milena – Sony CSL – Rome

Sony CSL – Rome at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale

milena — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 15:32:35 +0000

We are thrilled to share that Sony CSL – Rome has been invited to present their work at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2025, as part of the exhibition Lighter within the general framework of the triennale dedicated to the inspiring question: How Heavy is a City?

The installation, titled The Weight of Urban Inequalities, reflects on the invisible forces shaping how we move, live, and breathe within urban spaces.

The installation was curated by Vittorio Loreto, Milena Di Canio, and Matteo Bruno, who collaborated closely to transform scientific insights into a story and a visual experience. Drawing on research developed at Sony CSL – Rome, the work translates complex data about accessibility and inequality into a sensory representation of the “weight” each citizen carries in navigating the city.

Living in a city carries its own weight. Moving around to reach our points of interest or essential places carries weight, meant as effort, burden. Going for a run in the park, meeting people, having a coffee, visiting an exhibition, taking care of our health, feeling accepted by the community, and spending our time; everything carries weight in the city. And a city’s weight becomes heavier the more unequal its access to opportunities is.
Inequalities in accessing and enjoying housing solutions, infrastructures, efficient transport, green areas, hospitals, recreational centres, and much more often become obstacles to the growth of cities and the people who inhabit them. Many are forced to leave, or else live under conditions of social segregation.
This is why “What if?” becomes the guiding question of our research when applied to urban contexts. We begin by observing a city’s state-of-the-art and formulating, first within ourselves, a triggering question: “What if people could have equal access to the countless opportunities a city can offer? And if not fully equal, then at least more balanced?” From there, we project this question outward, turning it into a scientific objective: to imagine (and propose) possible future scenarios in which everyone is more and more released from this weight, aiming for a more equal and sustainable life, where the words LIVING, MOVING, BREATHING stand as fundamental pillars.

The piece emerges from “What if Machines”, which are computational systems designed to analyse future scenarios through the lens of complexity theory, based on mathematics and laws of physics. They represent our method for predicting dynamic outcomes, managing intricate patterns, and adapting to evolving variables. These systems foresee potential developments by processing vast datasets, making informed decisions more achievable. Their predictive power reshapes how we navigate uncertainty and complexity. These systems help us imagine and test more equitable futures by asking a simple but powerful question: What if everyone could access the city’s opportunities equally?

Presented at the Triennale, The Weight of Urban Inequalities invites visitors to reflect on the unseen burdens embedded in urban life, and on the collective possibility of making cities lighter, fairer, and more livable for all. The exhibition, curated by John Palmesino and Ann-Sofi Rönnskog of Territorial Agency, can be visited at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture of Lisbon until January 2026.

Surfing the waves of human complexity

milena — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 12:47:25 +0000

Summer at Sony CSL – Rome brought about significant developments across the lab’s main research areas, which centre on studying Complex Systems and their application to various aspects of human life. Sony CSL – Rome functions as a scientific ecosystem where curiosity and interdisciplinary research are continuously linked to real-world impact. The organisation examines numerous perspectives, including urban organisation, equitable access to resources and opportunities, and how creativity can enhance interactions with emerging technologies. Additionally, it aims to understand which innovations are likely to have the most substantial influence on our future, prompting us to reflect on the role we should play as human beings. This collaborative effort, bolstered by partnerships with the Enrico Fermi Research Centre and Sapienza University of Rome, has led to a growing number of publications in leading scientific journals. These publications provide valuable insights into how complexity shapes various aspects of human endeavours.

Cities
The paper Revealing the core-periphery structure of cities (Federica Fanelli, Hygor Melo, Matteo Bruno, Vittorio Loreto) applies concepts from statistical physics to urban systems, showing how amenities cluster into cores, intermediate zones, and peripheries. This framework highlights how accessibility and inequality are embedded in the spatial organization of cities.

Complementing this, Introducing Friction of Space into the Geography of Cultural Consumption (Lorenzo Biferale, Alessandro Crociata Lavinia Rossi Mori, Claudio Chiappetta, Matteo Bruno) uses GPS mobility data to study how proximity to cultural amenities shapes cultural consumption, revealing persistent spatial inequalities in access and participation.

Finally, Road-Width-Aware Network Optimisation for Bike Lane Planning (Riccardo Basilone, Matteo Bruno, Hygor Piaget Monteiro Melo, Michele Avalle, Vittorio Loreto) introduces a new framework for planning cycling infrastructure by integrating road width data into network simulations. Focusing on Milan, the study shows how protected bike lanes can be optimised to balance connectivity for cyclists with minimal disruption to car traffic. The results demonstrate that extensive, realistic cycling networks can be created with limited impact on existing roads, providing urban planners with flexible strategies for the transition to sustainable mobility.

Human Creativity and AI
Two papers present new methods to expand AI’s creative potential. Dreaming Learning (Alessandro Londei, Matteo Benati, Denise Lanzieri, Vittorio Loreto) introduces an approach that allows machines to internally explore new ideas while remaining consistent with prior knowledge. This enables the development of less conservative and more adaptive solutions.

The second paper, Lyapunov Learning at the Onset of Chaos (Alessandro Londei, Denise Lanzieri, Matteo Benati, Vittorio Loreto), builds on this concept by leveraging the system’s own complex dynamics. This method pushes AI close to instability, paradoxically enhancing its ability to handle novel situations and creative challenges.

Economy and Technological Innovation
The study Comparative analysis of technological fitness and coherence at different geographical scales (Matteo Straccamore, Matteo Bruno, Andrea Tacchella) shows that the effects of technological specialisation and diversification on economic growth vary depending on the territorial scale. While specialisation benefits metropolitan areas, it hinders growth at larger scales, whereas diversification enhances national and metropolitan performance but not regional growth. These findings emphasise the importance of tailoring innovation policies to geographical contexts.

Exploring the Origins of Novelty
The paper Modelling singularities in macroevolution (Alessandro Bellina, Giordano De Marzo, Vittorio Loreto) develops mathematical models based on the Theory of the Adjacent Possible, which explain sudden explosive growth in systems like population, technology, and biological evolution. The results suggest that apparent singularities are not actual infinities, but signs of deep transitions where new combinations of existing elements open unforeseen trajectories of change. Another published paper on the same topic from the same authors here: Full spectrum of novelties in time-dependent urn.

Research on complexity shows that sudden changes, inequalities, and breakthroughs often arise from hidden dynamics that connect individual actions to collective outcomes. By bringing these mechanisms to light, we are reminded of our role as active participants in steering innovation, creating fairer societies, and ensuring that technology truly serves human life. The work at Sony CSL in Rome illustrates that understanding complexity is not just about acquiring knowledge; it is also about consciously shaping the future.

“Duetto-Human Movement and AI”, the full documentary is now available

milena — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 10:37:47 +0000

“Duetto” is a research project in which the relationship between artificial intelligence and human movement is investigated, it was born within the S+T+ARTS project, a European program that promotes the exchange between Science, Technology and Art, and is led by Sony CSL – Rome, in collaboration with Centro Coreografico Nazionale/Aterballetto, La Piroetta Dance School/Aleph Dance Company and the European University of Rome.

Duetto is an innovative scientific project that combines generative artificial intelligence with the study of human movement. The goal is to develop models that can understand how people move in response to certain inputs. To achieve this, we asked performers at various levels to dance in front of some cameras to a variety of music asking them to improvise! During this phase of data collection, we also collaborated with choreographers and maitre de ballet so that they could, in some cases, direct the movement of the dancers through choreographic hints, to make sure that their movement was as varied as possible.

Preliminary experiments have already made it clear that “Duetto” will become more and more like a virtual creative partner for the choreographer or dancer, that is, a system capable of suggesting new movement sequences, exploring original solutions that go beyond traditional canons. Artificial intelligence would not merely imitate what already exists, but would be capable of coming up with fresh new ideas, which the dancer may or may not take in, adapt, or rework.

Watch the promo of the project below!

To better understand “Duetto,” a comparison can be made with a language model such as ChatGPT. If ChatGPT works with words and creates sentences by combining them in meaningful ways, “Duetto” does the same with the human body: it takes body postures as “words” and combines them into sequences that become actual “body talk,” or movements.

In short, “Duetto” explores the language of movement and dialogues with those who interact with it through physical propositions that stimulate the imagination, offering a new way to create, improvise and innovate in the field of dance and, more generally, the performing arts.

Studying this kind of human-machine interaction centered on movement is very interesting for several reasons, first of all there is our scientific interest in the study of what a novelty is and how it is created, then there’s the fundamental question about human creativity: far from replacing us, can AI be useful to our creativity, can it increase our creativity so that it can be useful to us in finding more and more fitting solutions to the most diverse problems of humanity? Also, it is true that we are passionate about dance and in general about all the arts and how they have been intertwined with scientific and technological development for millennia, however, dance is a nice starting point for us to be able to understand also other types of movement in which artificial intelligence can be really very useful to us, we are talking about frontiers such as microsurgery, rehabilitation, preservation of ancient gestures and so on.

Watch below the full documentary on the first project’s developments, it contains interviews to the researchers, dancers, choreographers, psychologists who are taking part in this amazing activity!

Sony CSL at Expo Osaka 2025

milena — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 13:36:47 +0000

Sony Computer Science Laboratories (Sony CSL) participated in Expo Osaka 2025 as part of the activities planned by the Italian Pavilion and in particular within the week dedicated to opportunities and growth scenarios for businesses in the Lazio region.

Specifically, Sony CSL implemented its participation through two addresses during the event “Investing in Lazio: Japan tells Italy in Osaka through the territory,” which were held on May 19 at 3:30 p.m. at the Auditorium of the Italian Pavilion.

Hiroaki Kitano, Chief Technology Fellow of Sony Group Corporation as well as president and CEO of Sony CSL, and Vittorio Loreto, director of Sony CSL – Rome, alternated themselves to tell the audience in the room the story of a virtuous relationship established between Sony CSL and the Lazio territory that gave birth, a few years ago, to the research institution’s Rome laboratory, which before 2022, had its European base in the city of Paris alone.

Therefore, central to Hiroaki Kitano‘s speech has been the narration of what it means for an organization like Sony CSL to invest in Italy and in particular in the Lazio Region in a crucial sector such as scientific research and within a global landscape in total revolution from the point of view of global challenges. This was followed by a talk by Vittorio Loreto, scientific director of the Roman laboratory (Sony CSL – Rome), who dropped Kitano’s words into the territorial context to talk about the ecosystem of knowledge and know-how that the Roman laboratory has generated at the municipal and regional level and how the latter has been able to attract attention abroad.

In particular, Loreto brought the example of the research studies on cities and the urban environment that have already been the subject of an agreement with Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale in a way that we imagine could be scalable to other areas and institutions, and will announce what research projects Sony CSL is investing in in the area and the implications in terms of impact and value creation.

“Our research studies in the field of cities and urban environment have already been the subject of an agreement with Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale, in a way that we imagine could be scalable to other areas and institutions”- said Vittorio Loreto scientific director of Sony CSL – Rome “and this is only the tangible part of the virtuous processes triggered by the presence of Sony CSL in the territory, in addition there is a whole network made up of people, skills and interactions that is creating an extremely thriving ecosystem based on the exchange of knowledge at high levels that is perhaps the phenomenon to be observed with the greatest interest.”

Picture: Italy Expo 2025 Osaka

About cities and inequalities, the new study by Sony CSL – Rome featured in Nature Cities

milena — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 06:45:48 +0000

“A universal framework for inclusive 15-minute cities”, the recent publication by the Sustainable Cities Research Line at the Sony Computer Science Laboratories – Rome ends up in the monthly online journal by Nature.

“A universal framework for inclusive 15-minute cities”, the study by Matteo Bruno, Hygor Piaget Monteiro Melo, Bruno Campanelli led by Vittorio Loreto from the Sustainable Cities Research Line at Sony Computer Science Laboratories – Rome (Sony CSL – Rome) has been featured in Nature Cities and the content has been deemed to be of high interest to the scientific community. (Available here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-024-00119-4).

The paper “A universal framework for inclusive 15-minute cities” starts from the concept of the 15-minute city, which proposes that urban areas can operate more efficiently, fairly, and sustainably when vital everyday services and essential amenities are accessible within a 15-minute distance of walking or biking. The study analyses a vast number of cities worldwide and finds that, within the framework of the 15-minute city, the accessibility to services by citizens is highly heterogeneous within and across cities, meaning that urban areas present a high level of inequalities given mainly by the poor or difficult accessibility to services by citizens.

The researchers tried to answer these questions by creating a “relocation algorithm,” which will help understand how to increase the number of citizens who can access services in a given urban area and reduce inequalities. In addition, the “algorithm” is also essential in simulating how a city would respond to an increase in services until it reaches the 15-minute framework and how the number of needed services can vary among different cities.

But why is all this useful? Well, in principle, to have a better comprehension of the cities we live in, of the complex problems citizens face and of the complex possible solutions, but also to understand that cities are different to each other, and they need tailored solutions to their complexities and the 15-minute framework is just one of the possible scenarios. Managing such a tool, urbanists, engineers, and policy-makers could concentrate on non-standardised solutions for their cities; on the contrary, they could work on the most suitable ones in a way that cities are more accessible to a more significant number of people.

The benefits of more equitable cities are infinitely varied: having better access to healthcare, education, culture, amenities, and all the range of opportunities cities can offer as centres of human creativity makes us better citizens of the entire world.

About Nature Cities

Nature Cities is the monthly online journal that publishes insightful research and opinions about cities and urban issues broadly, aiming to deepen and integrate basic and applied understanding of the nature of cities, including their roles, impacts, influences, past, present, and future. At this scope, the journal features cutting-edge research, synthetic reviews and timely news and opinions. By bringing together diverse content and voices, it aims to transcend divides among disciplines, regions, researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and the public. (ref: https://www.nature.com/natcities/journal-information)

Rome Future Week: our collaboration with Rome Municipality in the name of Innovation

milena — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 07:55:21 +0000

Sony CSL – Rome will be the scientific partner of the “Casa delle Tecnologie Emergenti” (CTE) on the occasion of the Rome Future Week 2024; the three entities will collaborate for the creation of the city’s Innovation Map.

Announcing this is Monica Lucarelli, Rome Municipality’s councillor for Security Policies, Productive Activities, Equal Opportunities and President of the CTE Board, who describes the agreement as “a significant step for the future of innovation in the Capital.”

“The Casa delle Tecnologie Emergenti,” explains the Councillor, “is working on creating an ecosystem that brings together different innovation actors to improve the services offered to the city. Now, thanks to this collaboration, we will develop an innovation map that will serve as a platform for aggregation, combining ideas, services, and showing opportunities. The creation of this map will help us to understand and adequately respond to the demands of an increasingly connected citizenry, directing our actions effectively and smartly to improve the quality of life for those living in Rome, and also the quality of the experience we offer to visitors to our city.”

“There are many innovation maps, but what we ask ourselves is: is there one that goes beyond the clichés of places and manages to map innovation in a more widespread way, without leaving behind the commitment of those individual realities that no one talks about and no one knows?” comments Milena Di Canio, communications manager for the Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Rome.

“This is the challenge posed by Sony CSL,” she explains, “our researchers, Matteo Bruno and Hygor Melo, guided by the research director, Professor Vittorio Loreto, are already working to define the key parameters and criteria for this unique map of its kind. Together, we are exploring new perspectives and scientific approaches to fully understand the fabric of innovation in our city.”

Michele Franzese, the creator of the Rome Future Week, is pleased with the partnership. “During a visit to the headquarters of Sony CSL – Rome,” he recounts, “we were faced with a stimulating surprise: an interactive map that allowed us to note the sensations of the various areas of Rome. This approach goes beyond mere execution, aiming towards listening to and understanding the territory.”

Press

The Eco of truths, Dialogues between Literature and Science

milena — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 13:40:48 +0000

The event on March 25th will be dedicated to Umberto Eco and in particular to his famous book “Foucault’s Pendulum”, published in 1988. The title of the book refers to the pendulum, the object of the experiment by the French physicist Jean Bernard Léon Foucault, which demonstrates the movement of the earth.

For the purposes of the event, the book will provide the starting point to discuss, in a broader sense, modern information systems, focusing on some of their peculiar characteristics and malfunctions.

The key concept of the event, from which the dialogue will begin, will be “truth”, which in various forms has been a dear theme to Umberto Eco; moreover, the theme of truth is also a useful metaphorical key to understand some of the phenomena that characterize our information systems and many of the pathologies that afflict them.

Together with Emanuele Brugnoli and D. Ruggiero Lo Sardo, researchers in the field of Infosphere, other guests will participate into the dialogue: Antonio Perri, former student of Umberto Eco and currently a professor of Linguistics, Computational Linguistics, and Sociolinguistics of interactions at the University of Suor Orsola Benincasa, along with journalist Filippo Santelli, correspondent for the Economy section of La Repubblica and winner of the 2021 Tutino Journalist Award for his reports from China, where he covered, among other things, the democracy protests in Hong Kong and the development of the coronavirus epidemic.
The event will be moderated by Manuela Cherubini, director, actress, and expert in the relationship between art and science.

The event is open to public through the registration at this link. Entrance from Piazza del Viminale 1, Rome.

The Intelligence of Babel, Dialogues between Literature and Science

milena — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 11:57:40 +0000

Within the framework of the “Dialogues between Literature and Science” the Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Rome proudly presents “The Intelligence of Babel”. The second event of the “Dialogues” will take place on February 27th and it will be dedicated to Jorge Luis Borges and in particular to his story titled “The Library of Babel”, first appearing in 1941 in the collection “The Garden of Forking Paths” and then in 1944 within the volume “Ficciones”.

The event will start from Borges’ story to explore, through his great philosophical provocations and literary suggestions, the connections with the human mind and its famous artificial simulacrum. Sony CSL – Rome is particularly interested in these relationships not only to enhance the scientific understanding of the basic mechanisms of artificial minds, but above all to better understand the dynamics that characterize human creativity and their relationships with mathematical theories of innovation.

Alongside Alessandro Londei, researcher from Sony CSL – Rome and an expert in artificial intelligence, we will host Alessandra Ghezzani, professor of Hispanic-American language and literature at the University of Pisa, as well as an expert on the author, and Silvano Tagliagambe, philosopher of science. We will also be accompanied by the readings and moderation of Manuela Cherubini, actress, director, and expert in outreach.

The event is open to public through the registration at this link. Entrance from Piazza del Viminale 1, Rome.

Calvino is in the City, Dialogues between Literature and Science

milena — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 12:23:38 +0000

Within the framework of the “Dialogues between Literature and Science” the Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Rome proudly presents “Calvino is in the City,” an event dedicated to the author of the “Invisible Cities,” one of his most well known masterpieces, which is highly celebrated and remarkably relevant for an era where the debate on the future of cities becomes more pressing.

The event will begin with the reading of excerpts from the book, followed by an initial commentary with a scientific flavor. Subsequently, other guests will share their perspectives, opening the discussion and perhaps delving deeper into Calvino’s narrative, vision, insights, and transversality. The event will take on the form of a genuine and multi-voiced dialogue, where syntaxes intertwine and listen to each other.

In addition to Vittorio Loreto, Director of Sony CSL – Rome and Physics of Complex Systems lecturer at La Sapienza University in Rome, there will be contributions from Laura Guglielmi, journalist and writer, also an expert on Calvino and author of the book “Calvino and Sanremo”; Andrea Prencipe, Rector of LUISS Guido Carli University and author of the books “The Cybernetic Viscount” and “The Rampant Innovator,” accompanied in the narration by Manuela Cherubini, a director, actress, and expert in scientific narratives.

The event is open to public through the registration at this link. Entrance from Piazza del Viminale 1, Rome.

Sony CSL – Rome Gold Partner of Maker Faire 2023

milena — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 10:00:15 +0000

The Sony Computer Science Laboratories – Rome (Sony CSL – Rome) is participating in the 11th edition of Maker Faire Rome, from October 20th to 22nd at the Fiera di Roma

Once again this year, Sony CSL – Rome is taking part in Maker Faire Rome, the event dedicated to makers and innovators from across Europe that is more and more reserving a wide space for the world of research as the various editions over the years, where Sony CSL – Rome has participated in and supported the initiative underlined.

In this specific 11th edition, those visiting Fiera di Roma from tomorrow until Sunday will explore the Sony CSL – Rome stands located in Pavilion 3 and discover its latest developments and research projects, with some insights from the labs in Paris and from the headquarters.

Numerous research projects will be showcased at the fair, focusing on two key words: humanity and technology. The researchers from Sony CSL – Rome will elaborate on these two major topics within the Maker Faire context, discussing, for example, how data can be used to improve our cities and make them accessible and enjoyable for everyone. Starting with mobility and touching on social inclusion, urban design, and citizen well-being, the “Sustainable Cities” research line will not only talk about “15-Minute Cities” as during the previous editions, but also about the “City of the Opportunity”. The team will also present an interactive installation where people will be asked to help researchers to create a perception map of the city of Rome. Not just scientific research, but also sharing and listening to citizens’ needs.

Within the Sony CSL – Rome exhibition area at the fair, colleagues from the Enrico Fermi Research Center will also be present with a stand dedicated to the physics of complexity and how this discipline can be useful in different areas such as technological innovation and the economy.

Furthermore, it will be possible to understand how a virtuous integration between AI and humans is achievable in areas of application such as learning, information, and art, to name a few. Projects like “ARTIS”, in collaboration with CRC, aim to use AI to improve text comprehension in children in elementary and middle school. The platform also provides valuable support in case of learning disorders, expanding the possibilities of therapeutic professions. The “VALAWAI” project and all the related research from the “Infosphere” line will give an overview on the health status of our information system and will focus on how AI can be used against some of its most serious issues like misinformation and polarization. Continuing with AI, the “Face to Face” project by the “Augmented Creativity” research line will reveal how machines’ creativity really works and how it is evolving, with an interactive installation open to all. Through the new edition of “S+T+ARTS,” a project funded by the European Union, the relationship between art and science will be investigated in a perspective where the two different fields are not in antagonism but can mutually benefit.

The art-science relationship is also prominent in another significant project at the fair: the “Dis.able | Hyper.able” project, born from the collaboration between Sony CSL’s labs in Rome and Tokyo, and the National Choreographic Center Aterballetto. Researcher Ken Endo from the Sony CSL – Transboundary Research in Tokyo has worked for years on the idea of prosthetics as an extension of the body capable of making it hyper-able. An extension of the body that is no longer just a tool to address a physical trauma or conceal a disability but becomes a true expressive tool. The performance that will be presented in preview this afternoon during the opening ceremony at Gazometro Ostiense, is titled “Body into the fight,” and it is a collaboration between the National Choreographic Center/Aterballetto and Sony CSL – Rome. It has been created by Diego Tortelli for Karim Randè, a disabled circus artist, and for the performer Giuseppe Morello.

It represents an important stage of the project “Dis.able | Hyper.able” that was born from the desire to overcome the boundaries of various disciplines and address some important social themes in a transversal way.

During the performance, Karim Randè will dance wearing a special prosthesis designed by Ken Endo.

"That with Maker Faire," says Vittorio Loreto, director of Sony CSL - Rome, "it is now a collaboration that goes beyond the presence of our laboratory at the fair; it is a consolidated relationship aimed at giving a voice to science, promoting interdisciplinarity, and increasingly boosting a creative approach to solve the problems and great challenges of our time."

Pictures: “CCN/Aterballetto – Body into the fight – ph. Nicola Stasi”