On 25 May 2026, the Hicup Lab hosted Prof. Francesco Ricci from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. He delivered a talk titled “Simulation-Based Evaluation of Trustworthy Recommender Systems.”
Francesco Ricci is senior professor in computer science at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (UNIBZ). He is a member of the UNIBZ Competence Centre on Sustainability and a member of the Steering Committee of the Digital Humanism Initiative, TUW, Vienna. His current research interests focus on the usage of artificial intelligence techniques, such as recommender systems and intelligent agents, in supporting human collaboration with AI and ultimately improving users’ decision-making processes and well-being. He is interested in building systems that can help groups and individuals to make more rational and fair decisions in complex and context-dependent scenarios, such as news and tourism. He is the author of more than 250 highly cited, refereed publications. He coedited the Recommender Systems Handbook, a reference publication, and served as president of the steering committee of the ACM conference on RSs.
The seminar introduced participants to the field of recommender systems and their role in supporting users in decision-making across digital platforms. The presentation then focused on trustworthy recommender systems, with particular attention to how such systems can be evaluated using simulation-based methods. Prof. Ricci illustrated these concepts through a tourism-related use case, showing how recommendation policies can influence visitor choices and help address challenges such as overtourism and the distribution of visitors across points of interest.
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