Luca Mottola
I am a Full Professor (Professore Ordinario) at Politecnico di Milano, where I lead the Networked Embedded Software Lab (NESLab). I do research to build the next-generation Internet of Things. I hold or held adjunct or visiting positions at RI.SE Sweden, Uppsala University, NXP Technologies, TU Graz, University of Southern California, University of Illinois at Chicago, and USI Lugano. I am the Chair's Delegate for International Relations at the Department of Electronics, Informatics and Bioengineering (DEIB), and the coordinator of International Mobility in Computer Engineering.
Research
“The purpose of abstraction is not to be vague,
but to create a new semantic level in which one can be absolutely precise”
E. W. Dijkstra – from the Humble Programmer, 1972
Battery-less IoT
Redefining embedded computing for energy harvesting devices.
Mobile Space Robotics
Extending the Internet to robots on ground, airborne, and in space.
Smart Cities
Making urban environments intelligent using artificial intelligence and IoT.
Awards
- Best Paper Award at the 29th IEEE International Conference on Embedded and
Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications (RTCSA), 2023. - ACM SENSYS 2022 Test of Time Award for the paper “Low-power Wireless Bus” appeared at the same conference in 2012.
- ACM SigMobile Research Highlight for the paper “Hummingbird: Energy Efficient GPS Receiver for Small Satellites” appeared at the 26th ACM MOBICOM, 2020.
- Best Paper Award and Best Pitch Video Award at the 8th ACM International Workshop on Energy Harvesting and Energy-neutral Sensing Systems (ENSSYS), 2020.
- Best Paper Award at the 26th ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MOBICOM), 2020.
- Fokus Sweden 100 Most Productive Researchers in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Technology, 2019.
- Hot Topics’ Top 50 EMEA Cloud Climbers, by Hot Topics ltd. in collaboration with F5 Networks, 2018.
- Best Paper Award at the 4th ACM International Workshop on Visible Light Communication Systems (VLCS – colocated with ACM MOBICOM), 2017.
- ACM SigMobile Research Highlight for the paper “Reactive Control of Autonomous Drones” appeared at the 14th ACM MOBISYS, 2016.
- Best Paper Award at the 14th ACM International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (MOBISYS), 2016.
- Best Paper Award at the 2nd ACM International Workshop on Micro Aerial Vehicle Networks, Systems, and Applications (DRONET – colocated with ACM MOBISYS), 2016.
- Google Faculty Award for research work about computing on energy-harvesting embedded devices, 2015. [In the press: @Corriere Innovazione]
- Young Innovator Award given by MIT Technology Review Italia and RIE Forum, 2013. [In the press: @Corriere Innovazione, @Corriere GeniusLAB]
- Postscapes’ Internet of Things Top 100 Thinkers, also based on community voting, 2012 and 2011.
- ERCIM Cor Baayen Award as a promising young researcher in computer science and applied mathematics, 2011.
- Best Paper Award at the 10th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN – part of CPSWEEK), 2011.
- Best Paper Award at the 8th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN – part of CPSWEEK), 2009.
- Best Ph.D. Thesis Award granted by the European Cooperating Objects Network of Excellence, 2009.
- Best Demo Award at the 5th ACM International Conference on Networked Sensing Systems (SENSYS), 2007.
News
Three New ACM SenSys papers!
This year we got three papers accepted at the ACM International Conference on Networked Embedded Sensing Systems, talking about on intermittent ML, multi-core battery-less IoT architectures, and acoustic communications for drones!
Scientific events I’m currently involved in:
ACM MobiSys 2025 (IoT Day chair):
ACM International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services.
ACM MobiCom 2025 (PC member):
ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking.
ACM HotMobile 2025 (PC member):
ACM International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications.
ACM SigMobile Test-of-time Paper Award 2024 (Committee member):
The SIGMOBILE Test-of-Time awards recognize papers that have had a sustained and significant impact in the SIGMOBILE community over at least a decade.
Editorial board member:
IEEE Transcations on Networking: 2024 – present.
IEEE Network: 2024 – present.
IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing: 2020 – 2024.
Elsevier Computer Networks: 2019 – present.
ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks (TOSN): 2016 – present.
Recent Publications
Find the full list.
- “Shaping and Being Shaped by Drones: Programming in Perception–Action Loops“, with Mousa Sondoqah, Fehmi Ben Abdesslem, Kristina Popova, Moira McGregor, Joseph La Delfa, Rachael Garrett, Airi Lampinen, and Kristina Höök. In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS), Copenhagen, July 2024.
PDF - “The Internet of Batteryless Things” with Saad Ahmed, Bashima Islam, Kasim Sinan Yildirim, Marco Zimmerling, Przemysław Pawełczak, Muhammad Hamad Alizai, Brandon Lucia, Jacob Sorber, and Josiah Hester. In Communications of the ACM. Volume 67, Issue 3. March 2024.
PDF - “Indoor Drone Localization and Tracking Based on Acoustic Inertial Measurement” with Yimiao Sun, Weiguo Wang, Jia Zhang, Ruijin Wang, and Yuan He. In IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing. December 2023.
PDF - “BEAVIS: Balloon Enabled Aerial Vehicle for IoT and Sensing” with Suryansh Sharma, Ashutosh Simha, R Venkatesha Prasad, Shubham Deshmukh, Kavin B Saravanan, and Ravi Ramesh. In Proceedings of the 29th ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MOBICOM), Madrid (Spain), November 2023.
PDF - “Timing Analysis of Embedded Software Updates” with Ahmed El Yaacoub, Thiemo Voigt, and Philipp Rümmer. In Proceedings of the 29th IEEE International Conference on Embedded and Real-Time Computing Systems and Applications (RTCSA), Niigata (Japan), August 2023. Best Paper Award.
PDF - “Acoustic Localization System for Precise Drone Landing” with Yuan He, Weiguo Wang, Shuai Li, Yimiao Sun, Jinming Li, Hua Jing, Ting Wang, and Yulei Wang. In IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing. June 2023.
PDF - “MicNest: Long-Range Instant Acoustic Localization of Drones in Precise Landing”with Weiguo Wang, Yuan He, Jinming Li, Yimiao Sun, Shuai Li, Hua Jing, and Yulei Wang. In Proceedings of the 20th ACM International Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SENSYS), Boston (MA, US), November 2022. Best Paper Runner-up.
PDF - “AIM: Acoustic Inertial Measurement for Indoor Drone Localization and Tracking”with Yimiao Sun, Weiguo Wang, Ruijin Wang, and Yuan He. In Proceedings of the 20th ACM International Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SENSYS), Boston (MA, US), November 2022.
PDF - “The Case for Approximate Intermittent Computing” with Fulvio Bambusi, Francesco Cerizzi, and Yamin Lee. In Proceedings of the 21st ACM/IEEE International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN – part of CPS-IoTWeek), Milano (Italy), May 2022.
PDF - “ALFRED: Virtual Memory for Intermittent Computing” with Andrea Maioli. In Proceedings of the 19th ACM International Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SENSYS), Coimbra (Portugal), November 2021.
PDF, Teaser video - “Battery-less Zero-maintenance Embedded Sensing at the Mithraeum of Circus Maximus” with Mikhail Afanasov, Naveed Bhatti, Dennis Campagna, Giacomo Caslini, Fabio Massimo Centonze, Koustabh Dolui, Andrea Maioli, Erica Barone, Muhammad Hamad Alizai, and Junaid Haroon Siddiqui. In Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SENSYS), Yokohama (Japan), November 2020.
PDF, Teaser video - “Synchronous Transmissions in Low-Power Wireless: A Survey of Communication Protocols and Network Services” with Marco Zimmerling and Silvia Santini. In ACM Computing Surveys. Volume 53, Issue 6. December 2020.
PDF - “Hummingbird: Energy Efficient GPS Receiver for Small Satellites” with Sujay Narayana, R Venkatesha Prasad, Vijay S Rao, and T Venkata Prabhakar. In Proceedings of the 26th ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MOBICOM), London (UK), September 2020. Best Paper Award. ACM SigMobile Research Highlight.
PDF - “Intermittent Asynchronous Peripheral Operations” with Adriano Branco, Hamad Alizai, and Junaid Siddiqui. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM International Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SENSYS), New York (NY, US), November 2019. Best Paper Candidate.
PDF - “FlyZone: A Testbed for Experimenting with Aerial Drone Applications” with Mikhail Afanasov, Alessandro Djordjevic, and Feng Liu. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (MOBISYS), Seoul (South Korea), June 2019. Best Paper Candidate.
PDF