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title: README
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AI & Computer Vision Research Hub

Led by Dr. Silvia Cascianelli

Welcome to our AI & Computer Vision research hub. We focus on exploring cutting-edge techniques in image generation, handwriting imitation, and document understanding, while fostering an environment that emphasizes mentorship and collaboration. Below, you’ll find highlights of our recent projects, the brilliant minds collaborating with us, and the latest updates from our community.

Introduction
Recent Projects
Our Team & Mentorees
Latest Updates
External Links
Contact

Introduction

We are a group of enthusiastic researchers, students, and practitioners delving into challenges at the forefront of AI. Under the guidance of Dr. Silvia Cascianelli, we tackle complex tasks in AI-driven content creation, strive to replicate distinctive handwriting styles, and unlock insights from historical and modern documents. Our mission is not only to advance these research areas but also to foster a nurturing environment for emerging researchers.

Recent Projects

Image Generation

We specialize in developing efficient and lightweight methods to generate images with desired characteristics. Our work particularly explores how Diffusion Models can be adapted at inference time to produce semantically coherent or uniquely formatted images.

Merging and Splitting Diffusion Paths for Semantically Coherent Panoramas
[Fabio Quattrini, Vittorio Pippi, Silvia Cascianelli, Rita Cucchiara]
arXiv:2408.15660
Alfie: Democratising RGBA Image Generation With No $$$
[Fabio Quattrini, Vittorio Pippi, Silvia Cascianelli, Rita Cucchiara]
arXiv:2408.14826

Handwriting Imitation

Our research explores algorithms to generate images of text in various handwriting styles, how to evaluate the generated results, and how these findings can be applied in real-world contexts (e.g., personalized text rendering).

VATr++: Choose Your Words Wisely for Handwritten Text Generation
[Bram Vanherle, Vittorio Pippi, Silvia Cascianelli, Nick Michiels, Frank Von Reeth, Rita Cucchiara]
arXiv:2402.10798
Handwritten Text Generation from Visual Archetypes
[Vittorio Pippi, Silvia Cascianelli, Rita Cucchiara]
arXiv:2303.15269
HWD: A Novel Evaluation Score for Styled Handwritten Text Generation
[Vittorio Pippi, Fabio Quattrini, Silvia Cascianelli, Rita Cucchiara]
arXiv:2310.20316
How to Choose Pretrained HTR Models for Single Writer Fine-Tuning
[Vittorio Pippi, Silvia Cascianelli, Christopher Kermorvant, Rita Cucchiara]
arXiv:2305.02593

Document Understanding

From analyzing complex 2D/3D scans of historical papyri to modern ESG reports, our team builds systems to detect ink traces, parse text, interpret layout, and uncover valuable writer-centric details.

μgat: Improving Single-Page Document Parsing by Providing Multi-Page Context
[Carmine Zaccagnino, Fabio Quattrini, Silvia Cascianelli, Laura Righi, Rita Cucchiara]
arXiv:2408.15646
Volumetric FFC for Detecting Ink on the Carbonized Herculaneum Papyri
[Fabio Quattrini, Vittorio Pippi, Silvia Cascianelli, Rita Cucchiara]
arXiv:2308.05070
Evaluating Synthetic Pre-Training for Handwriting Processing Tasks
[Vittorio Pippi, Silvia Cascianelli, Lorenzo Baraldi, Rita Cucchiara]
arXiv:2304.01842
The LAM Dataset: A Novel Benchmark for Line-Level Handwritten Text Recognition
[Silvia Cascianelli, Vittorio Pippi, Martin Maarand, Marcella Cornia, Lorenzo Baraldi, Christopher Kermorvant, Rita Cucchiara]
arXiv:2208.08109
Boosting Modern and Historical HTR with Deformable Convolutions
[Silvia Cascianelli, Marcella Cornia, Lorenzo Baraldi, Rita Cucchiara]
arXiv:2305.02593

Our Team & Mentorees

A significant part of our success comes from a dedicated group of researchers, interns, and students who collaborate with Dr. Cascianelli:

Vittorio Pippi: PhD student (National PhD in AI); recently interned at Amazon Research Berlin.
Grounded, generous, and sharp.
Fabio Quattrini: PhD student at UniMoRe; also interning at Amazon Research Berlin.
Creative, kind, and direct.
Carmine Zaccagnino: Recent MSc graduate and current research intern at UniMoRe.
Hardworking, proactive, and passionate.
Pau Torras Coloma: PhD student at CVC-UAB; spent 1.5 months at UniMoRe as a visiting intern.
Committed, curious, and adaptable.
Bram Vanherle: CV Engineer at Colruyt Group Smart Innovation; spent 5 months of internship at UniMoRe.
Concrete, easygoing, and consistently solid.

Latest Updates

Stay tuned for news on our lectures, workshops, and conference appearances:

AI Governance Lab: Served as one of the lecturers for the AI Governance Lab course.
InsAIde Article: Co-authored a tech post with Davide Morelli in the InsAIde newsletter.
ECCV2024: Fresh experiences and seeds planted at ECCV2024 in Milan—exciting projects ahead!
AC @CVPR2025: Proud to serve as an Area Chair for CVPR2025.
AI4DH Workshop @ECCV2025: Co-organizing the third edition of the “AI for Digital Humanities” workshop at ECCV2025.
Flash Seminar @Huawei: Engaging seminar at the Amsterdam Huawei Research Center on our research directions.
Bram’s Defense: Dr. Cascianelli was part of the PhD jury for Bram Vanherle’s successful defense at UHasselt.
ICDAR2024: A rewarding conference in Athens, feeling at home in the ICDAR community.
ADAPDA Workshop @ICDAR2024: The second edition of the “Automatically Domain-Adapted and Personalized Document Analysis” workshop saw great participation.
AC @ECCV2024: Dr. Cascianelli will also be serving as an Area Chair at ECCV2024.

External Links

Explore more about Dr. Cascianelli’s publications, professional profiles, and contact details:

Contact

Thank you for your interest! If you find our work compelling or would like to discuss potential collaborations, please reach out:

Email: scascianelli[at]unimore[dot]it
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/silvia-cascianelli-330760104

We look forward to hearing from you!

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