We are excited to announce that our latest research, The Digital Attention Heuristics: Supporting the User's Attention by Design, has been published in the prestigious ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI). The research, led by Alberto Monge Roffarello and Luigi De Russis from Politecnico di Torino, in collaboration with Kai Lukoff from Santa Clara University, introduces a set of eight design heuristics aimed at preserving user attention and fostering digital wellbeing.

The paper addresses the growing concern around "attention-capture" designs employed by tech companies, which often exploit users' psychological vulnerabilities to maximize engagement. Examples of these attention-capture designs include the infinitely scrollable newsfeed of Instagram or the autoplay of the next video on YouTube. Unlike traditional digital wellbeing interventions that place the burden of digital self-control on users, this research shifts the focus to designers, offering actionable heuristics to create interfaces that respect users' attention and time by default.

We are thrilled to announce the publication of our latest research, "Supporting Teachers, Engaging Students: A Collaborative Model for K-12 Computing Education," in the Entertainment Computing journal.

The work shares our experience with the Batti il 5! national project, which aimed to strengthen computing skills in primary schools in the Mirafiori Sud district of Turin. In the paper, in particular, we address key challenges in integrating Computational Thinking (CT) into primary school curricula, such as teacher training and curriculum development. Through the design and evaluation of an introductory coding course for 4th-grade students—where children were guided to create a simple Scratch video game like the one shown in the figure—we explored how project-based learning and a collaborative approach involving experts, teachers, and high-school tutors can foster engaging and inclusive learning experiences.

On March 24-27, 2025, the e-Lite group will attend (in person) the 30th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI 2025) in Cagliari, Italy.

Tommaso Calò will present the paper "DeepFlow: A Flow-Based Visual Programming Tool for Deep Learning Development" on Thursday, March 27 during the Democratisation of AI session at 10:05 AM.

Il 5 marzo 2025 partirà la seconda edizione del corso Critical Making, rivolto ai docenti di scuola secondaria superiore nell'ambito del progetto europeo Erasmus+ "Critical Making", che ha come obiettivo combattere la disinformazione in ambito scientifico attraverso la progettazione didattica e l'integrazione delle tecnologie.

From the 4th to the 6th of February 2025, Catia Prandi will hold a course on Citizen Science in our university. The invited course is part of the Ph.D. in Control and Computer Engineering, and it is open to Ph.D. students from the Politecnico and other institutions.

The course will introduce the concept of Citizen Science as a scientific method for collecting data by actively engaging citizens while addressing scientific research.

This year, we welcome three new PhD students to the group: Luca Scibetta, Francesca Russo, and Robert Schwartz. They work in the areas of digital wellbeing, human-centered AI, and education.

Italian AccessCoVE partners join Handimatica to promote inclusion through accessible technology.

Join us on November 28th at the ASPHI stand for a dedicated talk about the activity of he AccessCoVE project, that will lead to a European center of Vocational Training for Accessibility Professionals.

The Interaction Design & Architecture(s) Journal (IxD&A) has scheduled a special issue on the topic "Digital Wellbeing for Teens: Designing Educational Systems".

On Wednesday, November 6, 2024, students enrolled in the Ph.D. in Computer and Control Engineering and in the National Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence present and discuss their research activities in the context of the DAUIN PhD Day 2024.

Among them, Tommaso Calò will be available to talk about his research with a poster that summarizes three years of work on enhancing human-AI interaction.

On Thursday, October 24, 2024, at 11:00, Luca Mannella defended his Ph.D. final dissertation titled "Security IoT Gateways in Smart Home Environments".

The defense was evaluated by the international commission composed of: Giorgio Giacinto (Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy), Luigi Patrono (Università del Salento, Italy), Davide Ferraris (Universidad del Malaga, Spain), Andrea Vesco (Fondazione LINKS, Italy); and coordinated by Claudio Ettore Casetti (Politecnico di Torino, Italy).