Nicola's research is distinguished by its high quality, interdisciplinary approach, and significant impact. His work spans across multiple domains, including Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, Deep Learning, and Multimedia Information Retrieval. He has made substantial contributions to both the theoretical and applied aspects of these fields, with measurable scientific and practical outcomes.
During his PhD, Nicola began exploring the ability of neural networks to understand and process relationships between objects in computer vision. He also made important contributions in multimodal artificial intelligence by developing innovative and efficient methods for aligning representations of complex neural networks in both visual and language modalities.
His work in multimedia information retrieval has demonstrated immediate real-world applicability. This is exemplified by VISIONE, a large-scale video search system that won the 2024 international Video Browser Showdown competition and secured second place in 2023. VISIONE has been employed by the Italian national public broadcaster RAI, as part of the AI4Media European project, to facilitate efficient browsing of audiovisual archives.
More recently, he has expanded his research focus to include the application of attentive deep learning techniques for structural health monitoring and the preservation of cultural heritage. This new direction highlights his ability to engage in highly interdisciplinary research and to address complex challenges across different fields.
Nicola's professional experience also includes international collaborations with esteemed European universities and participation in various Italian and European research projects, such as AI4Media, AI4EU, INAROS, AI4CHSites, ADA, and Smart News. In addition to his research, he is involved in teaching and dissemination activities, offering instruction and guidance to students on topics related to deep learning, computer vision, and multimodal processing.
In 2021 and 2022, Dr. Messina received the ISTI Young Researcher Award, recognizing him as one of the top young researchers (under 32 years old) at ISTI-CNR,Italy.
Overall, Dr. Nicola Messina is an outstanding early-career researcher who has achieved remarkable success during his PhD and postdoctoral work, combining scientific innovation with societal and commercial impact.
Nicola Messina is currently employed at the Information Science and Technologies Institute, National Research Council (ISTI-CNR), Italy, where he is associated with the Artificial Intelligence for Multimedia and Humanities Laboratory (AIMH). He received his PhD in 2022 from the University of Pisa, Italy, with a thesis titled "Relational Learning in Computer Vision," supervised by Fabrizio Falchi, Giuseppe Amato, and Marco Avvenuti.
Cor Baayen Early Career Researcher Award 2024
Nicola Messina, nominated by Fabrizio Falchi, Information Science and Technologies Institute, National Research Council (ISTI-CNR), Italy
Honorary mention
- Jana Wagemaker, nominated by CWI, The Netherlands
- David Saulpic, nominated by Inria, France
- Błażej Osiński, nominated by University of Warsaw, Poland
Finalists
- Lesly-Ann Daniel, nominated by INRIA, France
- Diogo Barradas, nominated by INESC, Portugal
- António Correia, nominated by INESC, Portugal
- Agustin Zuniga Corrales, nominated by VTT, Finland
- Shadi Shafighi, nominated by University of Warsaw, Poland
Selection Committee
The Selection Committee was composed of Gabriel David (INESC-TEC), Monica Divitini (NTNU – chair of the ERCIM Human Capital Task Group), Anna Gambin (University of Warsaw), Georgia Kapitsaki (University of Cyprus), Bruno Levy (Inria), Kostas Magoutis (FORTH), and Fabrizio Sebastiani (ISTI-CNR).
The decision was unanimous.