Tommaso Calò
Postdoctoral Researcher — HCI + AI
My research bridges Human–Computer Interaction and Artificial Intelligence to make the creation of interactive systems accessible to everyone. I work on end-user development and the generation of user interfaces, building authoring environments — sketch-to-code systems, visual programming tools, multimodal design tools, and AI-powered educational interfaces — that let people specify, inspect, and refine software without having to write it. My current focus is on generative user interfaces: how designers actually work with them, and how to make what these systems produce observable, accountable, and controllable.
Education
Nov. 2021 — Jul. 2025
Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Advisor:
Luigi De Russis, Co-advisor:
Sep. 2019 — Oct. 2021
M.Sc. in Data Science & Engineering
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Advisor:
Luca Cagliero, Co-advisor:
Jacopo Fior
Sep. 2015 — Mar. 2019
B.Sc. in Management Engineering
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Advisor:
Employment & Research Affiliations
Mar. 2026 — Present
IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Postdoctoral Researcher
Research on design practices for generative user interfaces and on methods for improving generative UI systems.
Mar. 2026 — Present
Pioneer Centre for AI, Copenhagen, Denmark
Affiliated Researcher
Affiliated researcher at the Danish National Research Foundation flagship AI research centre.
Jul. 2025 — Feb. 2026
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Postdoctoral Researcher, e-Lite Research Group
Research on AI-assisted co-creation of interactive systems.
Feb. 2024 — Jul. 2024
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
Visiting Scholar, Teachable AI Lab
Mentor:
Christopher MacLellan
Research on human-like learning in AI systems and on educator-driven authoring of intelligent tutoring systems.
Selected Research Projects
Nov. 2024 — Feb. 2026
AccessCoVE
European Commission, Turin, Italy
Led the definition of AI-supported educational frameworks for inclusive participation.
Feb. 2024 — Jul. 2024
AI-ALOE
Contributed to the development of cognitive AI assistants for adult learning at Georgia Tech.
Honors, Awards & Funding
2026
Outstanding Reviewer Recognition — ACM DIS
Recognized as an outstanding reviewer at the ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems
2025
European Commission Seal of Excellence
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships 2025, for the project GENUIS (score 94.60/100)
2025
Best Late-Breaking Result Award — ACM EICS
ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems, for "Bridging Web and Figma" (Russo, Calò, De Russis), as co-supervisor and ideator
2025
CINECA ISCRA-C Computational Grants (×3)
Peer-reviewed competitive allocations from the Italian national supercomputing consortium, ~192,000 GPU-hours in total
2025
Postdoctoral Fellowship (×2)
Merit-based postdoctoral research fellowships at Politecnico di Torino
2021
PhD Scholarship
Merit-based PhD scholarship at Politecnico di Torino (2021 — 2025)
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
Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26) (CHI EA). Barcelona, Spain, 2026.
Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26) (CHI EA). Barcelona, Spain, 2026.
Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26) (CHI EA). Barcelona, Spain, 2026.
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS). 2026.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACM HCI) (PACM EICS). Online + Trier, Germany, 2025.
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). Yokohama, Japan, 2025.
International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI). Cagliari, Italy, 2025.
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (PUC). 2024.
Journal
J3
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS). 2026.
J2
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACM HCI) (PACM EICS). Online + Trier, Germany, 2025.
J1
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing (PUC). 2024.
Conference
C12
ACM Conference on Learning at Scale (L@S). Palermo, Italy, 2025.
C11
International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED). Stockholm, Sweden, 2025.
C10
ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems (Companion) (EICS Companion). Trier, Germany, 2025.
C9
International Symposium on End-User Development (IS-EUD). Cagliari, Italy, 2025.
C8
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). Yokohama, Japan, 2025.
C7
International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI). Cagliari, Italy, 2025.
C6
ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale (L@S). Atlanta, GA, 2024.
C5
Doctoral Consortium at the Biannual Conference of the Italian SIGCHI Chapter (CHItaly) (CHItaly DC). Turin, Italy, 2023.
C4
ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems (EICS). Swansea, United Kingdom, 2023.
C3
International Symposium on End User Development (IS-EUD). Cagliari, Italy, 2023.
C2
European Conference on Advances in Databases and Information Systems (ADBIS). Turin, Italy, 2022.
C1
Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing System (EICS). Sophia Antipolis, France, 2022.
Extended Abstract
EA4
Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26) (CHI EA). Barcelona, Spain, 2026.
EA3
Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26) (CHI EA). Barcelona, Spain, 2026.
EA2
Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26) (CHI EA). Barcelona, Spain, 2026.
EA1
Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '26) (CHI EA). Barcelona, Spain, 2026.
Workshop
W1
International Workshop on Programming Abstractions and Interactive Notations, Tools, and Environments. (PAINT). Auckland, New Zealand, 2022.
Doctoral Dissertation
Ph.D. Dissertation, Politecnico di Torino. Turin, Italy, 2025.
Invited Talks
May 2026
You Can’t Always Get What You (Prompt): From Specification to Observation in Generative Interfaces
Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e)
Invited by
May 2026
Who Pays for the Free Lunch in Generative UI?
IT University of Copenhagen, Lunch Seminar
Feb. 2026
You Can’t Always Get What You (Prompt): From Specification to Observation in Generative Interfaces
Microsoft Research
Invited by
Nov. 2025
Human-Centered AI
University of Bologna
Invited by
Jul. 2024
End-User Development for User Interfaces
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, CS 568 — AI in Adaptive Educational Technology
Invited by
Teaching
Dec. 2025 — Feb. 2026
MOOC “Human-AI Interaction” — Author and Instructor
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Designed and instructed a public Massive Open Online Course on Human-AI Interaction, funded by the EU Digital Education Hub.
Jan. 2026 — Feb. 2026
Database — Contract Professor
University of Eastern Piedmont, Vercelli, Italy
Lectured on SQL and relational design.
Jan. 2026 — Feb. 2026
Human-AI Interaction — Co-Instructor
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Lectured on generative AI and UI design patterns to Ph.D. candidates.
Sep. 2025 — Jan. 2026
Challenge@PoliTo by Reply — Project Mentor
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Mentored student teams on agentic solutions for industrial challenges proposed by Reply, in collaboration with the company.
Sep. 2023 — Feb. 2026
Python Programming for Aerospace — Lead Instructor
ITS Foundation, Turin, Italy
Designed and taught the full Python curriculum to vocational students in the Mechatronics track.
Sep. 2022 — Feb. 2026
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Human Computer Interaction (02JSK),
Instructor:
Luigi De Russis
Guided Computer Engineering students through the full design cycle each year, from user research to AI-driven prototyping.
Feb. 2023 — Jul. 2023
Politecnico Di Torino, Turin, Italy
Image Processing and Computer Vision (01TUJOV),
Instructor:
Led 12 hands-on laboratory sessions on image feature extraction, optics, and deep learning methods.
Supervision & Mentoring
2025 — Present
Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, Politecnico Di Torino
Co-supervised with Prof. Luigi De Russis.
2025
M.Sc. in Computer Engineering, Politecnico Di Torino
CAT-AI: An LLM-Based System for Creating Customized Didactical Exercises
2025
M.Sc. in Computer Engineering, Politecnico Di Torino
Automatic Generation of Custom Web Prototypes from Sketches
Fall 2024
M.Sc. in Computer Engineering, Politecnico Di Torino
Generation of Tailored Graphical User Interfaces via Artificial Intelligence
Fall 2024
M.Sc. in Computer Engineering, Politecnico Di Torino
GUI Representation Learning for Downstream Real-World Applications
Fall 2024
M.Sc. in Computer Engineering, Politecnico Di Torino
DeepBlocks: Visually Constructing, Debugging and Training Deep Neural Networks
Fall 2024
M.Sc. in Computer Engineering, Politecnico Di Torino
Web UI Code Generation: A Transformer-Based Model Applied to Real-World Screenshots
Spring 2024
M.Sc. in Computer Engineering, Politecnico Di Torino
Large Language Models for Ambiguity Detection and Resolution in Smart Homes
Service
Editorial & Judging Roles
Associate Chair, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems — Late-Breaking Work
(CHI)
2025
Associate Chair, ACM Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces
(IUI)
2026
Associate Chair, ACM International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces
(AVI)
2026
Senior Program Committee, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems — Late-Breaking Work
(CHI)
2025
Senior Program Committee, ACM Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces
(IUI)
2026
Organizer
Tutorials Chair, ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces
(ISS)
2026
Social Media Chair, European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
(ECSCW)
2024
Social Media Chair, ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems
(EICS)
2024
Reviewer
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
(CHI)
ACM Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces
(IUI)
ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems
(EICS)
International Symposium on End-User Development
(IS-EUD)
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
(PACM-HCI)
ACM Conference on Learning at Scale
(L@S)
ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems
(DIS)
Member
2021 — Present
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
2021 — Present
ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI)
Certifications & Languages
TOEFL iBT: 98/120 (C1 Level)
Italian: Native
English: Fluent (C1)
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