Michele has 20 years of experience in the fields of data and IoT, working on research and development and recently on innovation in a number of roles, from Academia to SMEs to government organizations. During his career he pioneered and touched all the technologies and aspects that helped to create the connected world we are living today.

In 2007, Michele obtained a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Rome La Sapienza. He researched, designed and deployed novel cross-layer communication protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks and other resource-constrained embedded devices, dividing his time between Rome and Boston where he was a visiting researcher at the Northeastern University. After his PhD, he worked for academia and a number of SMEs as a research scientist in the area of remote sensing / monitoring.

In 2010 Michele moved to the UK to work at the University of Surrey, where he was a Senior Researcher at the 5G Innovation Centre. As part of the first large scale European smart city project, SmartSantander, he led the development and deployment of an Internet of Things campus-wide testbed comprising of thousands of sensor devices for energy monitoring applications. He led a group of PhD students investigating the impact of IoT and data in creating more sustainable buildings and campuses. He developed proposals and led a number of other European Projects, researching the field of privacy-aware communication and crowdsensing in mobile Internet of Things.

Since 2015 Michele has worked as the Lead Technologist for Data and Trust at Digital Catapult London, driving open innovation in the area of data and trust. He worked on a number of projects and initiatives to increase transparency and individual control on how personal data are collected and shared. He championed the introduction of a standardized Personal Data Receipt to increase transparency, track personal data sharing transactions and provide General Data Protection Regulation compliance.

In his research into trust and transparency, Michele was exposed to blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. He researched DLTs as a means to build an infrastructure for sharing data with trust, and to create innovation in the digital manufacturing and creative industries.

Currently he is an active member of the Mydata community, actively liaising with academia, SMEs, large organizations and governments to identify open innovation activities in the field of data and IoT.

Michele is responsible for growing the IOTA Ecosystem, by identifying, securing funding and leading the development of Web3 IOTA-based products. He manages the development of Spice, an IOTA as a Service solution. Michele also leads EU projects and IOTA international research collaborations. Together with his deep experience on blockchain, to date, Michele matured almost 20 years of product research and development in Internet of Things and data, both in Academia and various SMEs.