My name is Gianluca Bottiglieri /‘dʒanˈluːka bottiʎˈʎɛri/.
By training, I’m a novice computer scientist.
By trade, I’m an operations and technology manager.
By nature, I’m a lifelong learner.
I’m in the last year of a BSc in Computer Science at University of Genoa, where I am also proudly part of the competitive programming team. I decided to financially support my studies by working in my family business as a technician at first and as an operations and technology manager later, effectively bringing our company into the digital, Industry 4.0 age.
Now, I’m ready to step forward into a new chapter of my life, knowing that the team we’ve built over the last decade is now well equipped to handle any future challenge it may encounter.
I’ve always been an insatiably curious individual, always craving to learn something new. Historically, my interests have shared a common thread, which I would describe as an inclination towards science and especially maths. Even when I was just a teenager, I took part in multiple math competitions, managing to place in the top 1% of Italy three distinct times at PRISTEM Bocconi math games.
This inclination, coupled with necessity at first and with a burning passion later, brought me to start my studies in computer science 5 years ago. I believe we live in an incredible and never-before-seen moment in time, a moment where computers can empower us to process and discover things that would’ve been unthinkable even a hundred years ago. Recent AI findings make me even more convinced that the future of humanity is digital and, as such, deeply intertwined with applied maths.
I consider myself an explorer: I often say that if I was born a few hundred years back, I would’ve sailed the seas towards new lands. Of course, there are still many open frontiers to this day; one of them, in particular, has a special importance for me: the human brain. I love graphs, distributed systems, machine intelligence: my dream is to contribute to a digital mapping of the brain, like an explorer of the 15th century sailing to uncharted lands.
This has been a somewhat recent intuition, but one that has been keeping me awake at night: after years of struggles and lack of understanding, I’ve followed a path of psychiatric and psychological evaluations that lead to a clear diagnosis: I have autism and ADHD. For years I’ve asked myself why and how I differ from others, and the truth is that now that I have a diagnosis, I still lack a mechanistic understanding of how my processing differs from a neurotypical one. I am determined to make a difference with research, for the benefit of humanity and of my newly found community: what are the differences in the ways the neurotypical and neurodivergent brain process information? I want to answer this question and many others processing biological data through computational and numerical methods. I want to try and chart a course forward, with the help and guidance of professionals in the field.
To achieve this, I am targeting a stellar MSc and later PhD program that could propel me in the right direction: so far, my choice falls onto the MSc in Neural Systems and Computations of ETH Zürich. It is, of course, an extremely ambitious goal; I am also aware that my path is unconventional and that under many aspects my profile may not be as competitive as others, but I believe my unique perspective and my fiery passion can and will be the difference.
If you want to read my CV, you can do so [here].