Universit� degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Rita Cucchiara Appointed as the New Rector of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia

Rita Cucchiara has been elected as the new Rector of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Her election took place in the second round, following a run-off with Professor Tommaso Fabbri. The entire procedure was conducted remotely via the U-Vote platform and involved all components of the electoral body: academic and research staff, technical-administrative personnel, and student representatives in the academic governing bodies.

Voter turnout: 850 out of 899 eligible academic and research staff voted (94.55%), 599 out of 735 technical-administrative staff (81.5%), 148 out of 169 student representatives (87.57%). Each of the three components met the minimum participation threshold required by the university’s regulations for the vote to be valid.

Professor Cucchiara received a total of 565.3 weighted votes, while Professor Tommaso Fabbri obtained 547.8 weighted votes. The first round of voting also included Professor Giovanna Galli and Professor Alessandro Capra.

A Full Professor at the “Enzo Ferrari” Department of Engineering, Rita Cucchiara has spent her entire academic career between the University of Ferrara, the University of Bologna, and Unimore, where she has been on staff since 1998. She founded and directed AImagelab, an internationally renowned laboratory for artificial intelligence and computer vision, now part of the ELLIS European network. She has authored over 600 scientific publications and has built an extensive network of academic and industrial collaborations both nationally and internationally.

Throughout her career, she has led research projects with Meta, Amazon, NVIDIA, and IBM, and has coordinated activities with NATO, IARPA, and the Ministry of Health. She has brought significant funding to Unimore for European projects and research infrastructures, fostering partnerships with companies such as Ferrari, Datalogic, Florim, IMA, Prometeia, Tetra Pak, Spal Automotive, and Yoox-Net-A-Porter.

She currently directs the Interdepartmental Centre AIRI and has held leadership positions on the Board of the Italian Institute of Technology, in the ANVUR Evaluation Committee, on the Board of Art-ER, in the National PhD in AI for Society, and in the Master’s in Public Management at the Bologna Business School. Internationally, she is a member of the Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and of the Center of Computer Vision in Barcelona.

Since 2018, she has coordinated the national AIIS laboratory of the CINI Consortium, bringing together 55 Italian universities, and contributed to drafting the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, working with the Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR) and international institutions, including the European Parliament, ISS, MAECI, and Italian embassies in the USA, UK, Israel, and Canada.

She has also served as a consultant for the National Research Plan (PNR 2021–2027), coordinating the AI working group, and was a delegate of the Ministry of University and Research. She collaborates with CRUI, CODAU, and numerous Italian universities, and is a board member of Prometeia Spa, where she promotes joint initiatives on industrial doctorates and fintech software development.

Categorie: International - english, Notizie_eng