Cosimo Distante

Master in Computer Science at the University Bari, and PhD in Engineering at University of Salento (Italy). His main expertise are in the field of Artificial Intelligent, in particular Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Image Processing, Machine Learning and Robotics. Particular emphasis is devoted to the development of Deep Learning algorithms. He has been a visiting researcher at the Computer Science Department of the University of Massachusetts (Amherst, MA) where has carried out research activities under robotics, artificial neural networks and vision. Dr. Distante joined the Faculty of the University of Massachusetts as a Teaching Assistant, for the "Artificial Intelligence" 683 class of the Master in Sciences 1998. He received the Ph.D. in Material Engineering from the University of Salento. Dr. Distante joined in 2001 the Italian National Research Council of Italy CNR, focusing his research activity in the context of robot learning, visual grasping and pattern recognition applied to array of chemical sensors. Dr. Distante has been awarded with several fellowships, among them the CNR-NATO in which he has collaborated with the University of Manchester (Prof. Krishna Persaud) for the study of pattern recognition techniques applied to the context of gas sensor arrays for parameter drift reduction. Since 2003 he is Contract Professor for the courses of Pattern Recognition and Image Processing in Computer Engineering at the University of the Salento IT. Since 2010 he started a technology transfer activity by establishing a startup spinoff company named Taggalo.

 In 2011, Dr. Distante has been awarded with the national innovation Prize working capital PNI-Cube TelecomItalia with the Taggalo project. He won the ChallengUP (Cisco, Intel and Deutch Telekom acceleration program) contest in 2015 with Taggalo. He served as general chair of several established conferences, among them the IEEE AVSS 2017 that focus on videosurveillance, the Video analytics for Audience mearuserement that focus on computer vision tech. for retail and digital signage. He is coordinating several joint research lab between CNR and Leonardo-Finmeccanica for security technology that focus on face recognition in the wild and videosurveillance, and between CNR and a pool of SMEs for the health sector. He is the unit manager of the Institute of Applied sciences and Intelligent system of the CNR where leads a group of researchers, PhD students, coordinates two industrial joint labs (security and health).  

He is expert member in innovation for the Ministry of Education, Research and University (MIUR), as well as the Ministry of economic development (MISE) and a few regional agencies for technology and innovation.