum Vitae

Research Vision Ph.D. Researcher aiming for a Research Scientist role to leverage Computer Vision and Multimodal Deep Learning for environmental intelligence. I specialize in developing scalable, engineering-grade AI pipelines that bridge the gap between academic theory and industrial application, with a focus on Geometric Deep Learning and Remote Sensing.

Degrees and Certifications

  • Ph.D. in Data Science, Sapienza University of Rome. Thesis: Deep Urban Plant Understanding: Multimodal AI for Environmental Sensing. Supervisor: Prof. Simone Scardapane. 2022 – 2027 (expected).
  • Master of Science (M.Sc.). Thesis: “Platform for an Open, tele Operated, Mobile, Monitoring, AI and Robotics”. Federico II University of Napoli. 2015.
  • First-level Professional Master’s Program “New teaching methods for a Good School”. Thesis:“New frontiers of educational tools: from IWB to STEM Robotics”. 2016-2017.
  • First-level Professional Master’s Program “Teaching, teacher function and school inclusion of students with special educational needs”. Thesis:“Artificial Intelligence and Autism”. 2017-2018.
  • First-level Professional Master’s Program “Educational innovation, digital skills and new learning environments”. Thesis:“The future of School: Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality”. 2018-2019.
  • Machine Learning by Stanford on Coursera (verify). 2019.
  • Deep Learning Specialization with Andrew Ng (verify). 2022.

Research & Teaching Experience

  • Visiting Researcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Senseable City Lab (Cambridge, USA).
    • Multi-View Deep Learning for Tree Health: Prototyped a framework fusing aerial multispectral and Street-Level RGB imagery to monitor Pinus pinea health. Benchmarked fusion strategies (Early, Late, Average) using a ResNet-18 backbone, achieving a 0.93 AUC and 88.9% accuracy. This approach successfully corrected the “nadir perspective” limitations of traditional remote sensing.
    • Urban Cooling Power Analysis: Employed computer vision to analyze thermal imagery of trees across Amsterdam, Boston, Dubai, and Los Angeles. Modeled the variation in cooling performance based on genus-specific traits, morphology, and water consumption to support climate-responsive greening policies.
    • Operations: Coordinated international field data collections and implemented large-scale inference pipelines using PyTorch and ADE20K.
    • Period: May 2025 – Oct 2025.
  • City Local Reference for Rome and Teaching Team Member for the course [11.320 Digital City Design Workshop: Heat in Cities] at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Feb 2025, Cambridge (MA, USA) / Rome (Italy).
  • Teaching assistant at the Neural Networks for Data Science Applications course held by Professor Simone Scardapane. Sep-Dec 2023, Rome (Italy).
  • Teaching assistant at the Introduction to programming with Python (SSAS0199) course held by Professor Emanuele Rodolà. Nov 2023, Rome (Italy).
  • Tenured Computer Science Teacher, Italian Ministry of Education. Leading advanced CS courses and adult education. 2016 – Present.
  • Freelance Corporate Trainer, Leonardo. Delivered specialized technical training for corporate teams. 2021.

Invited Talks, Conferences & Scientific Community

  • Invited Speaker at the symposium “RE-LEAF AND FUTURE CITY”, organized by the Italian Ministry of Environment (MASE) and Carabinieri (CUFAA) with MIT. Talk: “Beyond Greenery Scanner: multi-perspective urban tree health monitoring via deep fusion” (official program). Feb 13, 2026, Rome (Italy).
  • Invited Speaker at the “Smart Urban Forest Monitoring Symposium” (official agenda) organized by MIT and Carabinieri CUFAA at La Biennale di Venezia (Architecture). Oct 24, 2025, Venice (Italy).
  • Firestarter at Senseable City Lab Open Lab 2025 curated by Prof. Carlo Ratti at La Biennale di Venezia (Architecture). Participant in “Session IV: Senseable World – Visual Sensing”. Oct 23, 2025, Venice (Italy).
  • Attendee at the MIT Generative AI Impact Symposium. Keynote “Foundations and Futures” by Yann LeCun (Meta AI). Sep 17, 2025, MIT Kresge Auditorium, Cambridge (MA, USA).
  • Seminar Participant at “Visipedia 2025 @ MIT”. AI systems with human-in-the-loop and CV applications in ecology and medicine. Jun 10, 2025, MIT CSAIL, Cambridge (MA, USA).
  • Seminar Participant at “Atlas of Models”. Analysis of 100k+ LLMs with Hugging Face. Jun 18, 2025, MIT, Cambridge (MA, USA).
  • Speaker at Healthy Soil for Healthy Food meeting, organized by Prof Ernesto Tomei of Università Agraria di Vivaro Romano. Dec 2023, Rome (Italy).
  • Volunteer in the support staff for the 22nd International Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA 2023). Nov 2023, Rome (Italy).

Selected Schools and Training

Awards, Maker Activities & Media