Tommaso Calò

Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence (HCI + AI)

My research aims to democratize advanced AI tools by bridging Human–Computer Interaction, visual programming, and program synthesis. I develop intuitive authoring environments, including sketch-to-code systems, multimodal design tools, and AI-powered educational interfaces, enabling non-experts to harness complex technologies effortlessly. My ongoing goal is to create adaptive, transparent AI interactions that empower users, fostering widespread computational creativity and narrowing the digital divide.

Education

Nov. 2021 — Nov. 2024
Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Thesis: Lowering Barriers: AI-Driven Techniques for End-User Software Creation
Advisor: Luigi De Russis, Co-advisor: Fulvio Corno
Sep. 2019 — Oct. 2021
M.S. in Data Science & Engineering
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Thesis: Financial Time Series Summarization
Advisor: Luca Cagliero, Co-advisor: Jacopo Fior
Thesis
Sep. 2015 — Mar. 2019
B.S. in Engineering Management
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy

Professional Experience

Visiting Scholar (Feb 2024 — Jul 2024)
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA

Python Programming Instructor (Sep 2023 — Dec 2023)
ITS Foundation, Turin, Italy

Teaching Assistant - Computer Vision (Feb 2023 — Jul 2023)
Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy

Teaching Assistant - Human Computer Interaction (Sep 2022 — Present)
Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy

Honors and Awards

2025
Top 5% Finisher - Ibiza Half Marathon
Finished in the top 5% of participants in the Ibiza Half Marathon
2024
3rd Place - Winter Sailing Championship
Third place finish in the Winter Sailing Championship
2021
PhD Scholarship
Three-year merit-based PhD scholarship at Politecnico di Torino
2020
PwC Cybersecurity Challenge
First place in the PwC Cybersecurity Challenge
2019
FSAE Italy Electric Category
First place in the electric vehicle category at the Formula SAE Italy competition with the PoliTo racing team
2015
Top 10 - High School Mathematics Competition
Finished in the top 10 of the High School Mathematics Competition
2014
Exchange Student Recognition
Ranked in Top 5% in Mathematics at Sydney High School during exchange program

Publications

Selected: Latest & Greatest

Investigating How Computer Science Researchers Design Their Co-Writing Experiences With AI
Alberto Monge Roffarello, Tommaso Calò, Luca Scibetta, Luigi De Russis
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). Yokohama, Japan, 2025.
Project PDF BibTeX DOI
DeepFlow: A Flow-Based Visual Programming Tool for Deep Learning Development
Tommaso Calò, Luigi De Russis
International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI). Cagliari, Italy, 2025.
Project PDF BibTeX DOI
Enhancing smart home interaction through multimodal command disambiguation
Tommaso Calò, Luigi De Russis
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (PUC). 2024.
Project PDF BibTeX DOI

Tech Report

Journal

J1
Enhancing smart home interaction through multimodal command disambiguation
Tommaso Calò, Luigi De Russis
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (PUC). 2024.
Project PDF BibTeX DOI

Conference

C7
Investigating How Computer Science Researchers Design Their Co-Writing Experiences With AI
Alberto Monge Roffarello, Tommaso Calò, Luca Scibetta, Luigi De Russis
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). Yokohama, Japan, 2025.
Project PDF BibTeX DOI
C6
DeepFlow: A Flow-Based Visual Programming Tool for Deep Learning Development
Tommaso Calò, Luigi De Russis
International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI). Cagliari, Italy, 2025.
Project PDF BibTeX DOI
C5
Towards Educator-Driven Tutor Authoring: Generative AI Approaches for Creating Intelligent Tutor Interfaces
Tommaso Calò, Christopher MacLellan
ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale (L@S). Atlanta, GA, 2024.
Project PDF BibTeX DOI
C4
Towards A Visual Programming Tool to Create Deep Learning Models
Tommaso Calò, Luigi De Russis
ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems (EICS). Swansea, United Kingdom, 2023.
Project PDF BibTeX DOI
C3
Leveraging Large Language Models for End-User Website Generation
Tommaso Calò, Luigi De Russis
International Symposium on End User Development (IS-EUD). Cagliari, Italy, 2023.
Project PDF BibTeX DOI
C2
Generating Comparative Explanations of Financial Time Series
Tommaso Calò, Luca Cagliero, Jacopo Fior
European Conference on Advances in Databases and Information Systems (ADBIS). Turin, Italy, 2022.
Project PDF BibTeX DOI
C1
Style-Aware Sketch-to-Code Conversion for the Web
Tommaso Calò, Luigi De Russis
Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing System (EICS). Sophia Antipolis, France, 2022.
Project PDF BibTeX DOI

Preprint

Workshop

W1
Creating Dynamic Prototypes from Web Page Sketches
Tommaso Calò, Luigi De Russis
International Workshop on Programming Abstractions and Interactive Notations, Tools, and Environments. (PAINT). Auckland, New Zealand, 2022.
Project PDF BibTeX DOI

Poster

Demo

Miscellaneous

Teaching

Fall 2023
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Human Computer Interaction (02JSK), Instructor: Luigi De Russis
Mentored student team projects for Human Computer Interaction (02JSK), an Master's-level course with 119 students enrolled.
Spring 2023
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Image Processing and Computer vision (01TUJOV), Instructor: Bartolomeo Montrucchio
Mentored laboratory sessions for 'Image Processing and Computer Vision', a Master's-level course with 119 enrolled students.
Fall 2023
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Human Computer Interaction (02JSK), Instructor: Luigi De Russis
Mentored student team projects for Human Computer Interaction (02JSK), an MS course with 119 students enrolled.
Fall 2023
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Human Computer Interaction (02JSK), Instructor: Luigi De Russis
Mentored student team projects for Human Computer Interaction (02JSK), an MS course with 134 students enrolled.

Mentoring

Fall 2024
Andrea Silano
MS.C. in Computer Science, Politecnico Di Torino
Fall 2024
Francesca Russo
MS.C. in Computer Science, Politecnico Di Torino
Fall 2024
Filippo Castellarin
MS.C. in Computer Science, Politecnico Di Torino
Spring 2024
Ivan Dario Contreras Perez
MS.C. in Computer Science, Politecnico Di Torino
Large Language Models for Ambiguity Detection and Resolution in Smart Homes
Fall 2024
Giuseppe Salvi
MS.C. in Computer Science, Politecnico Di Torino
Web UI code generation: a transformer-based model applied to real-world screenshots

Certifications & Languages

TOEFL iBT: 98/120 (C1 Level)
Italian: Native
English: Fluent (C1)

Service

Organizer
ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems (EICS) 2024
Reviewer
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2024, 2023, 2022
Member
2021 — Present
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

References

Dr. Luigi De Russis, Associate Professor
Department of Computer Engineering and Automation
Politecnico Di Torino
Dr. Christopher MacLellan, Assistant Professor
School of Interactive Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology