About
Francesco Greco is currently a Research Fellow and Ph.D. student at the Computer Science Department of the University of Bari Aldo Moro under the supervision of Prof. Giuseppe Desolda.
He is a member of the Interaction, Visualization, Usability & UX (IVU) Lab, directed by Prof. Maria Francesca Costabile.
From October 2023 to March 2024 he was a visiting postgraduate researcher in the CYS (Cybersecurity) research group at King's College London, UK, under the supervision of Prof. Luca Viganò.
He got a master's degree in Computer Science with full marks and honors in July 2022 at the University of Bari.
He got his bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Digital Communication with full marks and honors in July 2020 at the University of Bari - Taranto.
His research interests are in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Usable Security.
His research activities with the IVU Laboratory led to publications and presentations at international conferences (among which INTERACT 2021) since the completion of his bachelor's degree.
In his research, he explored areas related to End-User Development, Internet of Things, Usable Security, and Computer Vision.
In his Ph.D. project, he is currently exploring and developing human-centered eXplainable Artificial Intelligence(XAI) solutions for cyber-security.

Research Fellow and Ph.D. Student in Computer Science and Mathematics
- Affiliation: University of Bari "A. Moro", Computer Science Department
- Research Group: Interaction Visualization Usability & UX (IVU) Laboratory
- Email: francesco.greco@uniba.it
- Address: Via Orabona, 4 - 70125, Bari, Italy
Research
Hereafter, there is the full list of his scientific publications:
Proceedings of International Journals
- Desolda G., Greco F., Viganò L. (2025). APOLLO: A GPT-based tool to detect phishing emails and generate explanations that warn users. Accepted to the Engineering Interactive Computing Systems (EICS 2025) track of the Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACMHCI). url (preprint) <
- Greco F., Desolda G., Buono P., Piccinno A. (2025) Enhancing Phishing Defenses: The Impact of Timing and Explanations in Warning for Email Clients. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 103982, ISSN 0920-5489. url
- Saltarella M., Desolda G., Esposito A., Greco F., Lanzilotti R. (2024). Bridging the Gap Between GPDR and Software Development: The MATERIALIST Framework. Multimedia Tools and Application (MTAP). url
Proceedings of International Conferences
- Barletta S. V., Caruso F., Di Mascio T., Greco F., Islam T., Xiao H. (2024). CyberSecurity Education for Industry and Academia (CSE4IA 2024). In Proc. of the 2024 International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI '24). ACM, Article No.: 121, pp. 1-4. url
- Ragone G., Buono P., Desiato D., Desolda G., Greco F., Lanzilotti R. (2024). Towards a human factors assessment questionnaire for cybersecurity incidents. In Proc. of the 2024 International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI '24). ACM, Article No.: 71, pp. 1–3. url
- Breve B., Desolda G., Greco F., Deufemia V. (2023). Democratizing Cybersecurity in Smart Environments: Investigating the Mental Models of Novices and Experts. In. IS-EUD 2023: End-User Development, LNCS. Volume: 13917, pp. 145–161. Springer, Cham. doi
- Andrao M., Cappelletti A., Desolda G., Greco F., Treccani, B., Zancanaro, M. (2023). SMARTER Than Before: Empowering Teachers to Program a Modular IoT Educational Device. In the Joint Proceedings of the Workshops, Work in Progress, Demos and Doctoral Consortium at the 9th International Symposium on End-User Development (IS-EUD'23), CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 6-8 June 2023, Volume: 3408, Article No.: Short s0-01, pp. 1–9 url
- Buono P., Desolda G., Greco F., Piccinno, A. (2023). Let warnings interrupt the interaction and explain: designing and evaluating phishing email warnings. In Proc. of the Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI LBW '23), ACM Digital Library, April 2023, Article No.: 19, pp. 1–6 doi
- Andrao M., Desolda G., Greco F., Manfredi R., Treccani B., Zancanaro M. (2022). SMARTER: an IoT learning game to teach math. In Proc. of the 2022 International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI '22), ACM Digital Library, Article No.: 80, pp. 1–3. doi
- Andrao M., Desolda G.,Greco F., Manfredi R., Treccani B., Zancanaro M. (2022). End-User Programming and Math Teachers: an Initial Study. In Proc. of the 2022 International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces (AVI '22), ACM Digital Library, Article No.: 68, pp. 1–3. doi
- Desolda G., Greco F., Guarnieri F., Mariz N., Zancanaro M. (2021). SENSATION: an Authoring Tool to support Event–State paradigm in End-User Development. In proc. of IFIP TC13 International Conference on Human– Computer Interaction (INTERACT '21). Springer International Publishing. doi
- Caputo S., Castellano G., Greco F., Mencar C., Petti N., Vessio G. (2021). Human Detection in Drone Images Using YOLO for Search-and-Rescue Operations. In Proc. of the 20th International Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA '21). Springer Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. doi
- Breve B., Desolda G., Deufemia V., Greco F., Matera M (2021). An End-User Development Approach to Secure Smart Environments. In Proc. of International Symposium on End User Development (IS-EUD '21). Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 12724, pp. 36-52. doi
Proceedings of National Conferences
- Greco F., Desolda G., Esposito A., Carelli A. (2024). David versus Goliath: Can Machine Learning Detect LLM-Generated Text? A Case Study in the Detection of Phishing Emails. Italian Conference on Cybersecurity (ITASEC ’24). April 8th-12th 2024, Salerno, Italy. url
- Greco F., Desolda G., Esposito A. (2023). Explaining Phishing Attacks: An XAI Approach to Enhance User Awareness and Trust. In Proceedings of the Italian Conference on CyberSecurity (ITASEC'23), 03-05 May 2023, Bari, Italy, CEUR-WS, pp. 1-16. url
International Workshops
- Greco F., Desolda G., Viganò L. (2024). Supporting the Design of Phishing Education, Training and Awareness interventions: an LLM-based approach. 2nd International Workshop on CyberSecurity Education for Industry and Academia (CSE4IA) co-located with AVI 2024, 4th June 2024, Arenzano, Genoa, Italy. url
- Greco F., Buono P., Desiato D., Desolda G., Lanzilotti R., Ragone G. (2024). Unlocking the Potential of Simulated Phishing Campaigns: Measuring the Impact of Interaction among Different Human Factors. DAMOCLES’24: First International Workshop on Detection And Mitigation Of Cyber attacks that exploit human vuLnerabilitiES. Workshop co-located with AVI 2024, June 4th, 2024, Arenzano, Genoa, Italy. url
- Desolda G., Esposito A., Greco F., Lanzilotti, R., Saltarella M. (2023). MATERIALIST: A Web Platform for Guiding Privacy Design Pattern Selection in Software Development. In the Joint Proc. of the Workshops, Work in Progress Demos and Doctoral Consortium at the IS-EUD 2023 co-located with the 9th International Symposium on End-User Development (IS-EUD 2023). Cagliari, Italy, June 6-8, 2023. CEUR-WS. vol. 3408, art. no. Short s3-09, pp. 1-5. url
- Balducci F., Breve B., Desolda G., Greco F., Deufemia V. (2023). Task Automation Systems to Secure Smart Environments. In the Joint Proc. of the Workshops, Work in Progress Demos and Doctoral Consortium at the IS-EUD 2023 co-located with the 9th International Symposium on End-User Development (IS-EUD 2023). Cagliari, Italy, June 6-8, 2023. CEUR-WS. vol. 3408, art. no. Short s4-04, pp. 1-6. url
- Greco F., Desolda G., Esposito A. (2023) A Human-Centered XAI System for Phishing Detection In ACM CHI Workshop on Human-Centered Explainable AI (HCXAI'23), co-located with CHI'23. April 2023. url
- Manfredi R., Andrao M., Zancanaro M., Treccani B., Desolda G., Greco F. (2022). Toward a better understanding of End-User Debugging strategies: a pilot study. In Proc. of the third International Workshop "EMPATHY: Empowering People in Dealing with Internet of Things Ecosystems”, co-located with AVI 2022, 6th June 2022. Rome, Italy. CEUR-WS. vol. 3172, art no. Short 6, pp. 1-5. url
- Desolda G., Greco F., Zancanaro M., Costabile M.F. (2021). Extending Task Automation Systems with Event-State-Condition-Action Capabilities. In Proc. of the second International Workshop “EMPATHY: Empowering People in Dealing with Internet of Things Ecosystems”, co-located with INTERACT 2021. 30 August, 2021. Bari, Italy. CEUR-WS. vol. 3053, art no. 10, pp. 1-4. url
- Breve B., Desolda G., Deufemia V., Greco F., Matera M (2021). Enabling End-Users to Specify Security Rules with the EFESTO-5W Platform. In Proc. of the second International Workshop “EMPATHY: Empowering People in Dealing with Internet of Things Ecosystems”, co-located with INTERACT 2021. 30 August, 2021. Bari, Italy. CEUR-WS. vol. 3053, art no. 9, pp. 1-5. url
- Desolda G., Greco F. (2020). Integrating the Node-RED server in an IoT platform for ECA rules management. In Proc. of the first International Workshop “EMPATHY: Empowering People in Dealing with Internet of Things Ecosystems”, co-located with AVI 2020. 29 September, 2020. Ischia, Italy. CEUR-WS. vol. 2702, art no. 9. pp. 1-4. url
Contact
You can contact me via email. I'm also available at the Computer Science Department here in Bari.
Email:
Location:
Via Orabona, 4 - 70125, Bari, Italy