Bio
My full name is “Ítalo José da Silva Oliveira”, but I sign my scientific publications as “Ítalo Oliveira” only.🙂
With a background as a Lawyer, Law Teacher, and Researcher in the Philosophy of Law, I became fascinated by mathematical logic, which I first encountered through my philosophy studies in law school, I decided to pursue a career in Computer Science, believing information technology is taking over every aspect of society and every research field.
I have always been persistent in chasing my goals. However, I have been extremely fortunate to meet incredible and kind people without whom I would not have achieved anything.
2025
I started to work as Senior Information Analyst at Y.digital, working with information modeling, ontologies, and Linked Data in the public and private sectors. In parallel, I maintained research activities as a Guest Researcher at the Semantics, Cybersecurity and Services Group (SCS) at the University of Twente, in The Netherlands🇳🇱.
My paper “An Ontological Model of the Phishing Attack Process” won the Best Paper Award at EMMSAD 2025.
2024
- I obtained a PhD in Computer Science from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy🇮🇹, researching ontology-driven conceptual modeling applied to the security domain, under the supervision of Enrico Franconi, Giancarlo Guizzardi, and Tiago Prince Sales.
- I was part of the organization team of the 2024 International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS), which happened at the University of Twente. Moreover, I organized the Semantic Shields I: 1st International Workshop on Modeling for Cybersecurity, one of the 2024 Joint Ontology Workshops (JOWO), co-located with FOIS.
2023
- I moved from Italy to Enschede, Netherlands🇳🇱, to work as a Guest Researcher at the Semantics, Cybersecurity and Services Group (SCS) at the University of Twente.
2020
- Living abroad on my own, I had to deal with the COVID-19 global pandemic while doing a PhD in Computer Science at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy🇮🇹.
2019
- I obtained a Doctor of Law degree from the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil🇧🇷, researching artificial intelligence as a solution for the court congestion problem under the supervision of Prof. Torquato da Silva Castro Júnior and Prof. Fred Freitas.
2018
I was a Research Fellow at the Law School of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV Direito Rio), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil🇧🇷, in the context of the fellowship program “Fellows in Rio” (2018).
Together with Prof. Gustavo Just, I was a finalist in the Esdras Award for Law Teaching (second edition, 2018), an award for participatory teaching activities in law that make students the leading actors of their learning, promoted by the Law School of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV Direito SP), São Paulo, Brazil🇧🇷. The activities that stand out in the Esdras Award are included in the Participatory Legal Teaching Materials Database, where my proposal is publicly available (in Portuguese only) for replication in legal educational environments.
2017
I received a grant to participate in the ICCL Summer School ‘Bridging the Gap between Human and Automated Reasoning’ at the Dresden University of Technology, Germany🇩🇪.
In the context of the joint CNRS (France) and FACEPE (Brazil) project “Reconciling Description Logic and Non-Monotonic Reasoning in the Legal Domain”, collaborating with Prof. Ivan Varzinczak, Prof. Fred Freitas, and Cleyton Rodrigues, I made a research visit to the Computer Science Research Institute of Lens, Université d’Artois, France🇫🇷.
2016
- I obtained a Master’s degree in Law from the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil🇧🇷, researching the philosophical problem of the definition of the concept of law and legal science.
2015
I received a grant to participate in the Hilbert Bernays Summer School on Logic and Computation at the University of Göttingen, Germany🇩🇪. It was my first international trip.
I passed the bar examination administered by the Order of Attorneys of Brazil in Pernambuco🇧🇷, which granted me the right to practice in any court or jurisdiction of the country.
2012
- I obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil🇧🇷.
2011
- I obtained B2 First Cambridge English Qualification, previously known as “Cambridge English: First” and the “First Certificate in English” (FCE).
1990
- I was born in the Northeast of Brazil🇧🇷 in a lower-middle-class family, the only son of a single mother who worked hard in two jobs to raise me.