I solve problems at the intersection of science, AI, and robotics.

Ciao, I am Giuseppe

I am a technology leader with a deep foundation in physics and digital health.

I am Senior Director of Data Science and AI at Tonal, where I lead efforts in applied research, machine learning, perception, and analytics to build next-generation digital health technologies. I transitioned into a career in AI, software, and robotics after earning my PhD in computational chemistry from the University of California, Davis. My career bridges research and product development, advancing technologies in edge computing, generative AI, and robotics-driven health systems.

I’m always looking to connect with passionate individuals to discuss innovation in AI, data science, robotics, and digital health.

Let's connect

About

Knowing is not enough, we must apply.

Being willing is not enough, we must do.

Leonardo da Vinci

My career has spanned science, technology, and health, but what ties them together is an insatiable curiosity and passion for building intelligent systems that improve human lives. After decades driving progress in AI, robotics, and edge computing, I’ve learned that the most productive way to make an impact is to collaborate eagerly with other curious people and translate research breakthroughs into bold, real-world solutions.

Science

I obtained a summa cum laude M.Sc. in theoretical physics and a Ph.D. in computational chemistry. During my academic career, I was honored with a fellowship from the Molecular Sciences Software Institute under the NSF, where I developed the kALDo software — a high-performance platform for modeling heat transport at the nanoscale. My research has led to multiple publications in leading peer-reviewed journals, including Nature Communications.

Technology

I am a researcher and engineering leader with a background in physics, robotics, and advanced software development. I build production systems that combine machine learning, generative AI, and edge computing. At Tonal, I lead teams that process multimodal data from hundreds of thousands of connected devices. I hold several patents in AI and robotics, and my teams have collected and leveraged the world’s largest strength-training dataset.

Health

My focus is on applying AI, robotics, and edge computing to digital health. At Tonal, I develop intelligent systems that integrate biomechanics, movement science, and generative AI to power adaptive resistance, personalized coaching, and real-time feedback. Beyond fitness, my work connects to broader health technology challenges, including the safe use of wearables, EMR/EHR data, and privacy-preserving AI for human well-being.

Portfolio

As Senior Director of Data and AI at Tonal, I drive innovation at the crossroads of fitness, robotics, and digital health. By combining sensor fusion, edge AI, and generative AI, we build adaptive training systems that support performance, safety, and long-term well-being. Our patented technologies redefine the workout experience, making fitness more personalized, interactive, and impactful.

Discover Tonal

Understanding heat transport is critical at the nanoscale. Using advanced numerical models, we can simulate heat flow at the atomic level with precision. kALDo is an open-source, Python-based software package that integrates TensorFlow and HPC, implementing the Boltzmann Transport Equation and Quasi-Harmonic Green-Kubo method for both CPUs and GPUs. It has been adopted internationally by the scientific community to accelerate research in materials and nanotechnology.

Discover kALDo

Past projects
During my time in Silicon Valley, I served as an Engineering Manager and Software Engineer, collaborating with startups and global enterprises. I led teams in building scalable mobile and web platforms, creating recommendation systems, and optimizing large-scale data pipelines. This experience gave me deep exposure to software ecosystems, media technologies, and cross-functional collaboration, sharpening my ability to deliver impactful solutions in high-growth environments.

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Publications, Talks and Patents

Tools, continuous integration Learn More

Blog: Cooking Calm into Continuous Integration: Claude Headless Reviews and Coverage Served Fresh

Sept 12, 2025 – Substack

Claude headless is one of the most powerful ways to bring AI into real development workflows. Instead of chatting in an interface, you can run Claude directly in automation, reading diffs, generating reviews, drafting documentation, or even scanning for security issues, all inside your CI pipeline. I recently published an article about applying this in practice ...

Tonal AI and Behavioral Science Learn More

Talk: Empowering Progress: Hacking Motivation at Tonal with AI and Behavioral Science

June 10, 2025 – Data and AI Summit

What a whirlwind week at Tonal! At the Data and AI Summit, we shared how we're leveraging cutting-edge AI and behavioral science to supercharge motivation and build lasting habits. Over 1000 folks got hands-on with the revolutionary Tonal 2 at our booth while we spotlighted our innovative personalized training goal ecosystem that makes fitness smarter and more engaging.

Artificial Intelligence, Aging and Fragility Learn More

Talk: Artificial Intelligence, Aging and Fragility: A Challenge for Our Humanity

April 11, 2025 – Istituto Palazzolo, Milan

This public forum at Istituto Palazzolo explored how artificial intelligence can support aging and fragile populations by enabling assisted longevity, enhancing movement quality, and addressing biases embedded in data and algorithms. It also highlighted how AI technologies can reduce isolation and promote dignity through solidarity-based design, drawing on real-world applications and research.

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Talk: Reinventing Products In The AI’s Age - Making The Difference Through Design

March 17, 2025 - INNOVIT

We are entering a moment where the interface between humans and machines is being redesigned from the ground up. Rather than adapting ourselves to fixed systems like typing, clicking, or swiping, we are building technologies that adapt to us. Signals from our muscles, gestures in space, and patterns of movement and posture are becoming meaningful inputs for intelligent systems.

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Webinar: The Next Generation of Human-Machine Interaction

March 7, 2025 - Facing Disruption

Advancements in AI are redefining how humans interact with machines, moving beyond text and screens to real-time, multi-modal interfaces. Wearables, sEMG, and smart glasses are unlocking new ways to seamlessly integrate AI into daily life. By interpreting movement, bio-signals, and augmented reality, these technologies are transforming industries from healthcare to immersive computing.

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Paper: Elastic moduli and thermal conductivity of quantum materials at finite temperature

December 14, 2024 - Journal of Applied Physics

We describe a theoretical and computational approach to calculate the vibrational, elastic, and thermal properties of materials from the low-temperature quantum regime to the high-temperature anharmonic regime. This approach is based on anharmonic lattice dynamics and the Boltzmann transport equation. It relies on second and third-order force...

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Talk: Digital Health and Active Aging: Insights from Science and Data.

June 5, 2024 - INNOVIT

AI-driven fitness technology is transforming how we approach active aging. Using real-time data from sensors, platforms like Tonal offer personalized strength training, improving longevity and health. By analyzing movement quality and providing tailored guidance, these systems enhance physical performance, helping users maintain functionality as they age...

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Talk: Building Multi-Agent Applications: Insights from the GenAI Cohort at INNOVIT

March 6, 2024 - INNOVIT

AI-powered multi-agent systems are transforming how we interact with technology. Developers are increasingly implementing these systems to automate complex tasks and streamline user experiences. While single-agent applications are well-established, the full potential of multi-agent systems is only beginning to emerge as they prove their value in collaborative environments...

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Patent: Synthesis of Exercise Guidance Training Data

January 23, 2024 - Patent

Recently, I worked on a patent involving the synthesis of exercise guidance data. This innovation generates modified exercise videos using a pose data change model, enhancing training data through varied labels. By training a guidance classifier model on these videos, the system improves the accuracy of exercise movement guidance, leading to more personalized and effective fitness recommendations...

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Patent: Exercise Guidance Using Multi-Modal Data

October 16, 2023 - Patent

I contributed to the development of a patent focused on Exercise Guidance Using Multi-Modal Data, which leverages advanced sensor technology to enhance workout efficiency. This innovation integrates data from optical and other hardware sensors to provide real-time movement guidance based on historical performance. By analyzing multiple inputs, the system triggers specific conditions to optimize...

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Patent: Exercise Machine Struggle Detection

May 31, 2023 - Patent

At Tonal, I worked on a patent centered around exercise machine struggle detection. This technology predicts the performance of upcoming repetitions using data from prior movements, helping to detect potential physical failure during a workout. It determines how many reps a user has left in reserve, offering a tailored, efficient training experience. This advancement aims to improve workout safety and effectiveness...

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Paper: Ultrahigh Convergent Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Nanotubes from Comprehensive Atomistic Modeling

July, 2021 - Physical Review Letters

Anomalous heat transport in one-dimensional nanostructures, such as nanotubes and nanowires, is a widely debated problem in condensed matter and statistical physics, with contradicting pieces of evidence from experiments and simulations. Using a comprehensive modeling approach, comprised of lattice dynamics and molecular dynamics simulations...

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Paper: Efficient Anharmonic Lattice Dynamics Calculations of Thermal Transport in Crystalline and Disordered Solids

Sept, 2020 - Journal of Applied Physics

Understanding heat transport in semiconductors and insulators is of fundamental importance because of its technological impact in electronics and renewable energy harvesting and conversion. Anharmonic Lattice Dynamics provides a powerful framework for the description of heat transport at the nanoscale... Source code

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Paper: Neural network reproduces vibrational effects in manganese-germanium

June, 2020 - American Institute of Physics, Scilight

The machine learning method has been applied for the first time to a binary compound. Researchers are increasingly using neural networks as a machine learning method to analyze the atomic structure of complex materials. Although the method has been applied to phase transitions in single compounds, its transferability across compositions of binary compounds has never been tested...

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Paper: Modeling heat transport in crystals and glasses from a unified lattice-dynamical approach

August, 2019 - Nature Communications

We introduce a novel approach to model heat transport in solids, based on the Green-Kubo theory of linear response. It naturally bridges the Boltzmann kinetic approach in crystals and the Allen-Feldman model in glasses, leveraging interatomic force constants and normal-mode linewidths computed at mechanical equilibrium...

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Research: A Statistical Physics Model for Demand-Supply Imbalance in Stock Market Prices

June, 2019 - UC Davis

We applied Vasiliki Plerou's model to the S&P 500 Value Index, analyzing demand-supply imbalance and price dynamics. The model, similar to an Ising model from statistical mechanics, highlights nonlinear price-change behavior. Our study explores how market imbalances correlate with price changes, revealing key insights into investor behavior and market...

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Talk: An introduction to probabilistic programming

Jul, 2018 - Grio Tech Talk, Youtube, SF

In today's data-driven world, where everything is represented by probabilities, programming languages are evolving to include new native variables and distributions. Starting with an overview of probability theory and Bayes' theorem, I demonstrate how modern machine learning models can leverage probabilistic programming to make more accurate predictions and handle uncertainty in complex data environments...

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Code: Compressing sensing using LASSO

December, 2016 - Presentation at UC Davis

In a world of data, where everything is represented by probabilities, programming languages are providing new kinds of native variables, distributions. Starting from an introduction of probability and Bayes theorem, in this video, we show how modern Machine Learning can take advantage of this new probabilistic programming paradigm... Source code

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Research: An introduction to Quantum Annealing

November, 2016 - UC Davis

In 2011, the Canadian company D-Wave announced D-Wave One, the first commercially available quantum computer based on Rainer, a 128 superconducting flux qubits processor. Since very early age, the D-Wave computer had been used as a heuristic minimizer of the Ising energy functions. In the last few years, many institutions supported the research to use it as an optimizer...

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Talk: Server side swift using IBM Kitura

Aug, 2016 - Grio Tech Talk, Youtube, SF

Swift has gained a lot of popularity during recent years. From being a language used to develop only Apple devices, this versatile programming language has recently expanded its applications to many other fields. A recent example is Android development. In this video, we show how to quickly create a web server using Swift and IBM Kitura... Source code

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Blog: Apple TV prototyping with Interface Builder

March, 2016 - Grio Tech Talk, SF

With the acquisition of Next in 1997, a new tool was initiated into the Apple family. Originally known as an enhancement of OpenStep, called NextStep, it caught the attention of the developer community under the name of Interface Builder, as part of the XCode suite. Now about to celebrate its 20th birthday, Interface Builder... Source code

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Blog: GPU Parallel Computing

May, 2015 - Grio Tech Talk, SF

Graphic Processor Units are becoming more and more important in recent years and are spreading into many different fields, some of which include: computational finance, defense and intelligence, machine learning, fluid dynamics, structural mechanics, electronic biology, physics, chemistry, numerical analysis and security. There are many reasons why a... Source code

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Code: A Monte Carlo simulation for predicting the World Cup

July, 2014 - Grio Tech Talk, SF

Several weeks ago, I set out to predict who would win the World Cup. I faced this interesting and challenging problem that I want to share: how can we accurately relate the outcome of the World Cup to the varying strengths, performances, and unpredictable factors influencing the teams throughout the entire tournament? Source code

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Pricing Options: The Black-Scholes Model

November, 2013 - University of California, San Diego

Derived by economists Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, and Robert Merton in 1973, the Black-Scholes formula is a way to determine how much a European call option is worth at any given time. This groundbreaking formula led to a boom in options trading and scientifically legitimized the activities of the financial derivatives market and quantitative...

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Contact

I enjoy collaborating with forward-thinking teams and individuals exploring the frontiers of machine learning, healthcare technology, and data-driven solutions. Let's connect to discuss ideas and opportunities.

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