Manuel De Stefano

Manuel De Stefano, PhD

AI & Data Engineer

I have worked at CINECA since 2023, first as a data engineer and now as an AI engineer.

My PhD in empirical software engineering trained me as a researcher: I collect data, analyse it with statistical methods and draw verifiable conclusions. Today I apply the same method to validate the correctness of AI tools, with metrics and systematic tests, including in high-sensitivity applications.

My career, year by year
PhD · Salerno Nov 2020 – Mar 2024 Data Engineer · CINECA Sep 2023 – Mar 2025 AI Software Engineer · CINECA Mar 2025 – present

Experience

AI Software Engineer

CINECA, Rome

Mar 2025 – present

  • I helped build an infrastructure to run RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) chatbots for several universities, on Azure OpenAI.
  • I extended the chatbots from simple assistants into tools integrated with the management systems CINECA provides to universities.
  • I built automation tools to handle support requests (tickets).
  • I built an internal tool to collect and define functional requirements in a structured format, for analysts, requirement managers and product owners.
  • I run the systematic evaluation (evals) of AI tools: I define metrics and tests to measure their correctness and reliability.

Technologies: Vercel AI SDKPythonLangChainOpenAI SDKAzure OpenAI

Data Engineer

CINECA, Rome

Sep 2023 – Mar 2025

  • I helped build the new data platform on Microsoft Azure for university data.
  • I migrated the data loading and transformation pipelines (ETL) to Azure Data Factory and Databricks.
  • I worked closely with the analyst team, who used the platform for data warehousing and analysis.

Technologies: Microsoft AzureAzure Data FactoryDatabricksSQLPython

PhD Candidate in Computer Science

University of Salerno

Nov 2020 – Mar 2024

  • Research in empirical software engineering, focused on software for quantum computers.
  • I ran large-scale studies: mining data from GitHub repositories, statistical analysis, qualitative classification.
  • I published and presented work at international journals and conferences. The list is on Google Scholar.

Education

PhD in Computer Science

University of Salerno

2020 – 2024

MSc in Computer Science

University of Salerno

2018 – 2020

110/110 cum laude

Skills

Quantitative analysis
  • Statistical analysis
  • Empirical studies
  • Survey design
  • Metric definition
  • Systematic evaluation
Artificial intelligence
  • Azure OpenAI
  • Vercel AI SDK
  • LangChain
  • OpenAI SDK
  • AI system evaluation (evals)
Data and cloud
  • Python
  • SQL
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Azure Data Factory
  • Databricks
  • ETL
  • Docker
  • Git
Transferable
  • Research and development
  • Technical writing
  • Conference talks
  • Working with analyst teams

Languages

Italian
Native
English
C1Exam taken during the PhD