We open our interview section this year by welcoming Luca D’Aniello, a PhD student from Italy who is going to stay with the EC3 research team for the next two months. We are delighted to meet him and hope that this visit to Granada marks the beginning of a long relationship of scientific collaboration. Let’s get to know Luca better:
First of all, what is your background?
Hi! I’m Luca D’Aniello and I’m from Naples, a city in the South of Italy. Currently, I am a PhD student in Social Sciences and Statistics at the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Naples Federico II. I hold a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business Management and a master’s degree in Economics with a specialization in Data Science. In these months, I am on a visiting research experience at the University of Granada. This opportunity has been made possible by Nicolás Robinson-García, the director of the EC3-research group, who accepted my request to supervise this enriching experience.
And what are your scientific interests?
My academic interests span across healthcare, social sciences, research evaluation, and statistical survey methodologies, with a primary focus on textual data analysis and bibliometrics. My interest in these areas developed thanks to the guidance and expertise of my mentors: Massimo Aria and Corrado Cuccurullo, professors in statistics for social sciences and corporate governance, respectively, and developers of bibliometrix, one of the main science mapping tools widely employed in the bibliometric field. During my PhD, I delved into the development of automated text summarization methods within the scientific literature domain, through a computational approach. Specifically, automatic text summarization includes several statistical methods aimed at condensing the length of texts into more concise forms while keeping the crucial information. My research aims to contribute to the development of an Automatic Text Summarization algorithm suitable for scientific documents, aiding scholars in uncovering pertinent insights from scientific knowledge.
What will your tasks be at the EC3 research group?
During the collaboration with the EC3 research group, my primary focus will be addressing the evolving landscape of textual data and information overload, particularly within the context of the rapid expansion of scientific literature publications. The question asked by Nicolás during our last meeting was: «Normally we measure the growth of science through the number of publications. But is the growth of publication coherent with the growth of knowledge?». Translated into the language of textual data analytics and bibliometrics, the question could be: «How much do recently published scientific documents are semantically similar to previously published documents?”. Answering this question is crucial, and leveraging the expertise of the EC3 research team, I do think will be precious to achieve my academic goals.
Lastly, what do you expect to accomplish?
I am confident that the EC3 will provide me with the necessary tools to overcome this research challenge successfully. While my primary goal is to accomplish the specific task at hand, I am equally eager to learn a lot from the expertise of the EC3 members. Despite the conclusion of my visiting period, I see this not as the end of our collaboration but as the beginning of an exciting scientific journey. Establishing a connection between the EC3 Research Group and K-Synth, an academic spin-off led by Prof. Massimo Aria and Corrado Cuccurullo, of which I am a member, will not only provide continuity but also create opportunities for exploring new research frontiers together!