Biography

Mauro Franceschelli is an Associate Professor of Automatic Control (IINF-04) at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (DIEE), University of Cagliari, Italy, since July 2022.

His research projects are listed on the Projects page; the Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers he supervises or has supervised are listed on the Team page.

2012

Diploma supplement of doctoral studies: ICO-NEH International Curriculum Option of Doctoral Studies in Networked, Embedded, and Hybrid Control Systems for Complex, Distributed and Heterogeneous Systems, Pisa, Italy

2011

Ph.D., Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, Italy (March 2011). Thesis: “Consensus Algorithms for Estimation and Discrete Averaging in Networked Control Systems”. Advisor: Prof. A. Giua

2007

M.S. in Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, Italy, 110/110 summa cum laude

2005

B.S. in Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, Italy, 110/110 summa cum laude

Since 2022

Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (DIEE), University of Cagliari, Italy (since July 2022).

2019–2022

Tenure-track Assistant Professor (RTD-B, three-year tenure-track position), DIEE, University of Cagliari, Italy.

2015–2019

Assistant Professor (RTD-A), position funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) under the 2014 programme “Scientific Independence of Young Researchers” (SIR). Host institution: University of Cagliari.

2013–2015

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, Italy.

2011–2013

Contract Researcher on the European FP7-ICT project HYCON2 “Highly-complex and networked control systems” (GA no. 257462).

2023

Italian National Scientific Qualification as Full Professor (professore di I fascia), disciplinary sector ING-INF/04 Automatica, valid from 6 February 2023 to 6 February 2035.

2017

Italian National Scientific Qualification as Associate Professor (professore di II fascia), disciplinary sector ING-INF/04 Automatica, valid from 7 April 2017 to 7 April 2023.

2014

French national qualification as Maître de conférences (assistant professor), Section 61: Génie informatique, automatique et traitement du signal (24 January 2014).

He holds the requirements for the role of commissioner (commissario) for the disciplinary sector ING-INF/04 Automatica (art. 16, comma 1, Legge 240/10).

2018

Visiting researcher, GIPSA-lab, CNRS, Grenoble, France (October 2018, one week), with Prof. P. Frasca.

2014

Visiting researcher, Xidian University, School of Electro-Mechanical Engineering, Xi'an, China (November 2014), with Prof. Z. Li. Visit funded by the NSFC Research Fellowship for International Young Scientists.

2010

Visiting student, University of California, Santa Barbara, Center for Control, Dynamical Systems, and Computation, Santa Barbara, CA, USA (October–December 2010), with Prof. F. Bullo.

2009

Visiting student, Georgia Institute of Technology, GRITS Lab, Atlanta, GA, USA (October–December 2009), with Prof. M. Egerstedt.

2008

Visiting student, Universidad de Zaragoza, Departamento de Informática e Ingeniería de Sistemas, Zaragoza, Spain (September 2008), with Prof. C. Mahulea.

2007

Visiting student, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Computer Engineering, Stockholm, Sweden (August 2007), with Prof. M. Egerstedt.

Awards

2023

2023 Outstanding Chapter Award to the IEEE CSS Italy Chapter (chaired by F. Dabbene), of which he was Secretary, presented at the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Singapore, December 2023.

2023

Special Mention of the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS) at the 21st National Innovation Prize (PNI 2023), for startup projects implementing solutions oriented towards the sustainable development goals, awarded to the e-Mago startup project of the University of Cagliari (StartCup Sardegna; team: M. Melis, D. Deplano, M. Franceschelli).

2022

Finalist, Young Author Paper Award, IFAC Conference on Networked Systems (NecSys 2022), Zurich, Switzerland, 5–7 July 2022, as advisor and co-author of “Dynamic max-consensus with local self-tuning” by D. Deplano, M. Franceschelli and A. Giua (young author: D. Deplano).

2021

Finalist, Italian Intellectual Property Award (IPA 2021), category Renewable energy / alternative energy, with the patent “Method and architecture for managing the energy demand of the multi-agent type for reducing the peaks of electrical consumption of a plurality of electrical appliances”.

2015

Prize of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, 10,000 euros) for research projects financed in highly competitive national and European calls, for the project CoNetDomeSys (SIR 2014 call, MIUR).

2014

Best Session Presentation Award, American Control Conference.

2010

Best Ph.D. student, DRIEI Ph.D. School of Electronics and Computer Science, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Cagliari, XXIII cycle.

2009

Best Session Presentation Award, American Control Conference.

Fellowships

2013–2015

University of Cagliari Postdoctoral Fellowship.

2013

Research Fellowship for International Young Scientists, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), programme Research Fund for International Young Scientists, category International (Regional) Cooperation and Exchange Projects.

2008–2010

MIUR Graduate Fellowship, Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research.

2018

Italian patent “Metodo ed architettura di gestione della domanda energetica di tipo multi-agente per la riduzione dei picchi di consumo elettrico di una pluralità di apparecchiature elettriche” (Method and architecture for managing the energy demand of the multi-agent type for reducing the peaks of electrical consumption of a plurality of electrical appliances). Inventors: M. Franceschelli, A. Pisano, A. Pilloni, A. Gasparri. Reference number 102018000006385, 15 June 2018.

2016

Invited speaker at the workshop “Taxonomies of Interconnected Systems: Large-Scale Networks” (organizers: A. Gasparri, R.K. Williams, B. Sinopoli), 55th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Las Vegas, NV, USA, December 2016.

2015

“A gossip based distributed approach for Heterogeneous Multi-Vehicle Routing Problems”, Politecnico di Bari, Bari, Italy, November 2015. Hosted by Prof. Dotoli.

2015

“A gossip based distributed approach for Heterogeneous Multi-Vehicle Routing Problems”, Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy, November 2015. Hosted by Prof. G. Notarstefano.

2015

“Cooperative constrained optimization of networked domestic thermal systems for efficient and coordinated urban energy consumption”, invited by the Italian Society of Professors and Researchers in Automatic Control, Automatica.it 2015, Bari, Italy, September 2015.

2014

“Introduction to the Discrete Consensus Problem and Gossip Based Algorithms for Distributed Task Assignment in Multi Agent Systems”, Xidian University, Xi'an, China, November 2014. Hosted by Prof. Z.W. Li.

2013

“Discrete Consensus for gossip-based distributed load balancing”, INRIA (Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique), Grenoble, France, March 2013. Hosted by Prof. C. Canudas-de-Wit.

2013

“Discrete and Quantized Consensus for Gossip-Based Distributed Load Balancing”, Politecnico di Bari, Bari, Italy, January 2013. Hosted by Prof. M.P. Fanti.

2010

“Decentralized Laplacian spectrum estimation”, student talk, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, November 2010. Hosted by Prof. F. Bullo.

Journals

Since 2025

Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control.

2024

Guest Associate Editor, Special Section “Resilient and Safe Control in Multi-Agent Systems”, IEEE Open Journal of Control Systems.

Since 2023

Associate Editor, IFAC Nonlinear Analysis: Hybrid Systems.

2021–2023

Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering.

Conferences

Since 2025

Associate Editor, IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC).

Since 2020

Associate Editor, IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC).

Since 2020

Associate Editor, American Control Conference (ACC).

Since 2019

Member of the Conference Editorial Board, IEEE Control Systems Society.

Since 2015

Associate Editor, IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE).

Organization of scientific events

2024

Publication Chair, 20th IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2024), Bari, Italy, 28 August – 1 September 2024.

2020

Member of the local organizing committee, with the role of Program Chair, Automatica.it 2020 (virtual edition), Cagliari, Italy, 9–11 September 2020.

2013

Publication Chair, 18th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA 2013).

• Member of the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on Multi-Robot Systems.
• Member of the IEEE RAS Steering Committee on Multi-Robot Systems.
• Member of the IEEE CSS Technical Committee on Networks and Communications.
• Member of the Track Program Committee of IEEE ETFA 2015 and 2016.
• Member of the International Program Committee of ICINCO 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018.

Scientific societies

Since 2025

Vice-Chair, IEEE Control Systems Society Italy Chapter, IEEE Italy Section.

2023–2024

Secretary, IEEE Control Systems Society Italy Chapter, IEEE Italy Section.

Since 2021

Senior Member of IEEE.

Since 2014

Member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS).

Since 2012

Member of the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS).

Since 2011

Member of IEEE.

Reviewing

Reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Automatica, IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, IEEE Control Systems Letters, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, Systems & Control Letters, International Journal of Control and International Journal of Robust Control.

At the University of Cagliari, unless otherwise stated.

Since 2024

Quality assurance officer for the M.S. degree (LM-32) “Computer Engineering for Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity”.

Since 2024

Member of the Internationalization Committee of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, as reference person for the B.S. degree “Ingegneria dell'Energia Elettrica per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile”.

Since 2024

Erasmus coordinator for the B.S. degree “Ingegneria dell'Energia Elettrica per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile”.

Since 2023

Member of the faculty board of the national Ph.D. program in Autonomous Systems (DAUSY).

Since 2021

Member of the Student Affairs Committee (Commissione Pratiche Studenti) of the M.S. degree (LM-32) “Computer Engineering for Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity”.

Since 2020

Member of the faculty board of the Ph.D. School in Information Engineering (DRIEI), Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Since 2018

Secretary of the M.S. degree (LM-32) “Computer Engineering for Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity”.

Since 2018

Faculty tutor for the M.S. degree “Computer Engineering for Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity”.

Since 2018

Member of the CAV committee (Commissione CAV) of the M.S. degree “Computer Engineering for Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity”.

Member of the Management Committee of the Department of Excellence project 2023–2027 of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Ongoing and past research projects, with funding programmes and roles, are listed on the Projects page.

His research focuses on cooperative distributed control of multi-agent systems and networks, with applications to multi-robot systems, distributed electric demand side management and response, and federated and distributed learning. His research interests include:

• Distributed algorithms for coordination, control, estimation, optimization, consensus and learning in large groups of autonomous systems
• Gossip-based algorithms for load balancing and task assignment
• Resilient networks, resilient control and optimization; learning for control
• Nonsmooth analysis and monotone systems
• Applications to multi-robot systems and UAV coordination, sensor networks, smart grids and smart urban environments