Pietro Bonazzi
| Pietro Bonazzi | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 30, 1999 Turin, Italy |
| 🏳️ Nationality | Italian |
| 🏫 Education | University of Zürich (M.Sc. Computer Science) |
| 💼 Occupation | Researcher, AI Scientist |
| 👔 Employer | ETH Zürich |
| Known for | Efficient AI, Edge Machine Learning, In-Sensor Computing |
| Title | Doctoral Researcher |
| 🌐 Website | pietrobonazzi |
Pietro Bonazzi (born January 30, 1999, in Turin, Italy) is an Italian researcher specializing in efficient artificial intelligence, edge machine learning, and embedded systems. He is currently a Doctoral Researcher at ETH Zürich in the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (D-ITET).[1] His work focuses on in-sensor computing, event-based vision, and neural network quantization, with applications in wearable devices and robotic systems.[2]
Early Life and Education
Pietro Bonazzi was born on January 30, 1999, in Turin, Italy.[2] He completed his Master of Science in Computer Science at the University of Zürich.[3] During his studies, he conducted research in collaboration with the Google Semantic Perception Group and the UZH Robotics and Perception Group.[2]
He holds the CFA Level I certification and a Swiss standard fishing competence qualification (SaNa).[2] He is currently studying for an unlimited maritime license for sail and motor boats.[2]
Academic Career
Bonazzi is a Doctoral Researcher at ETH Zürich (February 2023 – present), affiliated with the Project-Based Learning Center (PBL) under the supervision of PD Dr. Michele Magno.[1][4] His doctoral research focuses on efficient AI computing, edge machine learning, and embedded systems.[2]
He served as a Visiting PhD Researcher at Huawei (January 2026 – June 2026).[2] He also worked as an Applied AI Consultant at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (March 2025 – August 2025) and at valantic (November 2024 – April 2025).[2]
Previously, he worked as an AI/ML Graduate Researcher (October 2021 – January 2023).[2]
Research Contributions
Bonazzi has authored over 30 peer-reviewed papers at venues including CVPR, ECCV, NeurIPS, IEEE Sensors, and ICRA.[2] His research spans:
- In-sensor computing — processing data directly on image sensors to reduce latency and power consumption
- Event-based vision — using neuromorphic cameras for low-power, high-speed applications
- Neural network quantization — optimizing deep learning models for deployment on microcontrollers
- Wearable devices and robotic systems — smart glasses, eye tracking, and collision avoidance
Selected Publications
- Ultra-Efficient On-Device Object Detection on AI-Integrated Smart Glasses with TinyissimoYOLO (ECCV 2024 Workshops) — authors: Julian Moosmann*, Pietro Bonazzi*, Yawei Li, Sizhen Bian, Philipp Mayer, Luca Benini, Michele Magno (*equal contribution)[5]
- Retina: Low-Power Eye Tracking with Event Camera and Spiking Hardware (CVPRW 2024) — authors: Pietro Bonazzi, Sizhen Bian, Giovanni Lippolis, Yawei Li, Sadique Sheik, Michele Magno[6]
- TinyTracker: Ultra-Fast and Ultra-Low-Power Edge Vision In-Sensor for Gaze Estimation (IEEE SENSORS 2023) — authors: Pietro Bonazzi, Yawei Li, Sizhen Bian, Michele Magno[7]
- Q-Segment: Segmenting Images In-Sensor for Vessel-Based Medical Diagnosis (IEEE AICAS 2024)[8]
- RGB-Event Fusion with Self-Attention for Collision Prediction — authors: Pietro Bonazzi, Christian Vogt, Michael Jost, Haotong Qin, Lyes Khacef, Federico Paredes-Valles, Michele Magno (ETH Zürich & Sony Semiconductor Solutions Europe)[9]
- PicoSAM2: Low-Latency Segmentation In-Sensor for Edge Vision Applications[4]
- Sub-Millisecond Event-Based Eye Tracking on a Resource-Constrained Microcontroller (IEEE IWASI 2025)[4]
- 3D Scene Generation from Scene Graphs and Self-Attention (UZH / Google Research)[2]
- Few-Shot Point Cloud Reconstruction and Denoising (UZH / Google Research)[2]
- On-Device Learning of EEGNet-based Network For Wearable Motor Imagery Brain-Computer Interface[5]
- Towards Low-Latency Event-based Obstacle Avoidance on a FPGA-Drone[5]
His work has been cited in multiple subsequent papers and featured in Anthropic CEO's ImportAI newsletter (Jack Clark's newsletter, November 2023).[10]
Awards and Recognition
- ETH Kite Award 2026 — with his team, for the embedded systems course[2]
- Outstanding Lecture Award, IEEE Sensors 2025 (Vancouver) — for PicoSAM2: Low-Latency Segmentation In-Sensor for Edge Vision Applications[4]
- Best Paper Award, IEEE IWASI 2025 — for Sub-Millisecond Event-Based Eye Tracking on a Resource-Constrained Microcontroller[4]
- Best Student Paper Award, ECCV Workshop ICVSE 2024 — for Ultra-efficient on-device object detection on AI-integrated smart glasses with TinyissimoYOLO[4]
- G-Research ETH Zürich Quant Challenge Winner 2025 — for cointegration-based trading strategies[2]
- Nova Talent Italian List 2022 (Computer Science) — invited to the gala organized by Bocconi University[2]
- Hardware Innovation Grant, InnovationNetwork.ch (June 2023) — 2,000 CHF grant[11]
- Best PBL Semester Thesis Award 2025 — supervised student Stefan Zihlmann for PicoSAM2[4]
Teaching and Academic Service
Bonazzi lectures at ETH Zürich on Machine Learning on Microcontrollers.[2] He co-developed an edX course titled Understanding and Deploying LLMs for Mobile Devices with Arm and the University of Cambridge.[3]
He serves as a peer reviewer for:
- CVPR
- NeurIPS
- IROS
- IEEE IoT Journal
- IEEE Sensors Journal
Entrepreneurship and Industry Engagement
- Entrepreneur First (EF) 2024 Cohort (London) — selected to refine entrepreneurial skills and test co-founder partnerships[2]
- Y Combinator Startup School 2026 (San Francisco) — selected to attend (July 25–26, 2026)[2]
- World Economic Forum 2026 (Davos) — attended the Annual Meeting (January 19–23, 2026), representing the ETH Zürich startup ecosystem at the USA House[2]
- Swiss-Sino Innovation Center (October 2024) — invited to showcase smart glasses across China (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Tianjin)[2]
Conference Presentations
- IEEE AICAS 2026 (Ha Long Bay, Vietnam) — TinyGLASS, real-time self-supervised in-sensor anomaly detection[2]
- CVPR 2025 — FPGA-accelerated obstacle avoidance using event cameras[2]
- ECCV 2024 (Milan) — On-device object detection for smart glasses[2]
- CVPR 2024 — Retina, event-based eye tracking system and open dataset[2]
- IEEE AICAS 2024 (Abu Dhabi) — Q-Segment, oral presentation[2]
- IEEE Sensors 2025 (Vancouver) — Outstanding Lecture Award presentation[4]
- IEEE IWASI 2025 (Puglia) — Best Paper Award presentation[4]
Open-Source Contributions
Bonazzi has released multiple open-source models and code:
- TinyGLASS — Hugging Face model (March 2026)[12]
- picosam3 — Hugging Face model[12]
- TinyissimoYOLO — GitHub repository (ETH-PBL/TinyissimoYOLO)[13]
- DSORT-MCU — GitHub repository[13]
Personal Life
Bonazzi played competitive basketball for over a decade.[2] He is passionate about basketball, tennis, golf, and swimming.[2] He is currently studying for an unlimited maritime license for sail and motor boats.[2] He holds the CFA Level I and Swiss standard fishing competence qualification (SaNa).[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "ETH Zürich Personnel Directory". ETH Zürich. Retrieved October 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 2.28 "Pietro Bonazzi – Official Website". Retrieved October 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ 3.0 3.1 "edX Instructor Bio". edX. Retrieved October 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 "PBL Awards Page". ETH Zürich. Retrieved October 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 A bot will complete this citation soon. Click here to jump the queue arXiv:[1].
- ↑ "ACM Digital Library". Retrieved October 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ "Semantic Scholar". Retrieved October 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ "CatalyzeX". Retrieved October 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ "Prophesee". Retrieved October 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ "ImportAI Newsletter". Retrieved October 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ "InnovationNetwork.ch". Retrieved October 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Hugging Face – pietrobonazzi". Retrieved October 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ 13.0 13.1 "GitHub – ETH-PBL". Retrieved October 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help)
