CV

Education

• Ph.D. Student in Economics, Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Milan, Italy (Sept 2024 – Ongoing):
  • Research interests: Macroeconomics, Inequality, Machine Learning, Development Economics
• M.Sc. in Data Science for Public Policy (Economics), University College London, United Kingdom (Sept 2022 – Sept 2023)
  • Thesis: “Hot Holidays: Evaluation of the Impact of Climate Change on Italian Tourism” supervised by Prof. Stephen Smith
  • Graduated with honors (Distinction/1st)
  • Courses: Machine Learning, Data Science, Public Policy, Econometrics, Statistics, Economics
  • Awarded UCL Scholarship for tuition fee (£29,400)
• M.Sc. in Theoretical Physics, University of Bologna, Italy (Nov 2014 – Oct 2018):
  • Thesis: “Electrical Contact Properties of Ultrathin Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Sheets”, supervised by Prof. Kern (Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Physics, Stuttgart, Germany)
  • Graduated with honors (110/110 cum laude)
  • Courses: Quantum Field Theory, Statistical Mechanics, Solid State Physics
  • Awarded 2 scholarships for MSc thesis research at Max-Planck Institute (€6,500 + €2,500)
• B.Sc. in Physics, University of Bologna, Italy (Sept 2010 – Oct 2014):
  • Thesis: “Wavelet Transform”

Work experience

• Fall 2023 – Summer 2024: Research Assistant
  • Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Milan, Italy
    • Analyzed spatial discrepancies in immigrant populations and their impact on elderly-care workforce demand
    • Collected field data in collaboration with a care-services provider
  • Tools & Skills: Immigration policy analysis, economic research & modelling, STATA
• Winter 2020 – Summer 2022: Junior Data Scientist
  • HK3Lab, Milan, Italy
    • Supported FDA histopathologic decisions by training deep-learning models on weakly labeled digital-pathology scans
    • Built a scalable, reproducible pipeline for very-large-image (6–10 GB) processing and model lifecycle (GAN, U-Net, CNN, Random Forest)
    • Set up remote-compute environments (AWS, GCP, Docker, Kubernetes, SLURM)
  • Tools & Software: Python, Jupyter Notebook, PyTorch Lightning, Dask, NumPy, Pandas, Bokeh, Scikit-learn, UMAP, LaTeX, Git, Anaconda
• Autumn 2019 – Winter 2020: Data Science Research Fellow
  • Italian National Research Council (CNR), Bologna, Italy
    • Developed time-series algorithms to calibrate low-cost air-quality sensors using TensorFlow
• Spring 2019 – Autumn 2019: Test Engineer
  • Nokia, Milan, Italy
    • Designed and automated functional tests for API and GUI outputs (Pytest, Selenium)
• Summer 2017 – Summer 2018: Experimental Researcher
  • Max-Planck Institute for Solid State Physics, Stuttgart, Germany
    • Conducted MSc thesis research on electrical contact properties of ultrathin transition-metal dichalcogenide sheets (LaTeX, LabView)

Skills

• Programming & Analysis:
  • Python · R · STATA · Java · LaTeX
• Data Science & ML:
  • Machine Learning · Computer Vision · Econometrics · Time-Series Analysis · Spatial Analysis
• Tools & Platforms:
  • JupyterHub · Docker · Kubernetes · SLURM · Linux · AWS · GCP
• Soft Skills:
  • Time Management · Report Writing · Presentation · Teamwork

Publications

A Weakly Supervised Deep Learning Framework for Whole Slide Classification to Facilitate Digital Pathology in Animal Study

Bussola, N., Xu, J., Wu, L., Gorini, L., Zhang, Y., Furlanello, C., & Tong, W. (2023). A Weakly Supervised Deep Learning Framework for Whole Slide Classification to Facilitate Digital Pathology in Animal Study. Chemical research in toxicology, 36(8), 1321–1331. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrestox.3c00058

Awards

• 2024 – Ongoing: PhD Scholarship, Università Commerciale “Luigi Bocconi” (€23 000 / year), Italy
• 2023: Research Assistant Fellowship, LEAP Lab, Università Commerciale “Luigi Bocconi” (€12 800), Italy
• 2022: UCL Scholarship (MSc Data Science for Public Policy tuition fee £29 400), United Kingdom
• 2019: Fellowship (MSc thesis research, 1 year), Max-Planck Institute (€6 500), Germany
• 2019: Scholarship (MSc thesis research), School of Science, University of Bologna (€2 500), Italy
• 2005: Finalist, Regional Math Contest “Scuole Il Cammino”, Italy

Certifications

• 2022: IELTS (British Council), Score: 7.5, United Kingdom
• 2018: Java Academy (Back-end development in Java by Gamma Group), Italy

Leadership

• 2023: Student Representative for the MSc programme
  • University College London, UCL Department, London, United Kingdom
  • Highlights:
    • Designed and analyzed a student-feedback survey to guide Department discussions
    • Planned and coordinated social & cultural events
• 2012: Head Coach, U17 Italian National Ultimate Frisbee Team (2nd Place, EFDF European Championship)
  • Ireland

Interests

• 2004: Finalist (96/100), National Music Competition (Violin), Italy
• 2007 – 2014: 1st Place, National Ultimate Frisbee Championship, Italy
• 2009 – 2010: U20 Italian National Team Captain, European & World Ultimate Frisbee Championships, Italy
• 2010 – 2014: Athlete, Italian National Ultimate Frisbee Team, European & World Championships, Italy