Vittorio Curri

Academic life

In July 1995 I graduated in Electronic Engineering at Politecnico di Torino (PoliTO), 110/110 cum laude. The outcome of my Master’s thesis done in collaboration with Andrea Carena was a software simulator for propagation in fiber links, that resulted to be the first implementation of the commercial simulator software OptSim, now a product of Synopsys Inc. This was the very first step of my career that has been so far aimed at technological transfer (TT), with high scientific added-value. I am currently Associate Professor at DET of PoliTO operating within the optical communications group (OptCom). In the following, I am listing in chronological order the milestones and the main roles I have held. Then, I will summarize my activities.

• 1996-1999: PhD program (cycle XI) in Electronics and Communications Engineering at PoliTO

• 1997-1998 (fall-spring quarters): visiting researcher at the Stanford University with Prof. Kazowsky group

• 1998 (summer quarter): visiting researcher at University of California at Santa Barbara with Prof. Blumenthal group

• March 1999: PhD final defense of the thesis titled “Fiber nonlinearities and their impact on high-capacity optical transmission systems”. Title assigned with “Ottimo” evaluation.

• 1998-2002: Scientific Advisor for Artis srl (later Artis software corp.) for TT of OptSim whose rights were sold by Politecnico in 1998.

• 1999-2003: Researcher with grant (Assegno di Ricerca) at PoliTO

• Dec 2002: Part of the team winning “Concorso Galileo Ferraris” for sci/tech business innovation ideas

• March 2003: Funder of Alps Telecommunications Software (ATS) srl: start-up company and official Spinoff of PoliTO

• 2003-2010: CEO and member of the Board of Directors of ATS

• 2003: Winner of the selection procedure for a position of Assistant Professor

• 2004-2014: Assistant Professor at Department of Electronics of PoliTO

• Nov 2007-Mar 2013: Member of the Board of Directors of PoliTO

• Nov 2007-Mar 2013: Member of the TT Commission of PoliTO

• June 2013-in progress: Member of the Board of the School of Specializing Master and Lifelong Learning at PoliTO

• 2013: Italian National Scientific Qualifications awarded for Associate Professor positions

• 2013-2015: Director of the 2nd level Specializing Master Programme in “Future Broadband Networks”

• 2014-2017: Leader of a research unit in charge of studying the networking infrastructures in the Cluster Ministry funded project: MIE: mobilità intelligente ecosostenibile

• 2014: First classified in the selection for seven positions of Associate Professor at PoliTO

• Mar 2014: Best Paper Award for the Journal of Lightwave Technology (JLT) paper on PM-mQAM simulation

• Oct 2014-in progress: Associate Professor at Department of Electronics and Telecommunications of PoliTO

• Mar 2015: Best Paper Award for the JLT paper on the GN-model

• 2016: Italian National Scientific Qualifications awarded for Full Professor positions

• 2017-in progress: Director of the 2nd level Specializing Master Programme in Photonics for Data networks and Metrology

• 2017-in progress: member of the consortium Telecom Infrastructure Project (TIP) led by Facebook (Fb) to develop open-source code for disaggregated network equipment

• 2017-in progress: promoter, and member of the steering committee of the interdisciplinary laboratory called “Power Electronic Innovation Center” (PEIC) that has been financed PoliTO in April 2017. I am leading the activities on Internet of Power .

• Dec 2017: winner of FFABR 2017, funding assigned according to the bibliometric ranking by MIUR

Research activities

I am listing the main research areas I have been working on. Simulation of fiber links has been the main area of investigation of the first half of my career, and it is still under development. It has delivered relevant scientific outcomes per se and has been the enabler for most of the outstanding scientific results of OptCom, while representing the knowledge-basis needed for most of OptCom’s research contracts.  In addition to this, the analytical modeling (AM) of the transmission of optical links has been – and still is – one of my key activities. AM was successfully carried out for legacy systems. and has produced outstanding results for state-of-the-art optical systems thanks to the results on the GN-model. Within the modeling carried out by OptCom, my core skills have always been related to the effects of Stimulated Raman Scattering and system optimization and management driven by AM-results. The latter is the investigation scenario that I have been expanding since 2014 in the innovative field of physical-layer-aware networking, starting from exploiting the GN-model and steering its evolution. This is my current main field of interest that is delivering excellent scientific results and funding from companies. This activity is indeed a key enabler for disaggregated, open, and vendor-agnostic networks. Thanks to my proficiency in this field, I have been invited to be part of the Fb-led TIP, with excellent scientific and TT results. Recently, I have started working on the use of photonics to remotely control power electronic systems. Finally, with INRiM, I am studying the effects of fiber transmission on T/F signals.

Technological transfer (TT) activities

My main TT activities are related to the simulator OptSim. From 1998-2002 I supported the company that acquired its rights from PoliTO.  Then, after the acquisition of OptSim by the US company RSoft, I’ve been the promoter, founder and CEO of the spinoff company ATS that was supporting RSoft in development and in EU sales. Also, within commercial contracts and grants, I worked on TT, being co-author of three patents, and being my research outcomes used for network control SW. In TIP, I am working on TT as well, providing the scientific steering to operators and vendors in developing open-source SW for network planning and management.

Team-leading activities

As Scientific Advisor of Artis, I was assigned to coordinate the team of 5-7 developers on the scientific aspects related to the implementation of algorithms for OptSim (1998-2002). Then, as CEO of the spinoff company ATS srl I was coordinating the employees (full time and consultants) and the interaction with PoliTO (2003-2010). Starting from 2007, within a research contract that has been continuously renewed, I have coordinated all the simulation-related activities, and the related team, until 2014. Starting from 2014, I have been coordinating a team of researchers with grants (RWG) and PhD students for all the activities under my coordination. Presently, I am managing the full-time activities of 3 PhD students and of 2 RWGs. I am steering the tasks of two ISMB researchers within a three-party contract. In PEIC, I am leading a team on photonics for remote control, including a PhD student and a research technician. I am also collaborating with INRiM giving scientific advice on T/F over fiber. Within TIP, besides coordinating my team, I am giving the scientific steering to the WG for AM, code development and experimental tests.

Teaching and PhD activities

Since the AY 01/02 I have been the lecturer of 50 classes for “Laurea” and Specializing Master degrees, 30 of which I have been primary lecturer (docente titolare). Most of classes have been taught in English. My current classes are “Digital and Connected World” introducing digital communications and media, available for all first-year student of Engineering, and “Projects and laboratory on photonic networks” introducing theory and methods for physical-layer-aware networking up to the IP layer. It is available for all the second year ICT students of “laurea specialistica”. In 18/19 I will also teach classes of “optical transmission” and “photonic networks” for the “Photonics for data networks and metrology” master.  I have tutored more than 50 Master’s Theses. I am currently tutoring 5 PhD students of which one is finalizing his program. I have tutored other 2 PhD students graduated in 2017 and 2016.

Dissemination activities

I have coauthored more than 200 articles, of which, 60 in journals. I have given more than 40 conference presentations. The most relevant are an invited speech at OFC 2015, Los Angeles, Mar 2015 on “HFA Optimization for Nyquist WDM Transmission”, an invite as keynote speaker on “Optical Communications: from the Smoke Signals to Gigabit Internet” at the plenary session of the IEEE conference HONET in Islamabad, Dec 2015, and an invited speech at ECOC 2016, Dusseldorf, Sep 2016, on “Elastic all-optical networks: a new paradigm enabled by the physical layer. How to optimize network performances?”. All presentations are available here.

Management activities

I have been the CEO and member of the board of ATS srl, in charge of technical and financial managing as well as interactions with the Academia. I have been member of the Board of Directors of PoliTO and member of the commission for TT, that oversaw all third-party contracts and agreements. I am currently member of the board of the school for master programs and professional education that it is charge of evaluating and reviewing all the related activities. I have been, and I am, the Director of a Specializing Master Program. As Director I oversee the scheduling and the management all the Master-related activities, including the teaching team and the interactions with supporting companies.

Private life

I live in Caluso, a country village 30 km north of Torino and I love open air life. I practice trail running, cross-country ski and ski-mountaineering. I like cinema and visual arts in general. I’m interested in popular culture with special regard to the one characterizing my area of origins – the Canavese – but also the Anglo-Saxon literature and pop culture in general of the last 60 years.

Honors