41° cycle

RESEARCH PROJECT TITLE: Multi-chain Architecture for the Separation of Power in Legislative Context

Design and development of a blockchain-based architecture to support the legislative process, leveraging the properties of blockchain technology to enhance efficiency while respecting fundamental democratic principles.

Supervisors: Stefano Ferretti, UNIBO

Institution involved in the co-tutelle: in progress

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/arianna.arruzzoli2

RESEARCH PROJECT TITLE: Data Analytics and AI for supporting legislative assistance at WIPO: a neuro-symbolic approach

My research focuses on explainable AI for legal texts, following a usefulness-first approach that prioritizes practical applicability in real legislative settings. I develop and evaluate neuro-symbolic methods to support legislative assistance, with a particular focus on transparency, interpretability, and human-in-the-loop interaction. With a background in applied statistics from the University of Göttingen, I work at the intersection of statistics and legal reasoning.

Supervisors: Monica Palmirani, UNIBO

Institutions involved in the co-tutelle: in progress

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/johnfrederic.brune/

RESEARCH PROJECT TITLE: Agentic AI Governance towards Trustworthy Human-AI and AI-AI Interactions: Ethical Principles, Legal Requirements, and Socio-technical Standards in the Age of Augmented Algorithmic Agency

The PhD research titled "Agentic AI Governance towards Trustworthy Human-AI and AI-AI Interactions" examines the efficacity of existing ethical principles, EU legal requirements, and socio-technical standards in enabling accurate, transparent, explainable, and supervised Human-AI and AI-AI Interactions in the age of augmented algorithmic agency. This interdisciplinary research, merging philosophical, legal, and socio-technical perspectives, aims first to define the way the levels of algorithmic specialisation, autonomy, authority, memory, and predictability impact the trustworthiness of Human-AI and AI-AI interactions across diverse environments. The research would also provide an evaluated framework encompassing ethical standards, legal recommendations, and socio-technical standards to enhance the trustworthiness of Human-AI and AI-AI interactions in the development and deployment of systems with augmented algorithmic agency.    

Supervisors: Antonino Rotolo, UNIBO and Massimo Durante, UNITO

Institutions involved in the co-tutelle: in progress

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/imane.hmiddou2/en

RESEARCH PROJECT TITLE: Formalizing EU normative legislation by leveraging FrameNet and frame semantics

Célestine Lecat is a PhD student in Law, Science and Technology (LAST-JD), 41° cycle. Her research project is titled "Formalizing EU normative legislation by leveraging FrameNet and frame semantics", and is conducted under the supervision of Professor Monica Palmirani (University of Bologna). As part of the HARNESS initiative, an international doctoral network lead by the European Union, her research project aims to create a formalization method for EU normative legislation by adapting and expanding the FrameNet data set for this purpose, with the broader goal of providing a semantic formalization method compatible with AI systems used in legal knowledge management.

Supervisor: Monica Palmirani, UNIBO

Institutions involved in the co-tutelle: Universidad Politécnica Madrid (UPM)

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/celestine.lecat2

RESEARCH PROJECT TITLE: Bargaining over the algorithm: artificial intelligence from the perspective of labour protection.

Research focused on the consequences of the implementation of AI and ADM systems within employment relationships, in particular it analyses the role of EU legal frameworks and collective bargaining as an effective regulatory tool capable of restoring balance in the power asymmetry between employers and workers in algorithmic management. 

Supervisors: Andrea Lassandari, UNIBO and Luca Ratti, UNILU

Institutions involved in the co-tutelle: in progress.

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/francesco.lopes4/

RESEARCH PROJECT TITLE: AI FOR CLASSIFICATION AND EXPLANATION OF DATA PROTECTION VIOLATION - AI-Powered Insights into GDPR Non-Compliance Privacy Policy

The research is driven by the widening information asymmetry between digital service providers and consumers, exacerbated by the opaque processing of personal data through advanced AI. This asymmetry undermines the effective exercise of data protection rights as well as trust in digital services. Therefore, legal safeguards must be supported by the counterbalancing power of civil society. this research aims to explore how AI can be used to assess and explain GDPR violations, as well as to suggest PPs improvements. It integrates normative analyses with computational approaches to evaluate the capacity of AI to identify and classify relevant legal content. Furthermore, it seeks to make the output of such systems interpretable to end-users.

Supervisors: Francesca Lagioia, UNIBO

Institutions involved in the co-tutelle: in progress

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/mariaceleste.musicco

RESEARCH PROJECT TITLE: Establishing effective human oversight: towards a standardized framework under the AI Act

The research deals with the development of AI standards and it specifically focuses on the standardization of the first sharp worded requirement for human oversight of AI systems under EU law, established by the AI Act. In particular the research explores the most relevant theoretical, legal and practical implications that this requirement raises while also examining the strategic role played by standards and the process of standardization in shaping the requirements for high-risk AI systems.  

Supervisors: Massimo Durante and Ugo Pagallo, UNITO

Institutions involved in the co-tutelle: in progress 

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/elisa.puntil2 

RESEARCH PROJECT TITLE: Urban Digital Twins: experimental environments for testing an intersectional human rights’ risk assessment model for AI systems

The research aims to develop an intersectional semi-quantitative risk assessment methodology. It explores how factors such as vulnerability, exposure and risk interactions can be analysed through intersectional matrices and evaluated via proportionality tests, relying on the case-study of Urban Digital Twins, particularly Bologna’s civic-oriented model.

Supervisors: Antonino Rotolo, UNIBO

Institutions involved in the co-tutelle: in progress

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/giulia.sudano2/

RESEARCH PROJECT TITLE: Liability for the Use of Medical AI in Diagnostics and Treatment: a comparative research of the US, the EU, and China

This research project focuses on liability challenges arising from the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into medical diagnosis and treatment. It will analyze the ethical implications of AI-assisted medical diagnosis and treatment from a patient-centered perspective. Building on this, the research conducts a comparative analysis of regulatory and liability frameworks for medical AI in the United States, China, and the European Union. It then explores how current legal systems respond to medical harm resulting from AI-assisted diagnosis and treatment.
Supervisors: Silvia Zullo, UNIBO

Institutions involved in the co-tutelle: in progress

https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/yan.zhou2