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Academic curriculum vitae

Francesco Pagano

Postdoctoral Research Fellow · AI for Software Engineering & Security

pagano.francesco96@hotmail.comVerona, Italy
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Francesco Pagano

Research profile

Researcher working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, software engineering and cybersecurity. I develop reproducible methods for automated testing, program analysis and assurance of mobile, IoT and connected software systems, with experience spanning firmware emulation, mobile application analysis, reinforcement learning, privacy-preserving systems, device attestation and industrial cybersecurity risk assessment

Academic experience

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

University of Verona

Apr 2025 to present

AI for software engineering and assurance, including the MITHRAS Mobile-IoT analysis infrastructure, multi-agent reinforcement-learning test generation, trace-grounded repair validation and NEUROPULS security protocols for IoT-device attestation and integrity verification

Research Fellow · CsecLab

University of Genoa

Jan to Oct 2021

Designed and implemented blockchain components for the BIAS platform, including IPFS infrastructure, Solidity smart contracts and platform integration

Education & mobility

PhD in Computer Engineering

University of Genoa · Security, Risk, and Vulnerability · Cybersecurity and Reliable AI curriculum

2021 to 2025

Thesis: Dealing with Security and Privacy Challenges in Android Through App Code Analysis. Supervisors: Alessio Merlo, Mariano Ceccato, and Paolo Tonella. External reviewers and committee members: Steven Arzt, Riccardo Scandariato, and Thorsten Holz.

Thesis recordDefence slides

Visiting PhD Student

Software Institute, Università della Svizzera italiana

2023 to 2024

Six-month research visit in Lugano with Paolo Tonella

MSc in Computer Engineering

University of Genoa · 110/110 cum laude

2018 to 2020

Software and Computing Platforms curriculum. Thesis on app-level runtime data anonymisation for Android

BSc in Computer Engineering

University of Genoa

2015 to 2018

Selected publications

  1. 2026 · JSSMulti-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for Penetration Testing of IoT Devices Through Their Mobile Companion App. Pagano, Ceccato, Merlo, Tonella DOI
  2. 2026 · arXivObfuscating Code Vulnerabilities Against Static Analysis in JavaScript Code. Pagano, Pisu, Regano, Maiorca, Merlo, Giacinto arXiv
  3. 2025 · FSE CompanionMITHRAS: A Dynamic Analysis Framework for the Mobile-IoT Ecosystem. Pagano, Ceccato, Merlo, Tonella DOI
  4. 2025 · EuroS&PWThe OWApp Benchmark: An OWASP-Compliant Vulnerable Android App Dataset. Ferrari, Pagano, Verderame, Merlo DOI
  5. 2025 · Information SciencesA Data Anonymization Methodology for Security Operations Centers. Longo, Lupia, Merlo, Pagano, Russo DOI
  6. 2025 · Computers & Electrical EngineeringMarvelHideDroid: Reliable on-the-fly Data Anonymization Based on Android Virtualization. Pagano, Verderame, Russo, Merlo DOI
  7. 2024 · IFIP SECObfuscating Code Vulnerabilities Against Static Analysis in Android Apps. Pagano, Verderame, Merlo DOI
  8. 2023 · SoftwareXSEBASTiAn: A Static and Extensible Black-box Application Security Testing Tool for iOS and Android Applications. Pagano et al. DOI
  9. 2023 · MobiSecVirtualHideDroid: User Data Anonymization Through Virtualization Techniques. Pagano, Ruggia, Verderame, Merlo
  10. 2022 · IEEE TDSCYou Can’t Always Get What You Want: Towards User-Controlled Privacy on Android. Caputo, Pagano, Bottino, Verderame, Merlo DOI
  11. 2021 · JoWUAUnderstanding Fuchsia Security. Pagano, Verderame, Merlo DOI

Teaching & supervision

Course Lecturer · Informatics and Multimedia Production

University of Verona

2024/25

Co-taught a 12-credit master’s course with lectures, laboratory work and a final integrated multimedia application

Teaching Assistant

University of Genoa

2021 to 2025

Practical teaching in Data Protection & Privacy and Mobile Programming

Thesis Co-Advisor

Universities of Verona and Genoa

2021 to present

Master’s and bachelor’s projects in IoT attestation, PUFs, mobile privacy, Android virtualisation and mobile development

Professional experience

Cybersecurity Risk Assessment Consultant

SIPRO S.r.l. · Collaboration with the University of Verona

Jun to Jul 2026

Assessed industrial automation products and infrastructure against cybersecurity requirements, with a focus on product security, compliance gaps and the EU Cyber Resilience Act

Dec 2020 to present

Plays for the University of Genoa’s official CTF team in high-level Jeopardy and Attack/Defense competitions

Software Engineering Intern

Untold Games, Genoa

Mar to Nov 2019

Built an automatic city-plan generator for a video game, working with former Uber AI Labs researchers on the Birch probabilistic programming language

Training & competitions

CyberChallenge

Genoa, Italy

Mar to Nov 2020

National cybersecurity training programme; selected among the six students representing the University of Genoa in the national Attack/Defense CTF final

ZenHackAdemy

Genoa, Italy

Sep to Dec 2018

Cybersecurity seminars in web security, networking and binary analysis, preparing for the Boeing CTF 2018

Public web edition · Personal phone number, private reference contacts and non-public manuscripts are intentionally omitted