Francesco Guarnera Ph.D.

Francesco Guarnera was born in Catania on 20 October 1985. He obtained a Master's degree (110/110 cum laude) in Computer Science at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Catania in 2018 with the thesis entitled Estrazione automatica ed analisi di fingerprint su materiale cartaceo retroilluminato. In 2009, he obtained a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science (110/110 cum laude) with the thesis entitled Analisi di sicurezza del protocollo OpenID.
He holds the title Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Computer Science in collaboration with ICTLab s.r.l. and the University Of Hertfordshire with a thesis entitled Advanced Methods for Image Forensics: First Quantization Estimation and Document Authentication at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Università degli Studies of Catania. From 1 April 2022 he is research fellow at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Catania studies with the grant entitled Modeling using Agent Based Modeling (ABM) methodologies by In Silico Trials for drug evaluation.
Since 2017 he has been a member of the IPLab research group of the University of Catania. He participated at the International Computer Vision Summer School (ICVSS) in the 2019 edition. In 2022 he was part of the organization committee of the International Forensics Summer School (IFOSS). The topics of his research concern Computer Vision, Machine / Deep Learning and Multimedia Forensics. In particular his research has focused on the reconstruction of the history of JPEG images with reference to “Double Quantization Detection” (DQD) and “First Quantization Estimation” (FQE). Lately he move on Medical Imaging research projects focused on the analysis of magnetic resonances of the brain and the analysis of CT scans in subjects with hip prostheses.

Digital Forensics: 4 journals - 5 conferences

Computer Vision: 1 journals - 1 conferences

Medical Imaging: 1 preprints

Other: 1 preprints

• PAPER | Guarnera Luca, Giudice Oliver, Guarnera Francesco, Ortis Alessandro, Puglisi Giovanni, Paratore Antonino, Bui Linh MQ, Fontani Marco, Coccomini Davide Alessandro, Caldelli Roberto, Falchi Fabrizio, Gennaro Claudio, Messina Nicola, Amato Giuseppe, Perelli Gianpaolo, Concas Sara, Cuccu Carlo, Orrù Giulia, Marcialis Gian Luca, Battiato Sebastiano (2022). The Face Deepfake Detection Challenge. MDPI Journal of Imaging Vol. 8, Num. 10, pp. 263 (Q2,2021)
• PAPER | Battiato Sebastiano, Giudice Oliver, Guarnera Francesco, Puglisi Giovanni (2022). CNN-based first quantization estimation of double compressed JPEG images. Elsevier Journal of visual Communication and Image Representation Vol. 89, pp.10365 (Q1,2021)
• PAPER | Battiato Sebastiano, Giudice Oliver, Guarnera Francesco, Puglisi Giovanni (2021). First Quantization Estimation by a Robust Data Exploitation Strategy of DCT Coefficients. IEEE Access Vol. 9, pp. 73110 – 73120 (Q1)
• PAPER | Battiato Sebastiano, Giudice Oliver, Guarnera Francesco, Puglisi Giovanni (2021). Estimating Previous Quantization Factors on Multiple JPEG Compressed Images. Springer Open EURASIP Journal on Information Security Vol. 2021, Num. 1, pp. 1-11 (Q2)
• PAPER | Guarnera Francesco, Giudice Oliver, Allegra Dario, Stanco Filippo, Battiato Sebastiano, Livatino Salvatore, Matranga Vito, Salici Angelo (2021). A Robust Document Identification Framework through f-BP fingerprint. MDPI Journal of Imaging Vol. 7, Num. 8, pp. 126 (Q2)

• PAPER | Giudice Oliver, Allegra Dario, Guarnera Francesco, Stanco Filippo, Battiato Sebastiano (2020). Animated GIF optimization by adaptive color local table management. In Proceedings of 2020 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP)
• PAPER | Battiato Sebastiano, Giudice Oliver, Guarnera Francesco, Puglisi Giovanni (2020). Computational Data Analysis for First Quantization Estimation on JPEG Double Compressed Images. In Proceedings of 2020 IEEE 25th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR)
• PAPER | Battiato Sebastiano, Giudice Oliver, Guarnera Francesco, Puglisi Giovanni (2020). In-Depth DCT Coefficient Distribution Analysis for First Quantization Estimation. In Proceedings of MMForWild2020 – Multimedia FORensics in the WILD 2020 – Workshop of 2020 IEEE 25th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR)
• PAPER | Battiato Sebastiano, Guarnera Francesco, Ortis Alessandro, Trenta Francesca, Ascari Lorenzo, Siniscalco Consolata, De Gregorio Tommaso, Suàrez Eloy (2020).Pollen Grain Classification Challenge 2020. In Proceedings of Springer International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR)
• PAPER | Giudice Oliver, Guarnera Francesco, Paratore Antonino, Battiato Sebastiano (2019). 1-D DCT Domain Analysis for JPEG Double Compression Detection. In Proceedings of International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing (ICIAP)
• PAPER | Guarnera Francesco, Allegra Dario, Giudice Oliver, Stanco Filippo, Battiato Sebastiano (2019). A New Study On Wood Fibers Textures: Document Authentication Through LBP Fingerprint. In Proceedings of 2019 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing

• Battiato Sebastiano, Guarnera Francesco, Guccio Calogero, Pignataro Giacomo, Vidoli Francesco (2022). One for all? Assessing quality of Italian hospitals with the “Benefit of the Doubt” composite indicator methods
• Rondinella Alessia, Guarnera Francesco, Battiato Sebastiano, Pappalardo Francesco, Maimone Davide (2022). Multiple sclerosis lesion segmentation framework for brain MRI

• PAPER | Guarnera Francesco (2022). Advanced Methods for Image Forensics: First Quantization Estimation and Document Authentication.

2022 - Present

Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences of the University of Catania on a data collection and analysis project
TOPIC: Data Analysis
Contact person: Prof. Antonella Paola Agodi

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2021 - Present

Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute of Bologna, iCTLab srl and University of Messina for medical
TOPIC: Medical Imaging
Contact person: Prof. Francesco Traina

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2021 - Present

The COMBINE Group (https://www.combinegroup.org) and the Neurology unit of the Garibaldi hospital in Catania. Resonance analysis magnetic fields of patients suffering from multiple sclerosis as part of the "In Silico World: Lowering barriers to ubiquitous adoption of In Silico Trials - ISW "HORIZON2020 - Topic SC1-DTH-06-2020 - "RIA-Research and Innovation action" - call H2020-SC1-DTH2018-2020 / H2020-SC1-DTH-2020-1 (Digital ransformation in Health and Care), Grant agreement n. 101016503 - Project no. 101016503 - CUP E65F21000170005ment of Medical and Surgical Sciences of the University of Catania on a data collection and analysis project
TOPIC: Medical Imaging
Contact person: Prof. Francesco Pappalardo

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2021 - Present

R&D of iCTLab (spin-off of the University of Catania)
TOPIC: Digital Forensics / Computer Vision

Contact person: Dr. Oliver Giudice

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2021 - Present

Department of Economics of the University of Catania on Big Data analysis project of Italian hospitals for quality assessment
TOPIC: Data Analysis
Contact person: Prof. Giacomo Pignataro

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2019 - Present

Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Cagliari
TOPIC: Digital Forensics
Contact person: Prof. Giovanni Puglisi

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2019 - 2020

Center of Excellence for the acceleration of HArm Reduction - CoEHAR directed by prof. Riccardo Polosa, for research activities on devices wearable able to recognize the smoking activity
TOPIC: Artificial Intelligence
Contact person: Prof. Sebastiano Battiato

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2019 - 2020

Polytechnic of Turin and the Ferrero R&D department s.p.a for research activities on the automation of counting and classification of pollen in plantations
TOPIC: Artificial Intelligence
Contact person: Prof. Sebastiano Battiato

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2019 - 2020

6 months visiting at University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
TOPIC: Computer Vision
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Salvatore Livatino

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2018 - 2022

Carabinieri Grouping of Scientific Investigations, RIS of Messina
TOPIC: Digital Forensics / Computer Vision
Contact person: Dr. Angelo Salici

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2017 - Present

Member of the IPLab Research Group
TOPIC: Computer Vision
Contact person: Prof. Sebastiano Battiato

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2021

• GTTI workshop “Deep Signal Processing for a safer world”, VIRTUAL

2019

• MULTI-modal Imaging of FOREnsic SciEnce Evidence tools for Forensic Science (MULTIFORESEE) conference, Catania, Italy
• International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), Taipei, Taiwan
• International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing (ICIAP), Trento, Italy
• SMAU Milano, presentazione progetto DeepFake dello Spin- off iCTLab

2021

• Organizing Committee "Deepfake Images Detection and Reconstruction Challenge" (https://iplab.dmi.unict.it/deepfakechallenge) held at the International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing (ICIAP), 2021

2020

• Organizing Committee "Pollen Grain Classification Challenge" held at the International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), 2020

2022

• International Forensics Summer School (IFOSS) https://www.ifoss.it/, Scicli (Ragusa), Italy (organizing committee member).

2019

• International Computer Vision Summer School (ICVSS), Scicli (Ragusa), Italy. (student and organizational team member)

FROM 2022

• AIxIA: International Conference of the Italian Association from Artificial Intelligence
• ICVM: International Conference on Machine Vision

FROM 2021

• Frontiers in Computer Science
• Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (JOCCH)

FROM 2020

• Elsevier Pattern Recognition Letters
• Springer Multimedia Tools and Applications (MTAP)
• IEEE Transaction on Image Processing (TIP)
• Springer Machine Vision and Applications (MVAP)
• IEEE Transaction on Informations Forensics and Security (TIFS)
• ICPR: International Conference on Pattern Recognition
• AIM: Advances in Image Manipulation workshop and challenges at ECCV

• 01/04/2022 – ongoing: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Catania: research fellow, project “Modellazione tramite metodologie Agent Based Modeling (ABM) di In Silico Trials per la valutazione dei farmaci”
• 01/09/2019 – 31/03/2022: Kitesun srl. Web designer/developer of the PayTourist application (based on Laravel framework) for the collection of the tourist tax.
• 2017 – 2021: Gruppo di Studio di ecografia pediatrica della società italiana pediatria (GSEP). Web designer/developer of the study group training platform.
• 2016 – 2018: I.T.S. srls. Web designer/developer on frameworks Laravel of business applications.
• 2015 – 2016: Aziendecom srl.Technical area manager, sales area technical support.
• 2008 – 2015: Comservices srl. Full stack developer