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PhD Candidate · AI Researcher

Vincenzo Sammartino

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Vincenzo Sammartino
KAUST · UniPi · 2026
37 Total Citations
4 H-Index
23 Publications
3+ Years Research
About

Researcher.
Engineer.
Builder.

I am a PhD candidate in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Pisa, working at the intersection of cybersecurity, AI, and distributed systems. My doctoral research focuses on Security Twins — digital twin architectures for real-time, non-intrusive threat assessment in cyber-physical systems.

Currently serving as a Visiting PhD Student (VSRP Intern) at KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) under the supervision of Prof. Roberto Di Pietro, where I contribute to the ResilientGuard project on UAV swarm security leveraging TinyML and Edge AI paradigms.

My research spans Digital Twins for Cybersecurity, adversarial AI, Byzantine-resilient consensus mechanisms, and GDPR-compliant database architectures. I have co-authored 23 scientific contributions — including IEEE and Springer proceedings, CRC/Taylor & Francis book chapters, and peer-reviewed journal articles.

Digital Twin & Security Twin Architectures
UAV Swarm Security & TinyML / Edge AI
Cyber-Physical Systems Resilience
AI-enabled Cybersecurity & Synthetic Data
GDPR-compliant Distributed Systems
Natural Language Processing & Sentiment Analysis
Position PhD Candidate, AI
Institution University of Pisa
Visiting KAUST, Saudi Arabia
KAUST Supervisor Prof. R. Di Pietro
UniPi Supervisor Prof. F. Baiardi
UniPi Co-supervisor Prof. S. Ruggieri
ORCID 0009-0002-4632-1179
Location Pisa, Italy / Thuwal, KSA
Email vincesammartino@gmail.com
Scholar
Research & Experience

Timeline

Jan 2026 — Jun 2026
Visiting PhD Student — VSRP Intern
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) · Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
Research on ResilientGuard: security framework for UAV swarms. Development of a decentralised anomaly-detection framework based on TinyML/Edge AI models. Design and simulation of distributed consensus mechanisms against Byzantine attacks and internal threats.
UAV Security TinyML Edge AI Byzantine Fault Tolerance KAUST
Sep 2024 — Present
PhD Candidate in Artificial Intelligence
Università di Pisa · Pisa, Italy
National PhD Programme in Artificial Intelligence. Research focused on Security Twins, non-intrusive cyber-physical systems modelling, and AI-enabled cybersecurity via synthetic data generation and adversarial simulation.
Digital Twin Cybersecurity AI PhD
Jun 2025 — Dec 2025
Digital Twin Engineer — Infrastructure Modeling
Consorzio Metis
Collection and analysis of structural/operational data for the construction of precise digital models of existing infrastructure. Integration of IoT sensors for real-time monitoring and synchronisation between digital model and physical environment. Simulation for predictive failure analysis and proactive optimisation.
IoT Digital Twin Infrastructure Simulation
Mar 2024 — Sep 2024
Research Fellow — Distributed Systems & GDPR
Università di Pisa — Dipartimento di Informatica
Research on GDPR-compliant distributed information systems. Database decomposition for least-privilege confinement. Digital Twin application in AI/Cybersecurity contexts.
GDPR Database Distributed Systems
Dec 2022 — Dec 2023
Research Fellow — Platform Development
Università di Pisa — Dipartimento di Informatica
Development of the StudentInForma platform (Python, SQL, HTML, CSS): a questionnaire compilation and response-processing system with focus on cybersecurity hardening against web-based attack vectors.
Python SQL Cybersecurity Full-Stack
Oct 2021 — May 2022
Research Internship — NLP & Computational Linguistics
Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale "A. Zampolli" — CNR Pisa
Sentiment analysis research: domain and genre effects on classifiers based on n-gram features and deep learning (word embeddings). Technologies: Scikit-Learn, BERT, Python.
NLP Sentiment Analysis BERT CNR
Publications

Research Output

Book Chapters
2026 · Book Chapter
From Digital Twins to AI Agents: A Synthetic Data Paradigm for Next-Generation Cybersecurity
Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity: Unlocking the Power of Large Language Models · CRC/Taylor & Francis
F. Baiardi and V. Sammartino
2 citations
Journal Articles
2026 · Journal
Simulation-Powered Cybersecurity: Real-Time Risk Assessment via Non-Intrusive Security Twin
The Journal of Supercomputing — Special Issue
F. Baiardi and V. Sammartino
2025 · Journal
Cyber Weapons: Components of Weapon Systems
Journal of Information Warfare, vol. 24, issue 4
F. Baiardi and V. Sammartino
—
2025 · Journal
A Comparative Study of NLP Systems for Sentiment Polarity Classification Across Different Domains and Genres
International Journal of Complexity in Applied Science and Technology
Vincenzo Sammartino
2024 · Journal
Database Decomposition to Satisfy the Least Privilege Principle in Healthcare
ARIS2 — Advanced Research on Information Systems Security, vol. 4, pp. 46–68
V. Sammartino and F. Baiardi · DOI: 10.56394/aris2.v4i1.43
2 citations
2024 · Journal
A Comparative Study of Machine Learning Models for Hate Speech and Stereotype Detection in Italian Texts
International Journal of Complexity in Applied Science and Technology, vol. 1, issue 2, pp. 155–176
Vincenzo Sammartino
6 citations
Conference Proceedings
2026 · Conference
Evaluating Adversary Strategies Through a Security Twin
IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom Workshops 2026)
F. Baiardi, V. Sammartino, S. Ruggieri
1 citation
2026 · Conference
Quantifying Resilience of Cyber-Physical Systems to Zero-Day Threats: A Digital Twin-Based What-If Analysis
European Safety and Reliability Conference (ESREL 2026)
F. Baiardi and V. Sammartino
2026 · Conference
Quantifying the Impact of CVSS Score Ordering on Attack Paths
12th EAI International Conference on Smart Objects and Technologies (GOODTECHS 2026)
F. Baiardi and V. Sammartino
2025 · Conference
AI-enabled Cybersecurity using Synthetic Data
23rd IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom 2025), Washington DC
F. Baiardi, S. Ruggieri, V. Sammartino
5 citations
2025 · Conference
A Security Twin to Defeat Intrusions in Cyber Physical Systems
ESREL SRA-E 2025, Stavanger, Norway
F. Baiardi, V. Sammartino, S. Ruggieri
4 citations
2025 · Conference
A Framework for Proactive Cyber-Resilience: Non-intrusive Modeling for Autonomous Defense
29th International Symposium on Distributed Simulation and Real Time Applications (DS-RT 2025)
V. Sammartino
3 citations
2025 · Conference
Graph-Based Cyber Defence using a Security Twin
29th International Symposium on Distributed Simulation and Real Time Applications (DS-RT 2025)
F. Baiardi, V. Sammartino, S. Ruggieri
3 citations
2025 · Conference
NotLine: A Non-Intrusive Automated Platform to Build a Digital Twin
29th International Symposium on Distributed Simulation and Real Time Applications (DS-RT 2025)
F. Baiardi, V. Sammartino, S. Ruggieri
1 citation
2025 · Proceedings
A Quantitative Framework for the Validation of Twin-Based Cyber Defense
Procedia Computer Science, vol. 274, pp. 721–730
F. Baiardi and V. Sammartino
3 citations
2024 · Conference
Anticipating Disasters through a Security Twin
Springer Optimization and Its Applications — DoD 2024, Vienna, Austria
F. Baiardi, S. Ruggieri, V. Sammartino
4 citations
2024 · Conference
Satisfying Least Privilege Through Database Decomposition
20th International Conference on Design of Reliable Communication Networks (DRCN), Montreal, Canada
F. Baiardi, C. Comella, V. Sammartino
1 citation
2024 · Conference
Multilevel Database Decomposition Framework
ITASEC: Italian Conference of Cybersecurity, Salerno · CEUR Workshop Proceedings
F. Baiardi, C. Comella, V. Sammartino
1 citation
Preprints & Manuscripts
2024 · Preprint
Feature Engineering and Semantic Enrichment for Enhanced Text Classification: A Case Study on Figurative Language in Tweets
Preprints
V. Sammartino, C. Baccheschi, J. Gneri, V. Picchianti, A. Frasson
2024 · Preprint
D3F: A Framework to Minimize the Impact of Intrusions
Preprints
F. Baiardi and V. Sammartino
Thesis Supervision

Supervised
Theses

Role: Relatore 2
Development of a Security Twin for Vulnerability Analysis in UAV Systems
Università di Pisa — Dipartimento di Informatica
Design and implementation of a Security Twin architecture for systematic modeling and analysis of attack surfaces in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems, focusing on protocol-level vulnerabilities and remote intrusion vectors.
Security Twin UAV Security Vulnerability Analysis Cyber-Physical Systems
Role: Relatore 2
Zeek and ntopng: Comparison and Integration in NotLine
Università di Pisa — Dipartimento di Informatica
Comparative analysis of the network monitoring tools Zeek and ntopng, with subsequent integration into the NotLine platform for non-intrusive network traffic detection in support of automated Digital Twin construction.
NotLine Zeek ntopng Network Monitoring Digital Twin
Role: Relatore 2
Authentication on CAN Bus
Università di Pisa — Dipartimento di Informatica
Study of authentication mechanisms applicable to the Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol, with evaluation of lightweight cryptographic solutions compatible with the computational constraints of embedded systems in automotive and industrial environments.
CAN Bus Embedded Security Authentication Automotive
Role: Relatore 2
Extension of a Security Twin with a Performance Model
Università di Pisa — Dipartimento di Informatica
Extension of the Security Twin architecture by integrating a quantitative model of system performance, aimed at correlating security metrics with the operational impact of mitigation measures adopted in response to detected intrusions.
Security Twin Performance Modeling Quantitative Analysis Cyber Defense
Role: Relatore 2
Confidential Computing: Cost/Performance Analysis
Università di Pisa — Dipartimento di Informatica
Systematic evaluation of the cost/performance trade-off in Confidential Computing technologies (Intel SGX, AMD SEV, ARM TrustZone), with analysis of the related computational overhead and architectural implications for highly confidential distributed systems.
Confidential Computing TEE Performance Analysis System Security
Role: Relatore 2
Design and Analysis of Dynamic Intrusion Strategies via the Security Twin
Università di Pisa — Dipartimento di Informatica
Formalization and simulation of dynamic intrusion strategies within the Security Twin environment, with what-if analysis of adversarial behavior in multi-step scenarios. Study of the implications for designing adaptive and proactive defense policies.
Security Twin Adversarial Modeling What-If Analysis Intrusion Strategies
Projects

Built Things

🛒
Broly.it
Full-stack proprietary e-commerce platform with dynamic catalogue management, shopping cart, and secure payment gateway integration. Mobile-optimised UX/UI.
🔒
StudentInForma
Academic questionnaire platform built in Python, SQL, HTML/CSS with cyber-hardening against web attack vectors (SQL injection, XSS, CSRF).
🧠
Text Analytics
Text analysis pipeline leveraging neural networks and BERT-based transformers for classification tasks including sentiment analysis and hate speech detection.
📊
Data Mining Suite
Projects covering classification, regression, clustering, and advanced feature engineering techniques using Scikit-Learn, XGBoost, and Python analytics stack.
📚
Library Web App
Angular-based web application functioning as a full library management system — catalogue, loans, reservations, and administrative back-end.
🌐
Web Scrapers
Automated data-extraction algorithms targeting Amazon, Twitter, and generic web sources. Python-based with custom parsing and anti-bot bypass strategies.
Technical Skills

Capabilities

Machine Learning / AI
TensorFlow Keras Scikit-Learn XGBoost BERT TinyML Edge AI
NLP & Text
NLTK SpaCy Stanza Transformers Word Embeddings Sentiment Analysis
Programming
Python JavaScript R C++ PHP SQL
Data & Databases
Pandas NumPy MongoDB ArangoDB GraphDB NoSQL
Web & DevOps
HTML5 CSS3 Angular Bootstrap Docker Git
Research & Standards
XML-TEI XSLT LaTeX GDPR Digital Twin Markdown
Contact

Let's
collaborate.

Open to research collaborations, visiting positions, and industry partnerships in the areas of AI, cybersecurity, and digital twin architectures.

✉
Email
vincesammartino@gmail.com
→
⌥
GitHub
github.com/ilsamaritano
→
in
LinkedIn
vincenzo-sammartino
→
ID
ORCID
0009-0002-4632-1179
→