Alberto Montresor

I recei­ved my Ph.D. from the University of Bologna in 2000 and wor­ked the­re as a Research Assistant from 2002 to 2005. Since 2005, I have been at the University of Trento, whe­re I am cur­ren­tly a full pro­fes­sor. I have taught a ran­ge of cour­ses, inclu­ding algo­ri­thms and data struc­tu­res, distri­bu­ted systems, and, more recen­tly, com­pu­ter scien­ce education.

My research jour­ney began with lar­ge-sca­le decen­tra­li­zed systems and later shif­ted to cen­tra­li­zed gra­ph algo­ri­thms (thanks to my bril­liant Ph.D. stu­den­ts). In recent years, howe­ver, I’ve gra­dual­ly tur­ned my focus toward com­pu­ter scien­ce edu­ca­tion. What began as a side inte­re­st has beco­me a full pro­fes­sio­nal reboot. Entering a new research field means star­ting over in many ways—new que­stions, new col­la­bo­ra­tors, and the hum­bling expe­rien­ce of rebuil­ding cre­di­bi­li­ty from the ground up.

These days, I spend most of my time wor­king with tea­chers, schools, and stu­den­ts, pro­mo­ting com­pu­ter scien­ce edu­ca­tion as a brid­ge bet­ween aca­de­mia and the wider world. What began as a depart­men­tal role has gro­wn into a uni­ver­si­ty-wide mis­sion: I now ser­ve as vice-rec­tor for outreach—proof that if you show enou­gh enthu­sia­sm for some­thing, someo­ne will even­tual­ly put you in char­ge of it.

My research is dri­ven by a deep inte­re­st in how peo­ple learn in com­pu­ter scien­ce and with com­pu­ter science—using its con­cep­ts and tools to think, explo­re, and crea­te across disci­pli­nes. I’m espe­cial­ly focu­sed on desi­gning and eva­lua­ting edu­ca­tio­nal expe­rien­ces that foster mea­ning­ful, reflec­ti­ve, and inclu­si­ve lear­ning, with par­ti­cu­lar atten­tion to how com­pu­ta­tio­nal thin­king and digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies can sup­port both stu­den­ts and tea­chers in diver­se contexts.

Publications
Google cita­tions
DBLP
Orcid
Curriculum

Francesco Lotito (Post-doc @ Unitrento)
Francesca Fiore (Research Assistant @ UniTrento)
Cristian Consonni (Joint Research Centre, European Commission)
Zekarias Kefato (AstraZeneca, UK)
Sheikh Nasrullah (IBM Almaden, USA)
Alessio Guerrieri (Academic Labs, Belgium)
Hanna Kavalionak (ISTI-CNR, Italy)
Giuliano Mega (Codex, somewhe­re on Earth)
Marco Biazzini (Amadeus, France)

Giulia Paludo
David Zikovitz (Co-super­vi­sor)
Marta Valentini