Professor Fabio Ciravegna
PhD
Department of Computer Science
Professor of Pervasive Technologies
Academic Director of University Technology Centre on Artificial Intelligence for Defence and Security
Head of the Organisations, Information and Knowledge (OAK) research group

+44 114 222 1904
Full contact details
Department of Computer Science
Regent Court (DCS)
211 Portobello
Sheffield
S1 4DP
- Profile
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Fabio Ciravegna is Professor of Pervasive Technologies and Head of OAK Group. He is the Academic Director and founder of the University Technology Centre in Artificial Intelligence for Defence and Security.
His research field concerns large scale data collection and analysis from multiple devices and multiple modes.
He has created technologies for tracking mobility used by a million users and which have collected over a billion mobility data points. He has created three spin out companies, two of which in the area of tracking and modelling mobility.
He is currently the CEO of Aeqora Ltd (aeqora.com), a company providing solutions for tracking of physical movements using mobile technologies and IoT.
In 2016-1019 he was the director of the European project Seta, (www. setamobility.eu, 15 partners, €5.5m) which aimed to build a ubiquitous data and service ecosystem for metropolitan mobility.
In 2012-2016 he was Director of the European Project WeSenseIt (14 partners, €6.5m budget) on creating citizen observatories of water. In 2006-2010 he was director of the European Integrated Project IST XMedia (15 partners, €13.6m budget) and in 2002-2005 he was director of the EU project Dot.Kom. He is part of the editorial board of the International Journal on Web Semantics.
In 2009-2012 he was the Director of Research and Innovation in the Digital World for the University of Sheffield.
In 2009 he was General Chair of the European Semantic Web Conference. He holds a PhD from the University of East Anglia and a Doctorship from the University of Torino, Italy.
- Research interests
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Focus is on knowledge and information management over large scale. The research covers 3 main areas:
- How to capture information over large scale (the Web, the Social Web, distributed organisational archives, mobile devices, drones, sensors, etc)
- How to use the captured information (eg for knowledge management, business intelligence, customer analysis, management of large scale events via social media)
- How to communicate the information (to final users, problem owners, etc)
Research areas covered are knowledge and information management, Web technologies, human computer interaction, search technologies and natural language processing.
Prof Ciravegna’s research income since 2006 tops £8.5 million, of which about 15% directly from industry (eg Rolls-Royce plc, Football Whispers, JustGiving, etc)
- Publications
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Books
Journal articles
- An indoor positioning system using Bluetooth Low Energy. IEEE Access. View this article in WRRO
- Remote home visit: Exploring the feasibility, acceptability and potential benefits of using digital technology to undertake occupational therapy home assessments. British Journal of Occupational Therapy. View this article in WRRO
- Definitive guidelines toward effective mobile devices crowdtesting methodology. International Journal of Crowd Science, 4(2), 209-228. View this article in WRRO
- Mobile Devices Compatibility Testing Strategy via Crowdsourcing. International Journal of Crowd Science, 2(3), 225-246. View this article in WRRO
- SemRe-Rank: Improving Automatic Term Extraction by Incorporating Semantic Relatedness with Personalised PageRank. ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data, 12(5). View this article in WRRO
- Harnessing Location-based Services for Effective Citizen Observatories.. International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research, 13, 101-108. View this article in WRRO
- Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing for Earth Observations: An Analysis of Stakeholder Opinions on the Present and Future. Remote Sensing, 9(1), 87-87. View this article in WRRO
- An unsupervised data-driven method to discover equivalent relations in large Linked Datasets. Semantic Web, 8(2), 197-223. View this article in WRRO
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- Distantly supervised Web relation extraction for knowledge base population. Semantic Web, 7(4), 335-349. View this article in WRRO
- Communicating with Citizens on the Ground: A Practical Study. International Journal of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, 8(2), 50-69. View this article in WRRO
- Early Steps Towards Web Scale Information Extraction with LODIE. AI Magazine, 36(1), 55-64. View this article in WRRO
- An overview of semantic search evaluation initiatives. Journal of Web Semantics, 30, 82-105. View this article in WRRO
- Affective graphs: The visual appeal of Linked Data. Semantic Web, 6(3), 277-312. View this article in WRRO
- A theory-based online health behaviour intervention for new university students (U@Uni): Results from a randomised controlled trial. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica, 563-563. View this article in WRRO
- Linked knowledge sources for topic classification of microposts: A semantic graph-based approach. Journal of Web Semantics.
- Social Influence Analysis in Microblogging Platforms - A Topic-Sensitive based Approach. Semantic Web – Interoperability, Usability, Applicability, 5(5), 357-372. View this article in WRRO
- Exploring user and system requirements of linked data visualization through a visual dashboard approach. Semantic Web – Interoperability, Usability, Applicability, 5(3), 203-220.
- Topica - Profiling locations through social streams. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 7774 LNCS, 290-305.
- Harnessing linked knowledge sources for topic classification in social media. HT 2013 - Proceedings of the 24th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media, 41-50.
- A theory-based online health behavior intervention for new university students: study protocol.. BMC Public Health, 13, 107. View this article in WRRO
- Recent advances in methods of lexical semantic relatedness - a survey. Natural Language Engineering, FirstView, 1-69.
- Ontology-based knowledge capture and sharing in enterprise organisations, 200-225.
- Highly focused document retrieval in aerospace engineering: User interaction design and evaluation. Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 63(2-3), 148-167.
- Disambiguating identity web references using Web 2.0 data and semantics. J WEB SEMANT, 8(2-3), 125-142.
- Methodology and campaign design for the evaluation of semantic search tools. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series.
- Applying semantic web technologies to knowledge sharing in aerospace engineering. J INTELL MANUF, 20(5), 611-623.
- Attributing semantics to personal photographs. MULTIMED TOOLS APPL, 42(1), 73-96.
- Integrating archaeological literature into resource discovery interfaces using natural language processing and name authority services. e-science 2009 - Proceedings of the 2009 5th IEEE International Conference on e-Science Workshops, 184-187.
- Evaluation of machine learning-based information extraction algorithms: criticisms and recommendations. LANG RESOUR EVAL, 42(4), 361-393.
- Annotating document content: a knowledge-management perspective. The Indexer: The International Journal of Indexing, 25(1), 23-27.
- Semantic annotation for knowledge management: Requirements and a survey of the state of the art. J WEB SEMANT, 4(1), 14-28.
- Large scale cross-media knowledge acquisition, sharing and reuse in X-media. IET Seminar Digest, 2005(11099), 407-408.
- Learning Pinocchio: Adaptive information extraction for real world applications. Natural Language Engineering, 10(2), 145-165.
- Full parsing approximation for information
extraction via finite-state cascades. Natural Language Engineering, 8(2-3), 145-165.
Chapters
- Crowdsourcing to enhance insights from satellite observations In Bordogna G & Carrara P (Ed.), Mobile information Systems leveraging Volunteered Geographic Information for Earth Observation (pp. 35-52). Springer View this article in WRRO
- Finding Needles in Haystacks: Data-mining in Distributed Historical Datasets, The Virtual Representation of the Past (pp. 65-79). Routledge
- Travel Mashups, Semantic Mashups (pp. 321-347). Springer Berlin Heidelberg
- Combining Diverse Knowledge Based Features for Semantic Relatedness Measures In Brena RF & Guzman-Arenas A (Ed.), Quantitative Semantics and Soft Computing Methods for the Web (pp. 96-117). IGI Global
- Extracting Semantic User Networks from Informal Communication Exchanges, The Semantic Web – ISWC 2011 (pp. 209-224). Springer Berlin Heidelberg
- Future Trends, Handbook of Semantic Web Technologies (pp. 581-618). Springer Berlin Heidelberg
- Creating and Using Organisational Semantic Webs in Large Networked Organisations, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 723-736). Springer Berlin Heidelberg
- Preface (pp. 7-7). Informa UK Limited
Conference proceedings papers
- Neural language model based training data augmentation for weakly supervised early rumor detection. ASONAM '19: Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (pp 105-112). Vancouver, Canada, 27 August 2019 - 30 August 2019. View this article in WRRO
- Active 10: Brisk Walking to Support Regular Physical Activity. Proceedings of 13th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, 20 May 2019 - 23 May 2019. View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
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- View this article in WRRO
- The Key Considerations In Building A Crowd-testing Platform For Software Developers. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Crowd Science and Engineering - ICCSE'19, 18 October 2019 - 21 October 2019.
- Hybrid Crowd-powered Approach for Compatibility Testing of Mobile Devices and Applications. ICCSE'18, 28 July 2018 - 31 July 2018. View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- Large scale, long-term, high granularity measurement of active travel using smartphones apps. Proceedings, Vol. 2(6), 26 March 2018 - 29 March 2018. View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- Lessons learned using wi-fi and Bluetooth as means to monitor public service usage. Proceedings of the 2017 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2017 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers View this article in WRRO
- Access Visits Using Video Communication. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, Vol. 242 (pp 102-110) View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
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- View this article in WRRO
- Evaluating Semantic Search Systems to Identify Future Directions of Research (pp 148-162)
- Real-Time Detection, Tracking, and Monitoring of Automatically Discovered Events in Social Media. Proceedings of 52nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics: System Demonstrations, June 2014 - June 2014.
- View this article in WRRO
- Relation Extraction from the Web Using Distant Supervision (pp 26-41)
- Mapping keywords to linked data resources for automatic query expansion. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. 7955 LNCS (pp 101-112)
- View this article in WRRO
- Evaluating Semantic Search Query Approaches with Expert and Casual Users. The Semantic Web – ISWC 2012 : Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 7650, Vol. 2 (pp 274-286). Boston (Ma), 11 November 2012 - 15 November 2012.
- Evaluating Semantic Search Query Approaches with Expert and Casual Users (pp 274-286)
- Extracting semantic user networks from informal communication exchanges. The Semantic Web - ISWC 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), Vol. LNCS 7031(PART 1) (pp 209-224). Bonn, Germany, 23 October 2011 - 27 October 2011.
- Efficient media exploitation towards Collective Intelligence. Studies in Classification, Data Analysis, and Knowledge Organization (pp 723-732)
- Collective intelligence generation from user contributed content. Studies in Classification, Data Analysis, and Knowledge Organization (pp 765-774)
- Efficient Media Exploitation Towards Collective Intelligence. ADVANCES IN DATA ANALYSIS, DATA HANDLING AND BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE (pp 723-732)
- Collective Intelligence Generation from User Contributed Content. ADVANCES IN DATA ANALYSIS, DATA HANDLING AND BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE (pp 765-774)
- Context-based Ontology Matching: Concept and Application Cases.. CIT (pp 1292-1298)
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- Mining web sites using adaptive information extraction. Proceedings of the tenth conference on European chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics - EACL '03, 12 April 2003 - 17 April 2003.
- View this article in WRRO
- Using HLT for acquiring, retrieving and publishing knowledge in AKT. Proceedings of the workshop on Human Language Technology and Knowledge Management -, 6 July 2001 - 7 July 2001.
- View this article in WRRO
Posters
- Grants
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Current grants
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University Technology Centre on Artificial Intelligence for Defence and Security, funder DSTL, 2020 - present, as PI
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The Automated Traveller II, DSTL, 2020 - 2021, as PI
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A new resource for behavioural science - Developing tools for understanding the relationship between behaviours, ESRC, 01/2021 - 12/2022, £551,316, as Co-PI
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Mobilise-D: Connecting digital mobility assessment to clinical outcomes for regulatory and clinical endorsement, EC H2020, 04/2019 - 03/2024, £1,227,496, as Co-PI
Previous grants
- The Automated Traveller, DSTL, 2019 - 2020, as PI
- Early detection of Papilloedema and Diabetic Retinopathy, Innovate UK, 11/2018 - 09/2019, £58,611, as Co-PI
- SETA: An open, sustainable, ubiquitous data and service ecosystem for efficient, effective, safe, resilient mobility in metropolitan areas, EC H2020, 02/2016 - 01/2019, £970,000, as PI
- Sustained Process Excellence through Embedding of Analytics and Knowledge Management into Process Chains, Innovate UK, 10/2014 - 03/2016, £95,350, as Co-PI
- Crowdsourcing for Observations from Satellites, European Space Agency France, 02/2015 - 03/2016, £85,360, as PI
- ReDites: Real Time, Detection, Tracking, Monitoring and Interpretation of Events in Social Media, EPSRC, 07/2013 - 07/2014, £51,398, as PI
- WeSenseIT: Citizen Observatories of Water, EC FP7, 10/2012 - 09/2016, £817,196, as PI
- Time to change! Using the transition from school to university to promote healthy lifestyle habits in young people, MRC, 04/2012 - 12/2014, £330,463, as Co-PI
- The BIG Energy Upgrade, European Regional Development Fund, 07/2010 - 03/2014, £865,090, as Co-PI
- Siloet, Rolls Royce PLC, 03/2010 - 12/2013, £140,000, as PI
- Samulet, Rolls Royce PLC, 11/2009 - 12/2013, £100,000, as PI
- TRIDS: Tracking Real-time Intelligence in Data Streams, Innovate UK, 07/2011 - 12/2011, £49,184, as PI
- SEALS: Semantic Evaluation At Large Scale, EC FP7, 06/2009 - 06/2012, £251,236, as PI
- SmartProducts: Proactive Knowledge for Smart Products, EC FP7, 02/2009 - 01/2012, £554,594, as PI
- Rolls Royce, Rolls Royce PLC, 10/2008 - 06/2009, £91,349, as PI
- weKnowIt: Emerging, Collective Intelligence for personal, organisational and social use, EUROPEAN COMMISSION - FP6/FP7, 04/2008 - 03/2011, £607,521, as PI
- Archaeotools: Data mining, facetted classification and E-archaeology, University of York, 09/2007 - 08/2009, £146,591, as PI
- MultiMATCH: Multilingual/Multimedia Access to Cultural Heritage, EC FP7, 05/2006 - 10/2008, £237,101, as Co-PI
- ARMADILLO: Information Mining in Distributive Research Datasets in the Arts and Humanities, AHRC (AHRC), 10/2005 - 10/2007, £35,856, as PI
- X-Media: Knowledge Sharing and Reuse Across Media, EC FP7, 03/2006 - 02/2010, £1,431,822, as PI
- IPAS: Integrated Products and Services, Department of Trade and Industry, 04/2005 - 09/2008, £222,225, as PI
- Collaboration with Environmental Agency, Environment Agency, 04/2005 - 05/2006, £20,000, as PI
- Abraxas: Automating Ontology Learning for the Semantic Web, EPSRC, 10/2004 - 01/2007, £164,614, as Co-PI
- Dot.Kom: Designing adaptive infOrmation exTraction from text for KnOwledge Management, EC FP6, 10/2002 - 03/2005, £447,455, as PI
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- Professional activities
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- Head of the Organisations, Information and Knowledge research group
- Academic Director of University Technology Centre on Artificial Intelligence for Defence and Security
Recent projects for the University Technology Centre:
- 2019-2020 The Automated Traveller, funder Defence Science and Technology Lab, undisclosed amount
- 2020-2021 The Automated Traveller II, funder Defence Science and Technology Lab, undisclosed amount
- 2020-present University Technology Centre on Artificial Intelligence for Defence and Security, funder Defence Science and Technology Lab, undisclosed amount
Fabio Ciravegna has created three spin-out companies. He is:
- Co-founder, CEO and Director of Aeqora Ltd, a University of Sheffield spin-off Company providing mobility services
- Co-founder and Director of K-Now Technologies Ltd, a University of Sheffield spin-off company
- Co-founder and Scientific Advisor to The Floow, a company providing telematics motor insurance solutions