Luigi Celona is an Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) in the Department of Informatics, Systems and Communication (DISCo) at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, and a member of the Intelligent Sensing Laboratory. His research interests lie in computer vision and machine learning, with a particular focus on image and video understanding, perceptual image quality, affective computing, facial analysis, and reliable AI systems.
He received his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Messina and both his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Milano-Bicocca. His doctoral research, supervised by Prof. Raimondo Schettini and Prof. Paolo Napoletano, focused on learning quality, aesthetics, and facial attributes for image annotation. His earlier academic work addressed facial expression recognition and image visualization and comparison.
Dr. Celona has held several research positions at the University of Milano-Bicocca, including postdoctoral appointments focused on image understanding, perceptual modeling, and deep learning for image and video recognition. He has also been a Visiting Researcher at the VIStA Laboratory of the University of Rochester, USA, under the supervision of Prof. Jiebo Luo.
He actively contributes to the scientific community as Associate Editor for Neurocomputing (Elsevier) and Image, Signal and Video Processing (Springer). He has also served as Topic Editor for a Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence research topic on automatic affect analysis and synthesis, and as Guest Editor for the MDPI Journal of Imaging special issue on novel approaches to image quality assessment. He is member of the ELLIS Society (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems). He is the secretary of the IEEE CTSoc Machine learning, Deep learning and AI in CE (MDA) Technical Committee (TC).
Journal Articles
Proceedings
Book Chapters
2026 Leveraging foundation model DINO-v2 for image complexity estimation Celona, L., Ciocca, G., Schettini, R. (2026). Leveraging foundation model DINO-v2 for image complexity estimation. NEURAL COMPUTING & APPLICATIONS, 38(1) [10.1007/s00521-025-11786-2].2025 Improving image captioning descriptiveness by ranking and LLM-based fusion Celona, L., Bianco, S., Donzella, M., Napoletano, P. (2025). Improving image captioning descriptiveness by ranking and LLM-based fusion. NEURAL COMPUTING & APPLICATIONS, 37(32), 27279-27299 [10.1007/s00521-025-11672-x].2024 Semi-supervised cross-lingual speech emotion recognition Agarla, M., Bianco, S., Celona, L., Napoletano, P., Petrovsky, A., Piccoli, F., et al. (2024). Semi-supervised cross-lingual speech emotion recognition. EXPERT SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATIONS, 237(Part A (1 March 2024)) [10.1016/j.eswa.2023.121368].2024 Enhancing Direction-of-Arrival Estimation with Multi-Task Learning Bianco, S., Celona, L., Crotti, P., Napoletano, P., Petraglia, G., Vinetti, P. (2024). Enhancing Direction-of-Arrival Estimation with Multi-Task Learning. SENSORS, 24(22) [10.3390/s24227390].2022 Blind quality assessment of authentically distorted images Celona, L., Schettini, R. (2022). Blind quality assessment of authentically distorted images. JOURNAL OF THE OPTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA. A, OPTICS, IMAGE SCIENCE, AND VISION, 39(6), B1-B10 [10.1364/JOSAA.448144].2022 Composition and Style Attributes Guided Image Aesthetic Assessment Celona, L., Leonardi, M., Napoletano, P., Rozza, A. (2022). Composition and Style Attributes Guided Image Aesthetic Assessment. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, 31, 5009-5024 [10.1109/TIP.2022.3191853].2021 A Genetic Algorithm to Combine Deep Features for the Aesthetic Assessment of Images Containing Faces Celona, L., Schettini, R. (2021). A Genetic Algorithm to Combine Deep Features for the Aesthetic Assessment of Images Containing Faces. SENSORS, 21(4), 1-17 [10.3390/s21041307].2021 An Efficient Method for No-Reference Video Quality Assessment Agarla, M., Celona, L., Schettini, R. (2021). An Efficient Method for No-Reference Video Quality Assessment. JOURNAL OF IMAGING, 7(3) [10.3390/jimaging7030055].2021 Disentangling Image Distortions in Deep Feature Space Bianco, S., Celona, L., Napoletano, P. (2021). Disentangling Image Distortions in Deep Feature Space. PATTERN RECOGNITION LETTERS, 148, 128-135 [10.1016/j.patrec.2021.05.008].2021 A grid anchor based cropping approach exploiting image aesthetics, geometric composition, and semantics Celona, L., Ciocca, G., Napoletano, P. (2021). A grid anchor based cropping approach exploiting image aesthetics, geometric composition, and semantics. EXPERT SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATIONS, 186 [10.1016/j.eswa.2021.115852].2021 A Smart Mirror for Emotion Monitoring in Home Environments Bianco, S., Celona, L., Ciocca, G., Marelli, D., Napoletano, P., Yu, S., et al. (2021). A Smart Mirror for Emotion Monitoring in Home Environments. SENSORS, 21(22) [10.3390/s21227453].2020 No-Reference Quality Assessment of In-Capture Distorted Videos Agarla, M., Celona, L., Schettini, R. (2020). No-Reference Quality Assessment of In-Capture Distorted Videos. JOURNAL OF IMAGING, 6(8), 74 [10.3390/jimaging6080074].2018 On the use of deep learning for blind image quality assessment Bianco, S., Celona, L., Napoletano, P., Schettini, R. (2018). On the use of deep learning for blind image quality assessment. SIGNAL, IMAGE AND VIDEO PROCESSING, 12(2), 355-362 [10.1007/s11760-017-1166-8].2018 Fine-grained face annotation using deep Multi-Task CNN Celona, L., Bianco, S., Schettini, R. (2018). Fine-grained face annotation using deep Multi-Task CNN. SENSORS, 18(8) [10.3390/s18082666].2018 Benchmark analysis of representative deep neural network architectures Bianco, S., Cadene, R., Celona, L., Napoletano, P. (2018). Benchmark analysis of representative deep neural network architectures. IEEE ACCESS, 6, 64270-64277 [10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2877890].2016 Robust smile detection using convolutional neural networks Bianco, S., Celona, L., Schettini, R. (2016). Robust smile detection using convolutional neural networks. JOURNAL OF ELECTRONIC IMAGING, 25(6) [10.1117/1.JEI.25.6.063002].
2026 Decoding Affective States from fMRI Using Automatically Labeled Multi-modal Movie Stimuli Corsico, A., Rigamonti, G., Zini, S., Celona, L., Napoletano, P. (2026). Decoding Affective States from fMRI Using Automatically Labeled Multi-modal Movie Stimuli. In Image Analysis and Processing - ICIAP 2025 Workshops 23rd International Conference, Rome, Italy, September 15–19, 2025, Proceedings, Part I (pp.89-100) [10.1007/978-3-032-11317-7_8].2025 Driving Behaviors in Cognitive Agents: Preliminary Results of an Experimental Approach Bani, M., Bianco, S., Celona, L., Napoletano, P., Russo, S., Sarné, G., et al. (2025). Driving Behaviors in Cognitive Agents: Preliminary Results of an Experimental Approach. In WOA 2025 26th Workshop "From Objects to Agents" (pp.35-54). CEUR-WS.2024 Video-Based Emotion Estimation Using Deep Neural Networks: A Comparative Study Alchieri, L., Celona, L., Bianco, S. (2024). Video-Based Emotion Estimation Using Deep Neural Networks: A Comparative Study. In Image Analysis and Processing - ICIAP 2023 Workshops
Udine, Italy, September 11–15, 2023, Proceedings, Part I (pp.255-269). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH [10.1007/978-3-031-51023-6_22].2024 On the Use of Visual Transformer for Image Complexity Assessment Celona, L., Ciocca, G., Schettini, R. (2024). On the Use of Visual Transformer for Image Complexity Assessment. In Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (pp.640-647). Science and Technology Publications, Lda [10.5220/0012426500003660].2024 NTIRE 2024 Quality Assessment of AI-Generated Content Challenge Liu, X., Min, X., Zhai, G., Li, C., Kou, T., Sun, W., et al. (2024). NTIRE 2024 Quality Assessment of AI-Generated Content Challenge. In 2024 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops, CVPRW 2024 (pp.6337-6362). IEEE Computer Society [10.1109/CVPRW63382.2024.00637].2024 Arm Gesture Recognition with Smartwatches Colombo, A., Celona, L., Bianco, S., Nocera, A., Napoletano, P. (2024). Arm Gesture Recognition with Smartwatches. In 2024 IEEE 8th Forum on Research and Technologies for Society and Industry Innovation (RTSI) (pp.625-629). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. [10.1109/rtsi61910.2024.10761613].2024 Multivariate Forecasting of Multiple Pollutants with Representative Deep Learning Architectures Bianco, S., Celona, L., Lanzillotti, M., Napoletano, P. (2024). Multivariate Forecasting of Multiple Pollutants with Representative Deep Learning Architectures. In 2024 IEEE 8th Forum on Research and Technologies for Society and Industry Innovation (RTSI) (pp.630-635). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. [10.1109/rtsi61910.2024.10761197].2023 Predicting Video Memorability Using a Model Pretrained with Natural Language Supervision Agarla, M., Celona, L., Schettini, R. (2023). Predicting Video Memorability Using a Model Pretrained with Natural Language Supervision. In Working Notes Proceedings of the MediaEval 2022 Workshop. CEUR-WS.2023 Quality assessment of enhanced videos guided by aesthetics and technical quality attributes Agarla, M., Celona, L., Rota, C., Schettini, R. (2023). Quality assessment of enhanced videos guided by aesthetics and technical quality attributes. In IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (pp.1533-1541). IEEE Computer Society [10.1109/CVPRW59228.2023.00156].2023 A Platform for Multi-Modal Driver Behaviour Data Collection Bianco, S., Celona, L., Gallo, G., Napoletano, P. (2023). A Platform for Multi-Modal Driver Behaviour Data Collection. In IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics - Berlin, ICCE-Berlin (pp.112-116). IEEE Computer Society [10.1109/ICCE-Berlin58801.2023.10375673].2023 NTIRE 2023 Quality Assessment of Video Enhancement Challenge Liu, X., Min, X., Sun, W., Zhang, Y., Zhang, K., Timofte, R., et al. (2023). NTIRE 2023 Quality Assessment of Video Enhancement Challenge. In IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (pp.1551-1569). IEEE Computer Society [10.1109/CVPRW59228.2023.00158].2022 ArabCeleb: Speaker Recognition in Arabic Bianco, S., Celona, L., Khalifa, I., Napoletano, P., Petrovsky, A., Piccoli, F., et al. (2022). ArabCeleb: Speaker Recognition in Arabic. In AIxIA 2021 – Advances in Artificial Intelligence - 20th International Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Event, December 1–3, 2021, Revised Selected Papers (pp.338-347). Cham : Springer International [10.1007/978-3-031-08421-8_23].2022 Fast-n-Squeeze: towards real-time spectral reconstruction from RGB images Agarla, M., Bianco, S., Buzzelli, M., Celona, L., Schettini, R. (2022). Fast-n-Squeeze: towards real-time spectral reconstruction from RGB images. In IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (pp.1131-1138). IEEE Computer Society [10.1109/CVPRW56347.2022.00122].2022 NTIRE 2022 Spectral Recovery Challenge and Data Set Arad, B., Timofte, R., Yahel, R., Morag, N., Bernat, A., Cai, Y., et al. (2022). NTIRE 2022 Spectral Recovery Challenge and Data Set. In IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (pp.862-880). IEEE Computer Society [10.1109/CVPRW56347.2022.00102].2022 Understanding Aesthetics with Language: A Photo Critique Dataset for Aesthetic Assessment Vera Nieto, D., Celona, L., Fernandez-Labrador, C. (2022). Understanding Aesthetics with Language: A Photo Critique Dataset for Aesthetic Assessment. In 36th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, NeurIPS 2022 (pp.34148-34161). Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc..2021 Who Is in the Crowd? Deep Face Analysis for Crowd Understanding Bianco, S., Celona, L., Schettini, R. (2021). Who Is in the Crowd? Deep Face Analysis for Crowd Understanding. In Pattern Recognition. ICPR International Workshops and Challenges. Virtual Event, January 10–15, 2021, Proceedings, Part II (pp.487-494). Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH [10.1007/978-3-030-68790-8_38].2021 On the Semantic Dependency of Video Quality Assessment Methods Agarla, M., Celona, L. (2021). On the Semantic Dependency of Video Quality Assessment Methods. Intervento presentato a: London Imaging Meeting, London [10.2352/issn.2694-118X.2021.LIM-49].2021 An analysis of spectral similarity measures Agarla, M., Bianco, S., Celona, L., Schettini, R., Tchobanou, M. (2021). An analysis of spectral similarity measures. In 29th Color and Imaging Conference Final Program and Proceedings (pp.300-305). Society for Imaging Science and Technology [10.2352/issn.2169-2629.2021.29.300].2020 Single Image Dehazing by Predicting Atmospheric Scattering Parameters Bianco, S., Celona, L., Piccoli, F. (2020). Single Image Dehazing by Predicting Atmospheric Scattering Parameters. In London Imaging Meeting 2020: Future Colour Imaging (pp.74-77). Society for Imaging Science and Technology [10.2352/issn.2694-118X.2020.LIM-11].2020 CNN-based image quality assessment of consumer photographs Celona, L., Schettini, R. (2020). CNN-based image quality assessment of consumer photographs. In London Imaging Meeting 2020: Future Colour Imaging (pp.129-133). Society for Imaging Science and Technology [10.2352/issn.2694-118X.2020.LIM-47].2019 High-resolution single image dehazing using encoder-decoder architecture Bianco, S., Celona, L., Piccoli, F., Schettini, R. (2019). High-resolution single image dehazing using encoder-decoder architecture. In 32nd IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops, CVPRW 2019; Long Beach; United States; 16-20 June 2019 (pp.1927-1935). IEEE Computer Society [10.1109/CVPRW.2019.00244].2019 Image memorability using diverse visual features and soft attention Leonardi, M., Celona, L., Napoletano, P., Bianco, S., Schettini, R., Manessi, F., et al. (2019). Image memorability using diverse visual features and soft attention. In Image Analysis and Processing – ICIAP 2019. 20th International Conference, Trento, Italy, September 9–13, 2019, Proceedings, Part II (pp.171-180). Springer [10.1007/978-3-030-30645-8_16].2019 Autocropping: A closer look at benchmark datasets Celona, L., Ciocca, G., Napoletano, P., Schettini, R. (2019). Autocropping: A closer look at benchmark datasets. In Image Analysis and Processing – ICIAP 2019. 20th International Conference, Trento, Italy, September 9–13, 2019, Proceedings, Part II (pp.315-325). Springer Verlag [10.1007/978-3-030-30645-8_29].2019 Getting the most of few data for neonatal pain assessment Celona, L., Brahnam, S., Bianco, S. (2019). Getting the most of few data for neonatal pain assessment. In PervasiveHealth'19 - Proceedings of the 13th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, Trento, Italy — May 20 - 23, 2019 (pp.298-301). New York : Association for Computing Machinery [10.1145/3329189.3329219].2019 NTIRE 2019 image dehazing challenge report Ancuti, C., Ancuti, C., Timofte, R., Van Gool, L., Zhang, L., Yang, M., et al. (2019). NTIRE 2019 image dehazing challenge report. In IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshops (pp.2241-2253). IEEE Computer Society [10.1109/CVPRW.2019.00277].2018 Visual-based sentiment logging in magic smart mirrors Bianco, S., Celona, L., Napoletano, P. (2018). Visual-based sentiment logging in magic smart mirrors. In 2018 IEEE 8th International Conference on Consumer Electronics - Berlin (ICCE-Berlin) (pp.1-4). IEEE Computer Society [10.1109/ICCE-Berlin.2018.8576217].2018 A multi-task CNN framework for driver face monitoring Celona, L., Mammana, L., Bianco, S., Schettini, R. (2018). A multi-task CNN framework for driver face monitoring. In 2018 IEEE 8th International Conference on Consumer Electronics - Berlin (ICCE-Berlin) (pp.1-4). IEEE Computer Society [10.1109/ICCE-Berlin.2018.8576244].2018 Aesthetics Assessment of Images Containing Faces Bianco, S., Celona, L., Schettini, R. (2018). Aesthetics Assessment of Images Containing Faces. Intervento presentato a: 25th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, ICIP 2018, Megaron Athens International Conference Centre (MAICC), grc [10.1109/ICIP.2018.8451368].2018 A blender plug-in for comparing structure from motion pipelines Marelli, D., Bianco, S., Celona, L., Ciocca, G. (2018). A blender plug-in for comparing structure from motion pipelines. In 2018 IEEE 8th International Conference on Consumer Electronics - Berlin (ICCE-Berlin) (pp.1-5). 345 E 47TH ST, NEW YORK, NY 10017 USA : IEEE Computer Society [10.1109/ICCE-Berlin.2018.8576196].2017 Training an object detector using only positive samples Plebani, E., Celona, L., Pau, D., Karimi, P., Marcon, M. (2017). Training an object detector using only positive samples. In 2015 IEEE 1st International Workshop on Consumer Electronics - Novi Sad, CE WS 2015 (pp.1-4). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. [10.1109/CEWS.2015.7867139].2017 Neonatal Facial Pain Assessment Combining Hand-Crafted and Deep Features Celona, L., Manoni, L. (2017). Neonatal Facial Pain Assessment Combining Hand-Crafted and Deep Features. In New Trends in Image Analysis and Processing – ICIAP 2017 (pp.197-204). Springer Verlag [10.1007/978-3-319-70742-6_19].2016 Predicting image aesthetics with deep learning Bianco, S., Celona, L., Napoletano, P., Schettini, R. (2016). Predicting image aesthetics with deep learning. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) (pp.117-125). Springer Verlag [10.1007/978-3-319-48680-2_11].