Dr Alessandro Provetti

Positions held:

Reader in Data Analysis, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences

Address

Room 165, Malet Street

Email

Birkbeck: a.provetti@bbk.ac.uk

Overview
Overview

Highlights
- I am co-PI of the research project V&A Design Generator which was funded by the AHRC in 2022: https://ale66.github.io/VA-design-generator/
Office hours

Please contact me on Birbeck's MS Teams channel.

Web profiles
Professional activities

I am on the editorial board of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

I am on the editorial board of Patterns, Cell Press.

ORCID
0000-0001-9542-4110
Research
Research

Research interests
- Computational Social Science.
- Web Data Extraction.
- Network Science: centrality.
- Artificial Intelligence in Finance.
- Artificial Intelligence in Sports.
Research Centres and Institutes
- Vasari Research Centre
Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Supervisions within Birkbeck:

1

I mentor MSc, MRes and PhD students working in Web algorithmics, Intelligent Systems and general Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.

Doctoral alumni since 2013-14
- YLLI PRIFTI
  
  Nature of supervision:
  Principal Supervisor, Jan 2018
  
  Title of thesis:
  The Emergence of Interpersonal and Social Trust in Online Interactions
  
  Description:
  Abstract
  
  My PhD work is in the area of extracting and modelling user-created data on the web.
  In particular, I focussed on locating and extracting user data that ’signals’ the evolution of
  human, 1-on-1 interactions between participants of large social networks who are forever
  stranger to each other.
  The booming of ”Online Social Networks” created an opportunity for social scientists
  to study social phenomena at a scale unseen before. The vast amount of information
  combined with computer science techniques led to significant developments in a relatively
  new field: Computational Social Science. Furthermore, recently the Gig Economy
  and mass adoption of ”business sharing” sites such as Airbnb, Uber, or JustEat drove a
  new wave of computational social science research into reviews, feedback, and recom-
  mendations. All these ingredients of the larger Social Trust have been vastly discussed
  in the literature, in both the social aspect and computational models of trust.
  However, some fundamental gaps remain, and there is often confusion about when trust is
  being expressed and how reviews (or recommendations) relate to social trust. Additionally,
  the computational trust models found in the literature tend to either be entirely theoretical
  or focused on a specific data set, thus lacking universal applicability. The latter problem,
  I believe, was due to a lack of data available to researchers in the early stages of the web.
  Today, the broader Online Social Networks have matured and consolidated mechanisms
  for allowing access to data. Access to information is rarely trivial for more specialised
  and smaller online communities. Yet smaller, focussed platforms are precisely where
  social trust and interactions could be observed (or not observed) and perhaps acquire a
  meaning that approaches the social trust social scientists see in in-person interactions.
  To address this gap, we initially propose and discuss the following research question:
  ”Is there a meeting point between online interactions and social trust so that the core
  components of trust are retained?” We addressed this general open question by working
  on a computational architecture for data retrieval in social media platforms that can be
  suitably generalised and re-applied to different platforms. Lastly, as we enjoy the luxury
  of vast amounts of data that closely represent interpersonal and social trust, we addressed
  the question of ”what models of trust emerge from data” and ”how do existing models
  of trust perform with the data available”.
  ...
  
  Awarded:
  2023
Teaching

I am mostly teaching graduate modules in Data Science.

Teaching modules
- Data Science Techniques and Applications (BUCI057H7)
- Data Science Techniques and Applications (BUCI057H7)
- Demystifying Computing with Python (BUCI081H7)
- Demystifying Computing with Python (BUCI081H7)
Publications
Publications
Article
- De Meo, Pasquale and Levene, Mark and Provetti, Alessandro (2023) Branching processes reveal influential nodes in social networks. Information Sciences 644 (119201), pp. 1-19. ISSN 0020-0255.
- Matuozzo, Alberto and Yoo, Paul and Provetti, Alessandro (2023) A right kind of wrong: European equity market forecasting with custom feature engineering and loss functions. Expert Systems with Applications ISSN 0957-4174.
- Deveikyte, Justina and Geman, Hélyette and Piccari, Carlo and Provetti, Alessandro (2022) A sentiment analysis approach to the prediction of market volatility. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence 5, ISSN 2624-8212.
- Lagias, Paschalis and Magoulas, George and Prifti, Ylli and Provetti, Alessandro (2022) Predicting seriousness of injury in a traffic accident: a new imbalanced dataset and benchmark. Communications in Computer and Information Science 1600, pp. 412-423. ISSN 1865-0937.
- De Meo, P. and Levene, Mark and Messina, F. and Provetti, Alessandro (2020) A general centrality framework-based on node navigability. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering 32 (11), pp. 2088 -2100. ISSN 1041-4347.
- Agreste, S. and De Meo, P. and Ferrara, E. and Piccolo, S. and Provetti, Alessandro (2015) Trust networks: topology, dynamics, and measurements. IEEE Internet Computing 19 (6), pp. 26-35. ISSN 1089-7801.
- Agreste, S. and De Meo, P. and Ferrara, E. and Piccolo, S. and Provetti, Alessandro (2015) Analysis of a heterogeneous social network of humans and cultural objects. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems 45 (4), pp. 559-570. ISSN 2168-2216.
- Bonasera, B. and Ferrara, E. and Fiumara, G. and Pagano, F. and Provetti, Alessandro (2015) Adaptive search over sorted sets. Journal of Discrete Algorithms 30, pp. 128-133. ISSN 1570-8667.
- De Meo, P. and Ferrara, E. and Fiumara, G. and Provetti, Alessandro (2014) On Facebook, most ties are weak. Communications of the ACM 57 (11), pp. 78-84. ISSN 0001-0782.
- Bernava, C. and Fiumara, G. and Maggiorini, D. and Provetti, Alessandro and Ripamonti, L.A. (2014) RDF annotation of Second Life objects: knowledge representation meets social virtual reality. Computational & Mathematical Organization Theory 20 (1), pp. 20-35. ISSN 1381-298X.
- De Meo, P. and Ferrara, E. and Fiumara, G. and Provetti, Alessandro (2014) Mixing local and global information for community detection in large networks. Journal of Computer and System Sciences 80 (1), pp. 72-87. ISSN 0022-0000.
- Costantini, S. and Provetti, Alessandro (2005) Normal forms for answer sets programming. Theory and Practice of Logic Programming 5 (6), pp. 747-760. ISSN 1471-0684.
- Costantini, S. and D' Antona, O.M. and Provetti, Alessandro (2002) On the equivalence and range of applicability of graph-based representations of logic programs. Information Processing Letters 84 (5), pp. 241-249. ISSN 0020-0190.
- Fesq, L.M. and Atkins, E.M. and Khatib, L. and Pecheur, C. and Cohen, P.R. and Stein, L.A. and van Lent, M. and Laird, J.E. and Provetti, Alessandro and Cao Son, T. (2001) AAAI 2001 Spring Symposium series reports. AI Magazine 22 (3), pp. 117-122. ISSN 0738-4602.
- Baral, C. and Gabaldon, A. and Provetti, Alessandro (1998) Formalizing narratives using nested circumscription. Artificial Intelligence 104 (1/2), pp. 107-164. ISSN 0004-3702.
- Baral, C. and Gabaldon, A. and Provetti, Alessandro (1998) Value minimization in circumscription. Artificial Intelligence 102 (2), pp. 163-186. ISSN 0004-3702.
- Baral, C. and Gelfond, M. and Provetti, Alessandro (1997) Representing actions: laws, observations and hypotheses. The Journal of Logic Programming 31 (1/3), pp. 201-243. ISSN 0743-1066.
- Provetti, Alessandro (1996) Hypothetical reasoning about actions: from situation calculus to event calculus. Computational Intelligence 12, pp. 478-498. ISSN 0824-7935.
- Provetti, Alessandro (1996) Ordering events: intervals are sufficient, more general sets are usually not necessary. Reliable Computing 2 (3), pp. 321-327. ISSN 1385-3139.
Book
- Bertoni, A. and Grossi, G. and Provetti, Alessandro and Kreinovich, V. and Tari, L. Provetti, Alessandro and Cao Son, T., eds. (2001) Papers from the AAAI Spring Symposium. AAAI Press. ISBN 9781577351290.
Book Section
- Fiumara, G. and Marchi, M. and Provetti, Alessandro (2007) Adaptive web data extraction policies. In: 8th IEEE International Workshop on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks: POLICY 2007. IEEE Computer Society. ISBN 769527671.
- Marchi, M. and Penzo, R. and Provetti, Alessandro (2007) Policy-based parametric firewall configuration: a real-case application. In: 8th IEEE International Workshop on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks: POLICY 2007. IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. ISBN 769527671.
- Amalfi, M. and Lo Presti, K. and Provetti, Alessandro and Salvetti, F. (2006) Finding instances of deduction and abduction in clinical experimental transcripts. In: Brewka, G. and Coradeschi, S. and Perini, A. and Traverso, P. (eds.) 17th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence: ECAI 2006. IOS Press. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications. pp. 737-738. ISBN 9781586036423.
- Bernardoni, C. and Fiumara, G. and Marchi, M. and Provetti, Alessandro (2006) Declarative web data extraction and annotation. In: Fink, M. and Tompits, H. and Woltran, S. (eds.) 20th Workshop on Logic Programming. INFSYS Research Report. Technische Universitat Wien. pp. 137-144.
- Bossa, S. and Fiumara, G. and Provetti, Alessandro (2006) A lightweight architecture for RSS polling of arbitrary web sources. In: De Paoli, F. and Di Stefano, A. and Omicini, A. and Santoro, C. (eds.) From Objects to Agents: Proceedings of the 7th WOA 2006 Workshop. CEUR Workshop Proceedings. CEUR-WS.org. pp. 118-123.
- de Cindio, F. and Fiumara, G. and Marchi, M. and Provetti, Alessandro and Ripamonti, L.A. and Sonnante, L. (2006) Aggregating information and enforcing awareness across communities with the dynamo RSS feeds creation engine: preliminary report. In: Meersman, R. and Tari, Z. and Herrero, P. (eds.) On the move to meaningful internet systems 2006: OTM 2006 Workshops. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer. pp. 227-236. ISBN 9783540482697.
- Bertino, E. and Mileo, A. and Provetti, Alessandro (2005) PDL with preferences. In: 6th IEEE International Workshop on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks: POLICY 2005. IEEE Computer Society. pp. 213-222. ISBN 769522653.
- Bertino, E. and Provetti, Alessandro and Salvetti, F. (2005) Reasoning about RDF statements with default rules. In: W3C Workshop on Rule Languages for Interoperability. W3C.
- Marchi, M. and Mileo, A. and Provetti, Alessandro (2005) Declarative policies for web service selection. In: 6th IEEE International Workshop on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks: POLICY 2005. IEEE Computer Society. pp. 239-242. ISBN 769522653.
- Marchi, M. and Mileo, A. and Provetti, Alessandro (2004) Grid Service Selection with PPDL. In: Demoen, B. and Lifschitz, V. (eds.) Logic Programming, 20th International Conference: ICLP 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer. pp. 464-466. ISBN 9783540226710.
- Marchi, M. and Mileo, A. and Provetti, Alessandro (2004) Specification and execution of declarative policies for grid service selection. In: Zhang, L.-J. (ed.) Web Services, European Conference: ECOWS 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer. pp. 102-115. ISBN 9783540232025.
- Marchi, M. and Mileo, A. and Provetti, Alessandro (2004) Specification and execution of policies for grid service selection. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Web Services: ICWS 04. IEEE Computer Society. pp. 828-829. ISBN 769521673.
- Padovani, L. and Provetti, Alessandro (2004) Qsmodels: ASP planning in interactive gaming environment. In: Alferes, J.J. and Leite, J.A. (eds.) Logics in Artificial Intelligence, 9th European Conference: JELIA 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer. pp. 689-692. ISBN 9783540232421.
- Bertino, E. and Mileo, A. and Provetti, Alessandro (2003) PDL with maximum consistency monitors. In: Zhong, N. and Ras, Z.W. and Tsumoto, S. and Suzuki, E. (eds.) Foundations of Intelligent Systems, 14th International Symposium: ISMIS 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer. pp. 65-74. ISBN 9783540202561.
- Bertino, E. and Mileo, A. and Provetti, Alessandro (2003) User preferences vs minimality in PPDL. In: Buccafurri, F. (ed.) 2003 Joint Conference on Declarative Programming: AGP-2003. AGP. pp. 110-122.
- Bertino, E. and Provetti, Alessandro and Salvetti, F. (2003) Local closed-world assumptions for reasoning about semantic web data. In: Buccafurri, F. (ed.) 2003 Joint Conference on Declarative Programming: AGP-2003. AGP. pp. 314-323.
- Costantini, S. and Otero, R.P. and Provetti, Alessandro and Cao Son, T. (2002) Disjunctive logic programs with inheritance revisited. In: Otero, R.P. and Hacid, M.-S. and Ras, Z.W. and Zighed, D.A. and Kodratoff, Y. (eds.) Foundations of Intelligent Systems, 13th International Symposium: ISMIS 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer. pp. 294-294--302. ISBN 9783540437857.
- Bertoni, A. and Grossi, G. and Provetti, Alessandro and Kreinovich, V. and Tari, L. (2001) The prospect for answer sets computation by a genetic model. In: Provetti, Alessandro and Cao Son, T. (eds.) Papers from the AAAI Spring Symposium. AAAI Press. ISBN 9781577351290.
- Balduccini, M. and Brignoli, G. and Lanzarone, G.A. and Magni, F. and Provetti, Alessandro (2000) Experiments in answer sets planning. In: Cairo, O and Sucar, L.E. and Cantu, F.J. (eds.) MICA 2000: Advances in Artificial Intelligence. Springer. pp. 95-107. ISBN 9783540673545.
- Lanzarone, G.A. and Provetti, Alessandro (1998) Processing temporal and atemporal declarative knowledge in metalogic programming. In: Freire-Nistal, J.L. and Falaschi, M. and Ferro, M.V. (eds.) 1998 Joint Conference on Declarative Programming: APPIA-GULP-PRODE 98. APPIA-GULP-PRODE. pp. 201-214.
- Provetti, Alessandro and Rossi, G. (1997) Action specifications in log. In: Falaschi, M. and Navarro, M. and Policriti, A. (eds.) 1997 Joint Conference on Declarative Programming: APPIA-GULP-PRODE '97. APPIA-GULP-PRODE. pp. 381-392.
- Baral, C. and Gabaldon, A. and Provetti, Alessandro (1996) Formalizing narratives using nested circumscription. In: Clancey, W.J. and Weld, D.S. (eds.) Proceedings of the Thirteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Eighth Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence Conference. AAI Press.
- Baral, C. and Gabaldon, A. and Provetti, Alessandro (1996) Value minimization in circumscription. In: Carlucci Aiello, L. and Doyle, J. and Shapiro, S.C. (eds.) Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning. Morgan Kaufmann. pp. 474-481.
- Chittaro, L. and Montanari, A. and Provetti, Alessandro (1994) Skeptical and credulous event calculi for supporting modal queries. In: Cohn, A.G. (ed.) Proceedings of the Eleventh European Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Wiley. pp. 361-365.
- Provetti, Alessandro (1994) Hypothetical reasoning from situation calculus to event calculus. In: Goodwin, S.D. and Hamilton, H.J. (eds.) Proceedings of the TIME-94 International Workshop on Temporal Reasoning. University of Regina. pp. 42-47. ISBN 9780773102781.
Conference Item
- Matuozzo, Alberto and Yoo, Paul and Provetti, Alessandro and Kim, Maria (2022) Machine learning methods for Equity Time Series forecasting: a compendium. 31st ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management, 2022, Atlanta, U.S.
- Athanasopoulou, Maria Eleni and Deveikyte, Justina and Mosca, Alan and Peri, Ilaria and Provetti, Alessandro (2021) A hybrid model for forecasting short-term electricity demand. 2nd ACM International Conference on AI in Finance, 2021, London, UK
- Pozzana, Iacopo and Prifti, Ylli and Provetti, Alessandro (2021) Live monitoring 4chan discussion threads. IC2S2 2021: 7th International Conference on Computational Social Science, 2021, Online
- Costantini, S. and De Meo, P. and Giorgianni, A. and Migliorato, V. and Provetti, Alessandro and Salvia, F. (2020) Exploring low-degree nodes first accelerates network exploration. 12th ACM Web Science Conference 2020, 2020, Southampton, UK
- De Meo, P. and Levene, Mark and Provetti, Alessandro (2019) Potential gain as a centrality measure. IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence (WI '19), 2019, Thessaloniki, Greece
- Ballatore, Andrea and Pang, A. and Pozzana, Iacopo and Prifti, Y. and Provetti, Alessandro (2019) Geo-referencing as a connector between user reviews and urban environment quality. 5th International Conference on Computational Social Science IC2S2, 2019, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Amalfi, M. and Artale, A. and Calì, Andrea and Provetti, Alessandro Xu Yu, J. and Ho Kim, M. and Unland, R., eds. (2011) Generating preview instances for the face validation of entity-relationship schemata: the acyclic case. 16th International Conference, DASFAA 2011, 2011, Hong Kong, China
Editorial
- Osorio, M. and Provetti, Alessandro (2004) Preface. Latin-American workshop on non-monotonic reasoning: proceedings of the 1st international LA-NMR04 workshop 92, CEUR-WS.org.
- Baral, C. and Provetti, Alessandro and Son, T.C. (2003) Introduction to the special issue on programming with answer sets. Theory and Practice of Logic Programming 3 (4/5), pp. 387-391. Cambridge Journals. ISSN 1471-0684.
- De Vos, M. and Provetti, Alessandro (2003) Preface. Answer Set Programming, Advances in Theory and Implementation: Proceedings of the 2nd International ASP Workshop 78, CEUR-WS.org.
Other
- Provetti, Alessandro (2005) A primer on answer set programming. CoRR CoRR.
External Repositories
Business and community
Business and community

Outreach

I was a panelist at the "Racism, discrimination and statistics – examining the history" event organized by the Royal Statistical Society in October 2020.

Services
- Consultancies and expert advice
  01-MAR-18
  I am academic advisor to Malet Labs Ltd, a start-up company by former Birkbeck doctoral students.

Dr Alessandro Provetti

Overview

Highlights

Office hours

Web profiles

Professional activities

ORCID

Research

Research interests

Research Centres and Institutes

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

YLLI PRIFTI

Teaching

Teaching modules

Publications

Article

Book

Book Section

Conference Item

Editorial

Other

External Repositories

Business and community

Outreach

Services