Hello, I’m Carolina.

My research focuses on Ant Colony Optimization and agent-based models of collective trust and decision-making.

Explore my research See publications

About Me

I am a Research Fellow at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Catania. I hold a PhD in Computer Science (2024), with a thesis entitled "From Ants to Crowds: Harnessing Competition for Optimization", and a degree in Physics with a specialization in Complex Systems Physics. My research spans swarm intelligence, complex adaptive systems, collective behavior, and agent-based modeling. My comprehensive resume is accessible here.

Highlights

Current Focus

I investigate how trust and competition shape multi-agent systems, from Ant Colony Optimization to models of collective behavior in complex environments.

My Research

I study how competition, trust, and network structure shape intelligent behavior in algorithms and multi-agent systems.

Ant Colony Optimization

I developed several agent-based variants of ACO, showing that introducing controlled competition breaks herd effects, fosters exploration, and boosts performance in complex environments.

  • Theme: optimization under complexity
  • Method: agent-based ACO with controlled competition

Agent-Based Modeling

I mapped ACO rules into social concepts, interpreting pheromone (τ) and visibility (η) as social and objective cues, and their weights, α and β, as social and objective trust. This ACO Mapping provides a compact framework to study collective decision-making and trust in multi-agent systems. See a simple demo here.

  • Focus: Trust and decision-making in agent societies
  • Keys: τ → social cue, η → objective cue, α → social trust, β → objective trust

Synthetic Network Generator

I design and evolve synthetic networks (damage, repair) to test how structure shapes robustness, diffusion, and coordination.

  • Focus: test ACO variants
  • Tools: ABM & simulation

Publications

Only the latest year is shown. Toggle to view older years.

Research Activities

Research Projects and Collaboration

  • Collaboration with Prof. Angelo Cangelosi (University of Manchester) and Dr. Marta Romeo (Heriot-Watt University) — human–robot interaction & trust in cooperative tasks.

Talks & Workshops

  • Chair — International Workshop on Big Optimization (WBO 2025), 31 Jul – 01 Aug 2024 | Catania, Italy
  • Local organizer committee and speaker — Metaheuristics Summer School (MESS 2024), 15 – 18 July 2024 | Catania, Italy
  • Speaker — 18th Social Simulation Conference (SSC 2023), 6 – 10 September 2023 | Glasgow, United Kingdom
  • Speaker — 10th International Conference on Bioinspired Optimisation Methods and Their Applications 2022 (BIOMA 2022), 17 – 18 November 2022 | Maribor, Slovenia
  • Local organizer committee — International Conference in Optimization and Learning (OLA 2022), 18 – 20 July 2022 | Siracusa, Italy
  • Local organizer committee and speaker — 14th Metaheuristics International Conference (MIC 2022), 11 – 14 July 2022 | Siracusa, Italy
  • Local organizer committee — International Conference in Optimization and Learning (OLA 2021), 20 – 21 June 2021 | Catania, Italy (Online)
  • Local organizer committee and participant — Metaheuristics Summer School (MESS 2020+1), 15 – 18 June 2021 | Catania, Italy (Online)
  • Speaker — 7th International Conference on Soft Computing & Machine Intelligence (ISCMI 2020), 14 – 15 November 2020 | Stockholm, Sweden (Online)
  • Speaker — 9th International Conference on Bioinspired Optimisation Methods and Their Applications 2020 (BIOMA 2020), 19 – 20 November 2020 | Bruxelles, Belgium (Online)
  • Speaker — XIV International Workshop on Artificial Life and Evolutionary Computation (WIVACE 2019), 18 – 20 September 2019 | Rende, Italy
  • Presentation of the research project, 13 January 2023 | ETH Zurich, Switzerland (Online)
  • The Role of Competition in Social Groups: the Case Study of Ant Colonies and Its Applications, 12 March 2021 | University of Catania, Italy (Online)

Teaching

Courses, labs, and materials for students.

Course Role Term Degree Program Materials
Artificial Intelligence (3 ECTS) – 24 hours Adjunct Professor AY 2025/2026 Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science (L-31) Slides
Principles of Computer Science (2 ECTS) – 19 hours Adjunct Professor AY 2024/2025 Bachelor's Degree in Biotechnology (L2) Materials
Lecture on ACO – Heuristics and Metaheuristics for Optimization and Learning (9 ECTS) Guest Lecturer AY 2024/2025 Master's Degree in Computer Science (LM18) Lecture Slides
Lecture on ACO – Heuristics and Metaheuristics for Optimization and Learning (9 ECTS) Guest Lecturer AY 2023/2024 Master's Degree in Computer Science (LM18) -
Seminar - Natural Computation (6 ECTS) Guest Lecturer AY 2020/2021 Master's Degree in Computer Science (LM18) -
Exercise - Scientific and Linguistic Methodology - Computer Science (5 ECTS) Lecturer AY 2020/2021 Single-cycle Master's Degree in Dentistry and Dental Prosthetics (LM46)

Thesis Supervision

I have co-supervised several students theses

  • Andrei Daniel Stefan — BSc thesis — Analysis of optimal navigation strategies for exploring unknown environments by autonomous agents (2025).
  • Teo Nicusor Pirvan — BSc thesis — Multi-Agent Exploration in Complex Environments: Competition and Imitation-Based Approaches (2025).
  • Attilio Di Natale — BSc thesis — Development of an Autonomous Agent Framework for Unknown Environments Able to Optimize Route Planning and Charging Times (2025).

Extra

News / Updates

Project presented at the European Researchers' Night – SHARPER 2025 held on 26 September 2025 in Catania.

Under the motto "Ludendo Docere" (teaching through play), this interactive lab uses games to introduce and explain key concepts in optimization research.

Explore the project website here .

Media

A small gallery of pictures from the last WBO Workshop.

WBO Organizers
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AI Projects

In my free time, I like to play with generative AI to create small interactive experiences and games. Below you can scroll through some of these projects.

Baduz – A Maze Challenge

Desktop maze navigation game with procedurally generated levels. Collect Orbs to unlock hints that reveal the path to the exit. Play it here.

The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP)

Discover how to find the shortest route that visits all cities exactly once and returns to the starting point. Experiment with different algorithms and understand how optimization techniques work.

Try it here

The Coloring Game

Assign colors to nodes in a network and solve conflicts between neighboring nodes. Learn how graph coloring is used in real-world problems like scheduling and resource allocation.

Try it here

Customer Portraits

Uncover hidden patterns behind customer spending and frequency data. Discover how clustering techniques can be used to segment and analyze groups of clients.

Try it here

From Ants to Crowds

A small interactive model to understand collective behaviors and multi-agent systems. Explore how simple rules can generate complex dynamics, from ant colonies to human crowds.

Try it here

Contacts