Riccardo Menoli

About me

1995-2017 - Padova 🇮🇹

I lived in Padova until the age of 22. I've been always good at math and I loved probability. Thus, I decided to enroll in the Bachelor's degree in Statistics at the University of Padova. During the university, I developed my passion for computational statistics and computer science. Thus, I chose to attend the Master's degree in Data Science at the University of Padova. To support my studies, I was a football referee for the Italian Football Federation. During this period, had my first internship at Diana.corp. Diana is a start-up that manages and promotes e-commerce for luxe fashion brands. My parents house is on the foot of the Colli Euganei hills. I loved to clymb the hills with my bicycle.

2018-2019 - Helsinki 🇫🇮

In the second and last year of my Master, I attended the courses for the Master's degree in Data Science at the University of Helsinki. This experience has been a life changer. It was the first time I lived myself. I had the bliss to meet fantastic people that introduced me to the self-development world. Moreover, I started to appreciate saunas and cold baths.

2019-2020 - Rome 🇮🇹

I moved to Rome to join BIP, a big Italian consulting firm. BIP gave me the opportunity to work for huge corporates operating in telco and public administration. I worked with outstanding colleagues who teach me how data science projects are managed and deployed. During this period, I developed my passion for art. In my spare time, I was volunteering for international students in Rome. Rome is like a crazy beautiful woman. You come across stunning works of art and fall in love with her. However, there are instances when the bus to take you home fails to arrive, and that's when you start to hate her.

2020-2022 - Berlin 🇩🇪

Rome is beautiful but messy and not so international. The desire to live and work in an international environment was bubbling in my stomach. When I saw that Alberto Busetto was assembling a global data science team to support the digitalization of The Adecco Group. I grabbed the opportunity. I moved in Berlin in November 2022. Moving abroad during the biggest covid wave was not a piece of cake. I was forced to self-isolate for more than a month. Moreover, I had no clue when I could go back to visit my family. Meanwhile, I had to go through the required paperwork to establish myself in Germany. Luckily my colleagues at the Adecco were extremely supportive and the job transition was smooth. Moving abroad long term is not as easy as doing an Erasmus. You have to deal with bureaucracy (I had nightmares figuring out my tax duties) and you have to be conscious and proactive to make new friends. Berlin, however, is a melting pot with a unique vibe. The majority of the population is composed of young "free" expats. Everything is tolerated. Nothing is weird. I got in contact with outstanding people with fascinating ideas. Berlin was like a nurturing grandmother to me. It welcomed me warmly and imparted valuable lessons that helped me grow.

2022-Now - Prague 🇨🇿

In May 2022, I turned my life upside down by moving to Prague. During my time in Berlin, I was dating a beautiful and clever girl from Prague. We have known each other for many years, she was and is an important person in my life. I have seen the potential to create something truly special together. Tired of having my life scattered across different countries, I decided to fully commit to the game. It was a bold move. Unfortunately, it did not pan out. Audentes Fortuna iuvat, fortune favors the bold. Prague did not give me what I moved for, however, it provided me with something else: self-awareness. I purchased a gravel bike which I have affectionately named Fortunata, and I have begun practicing meditation. Biking and meditating heal my soul. Another life changer was the Multisport card. A card that lets you go to hundreds of different gyms and gives you the possibility to try for free different types of sports. Thanks to multisport, I got passionate about climbing. Moreover, I restarted my sauna/cold bath routine. Prague is a city full of contradictions. In one corner, you find a communist building, on the other, a modern skyscraper. The city is famous for its nightlife, however, most of the pubs and wine bars close at midnight. Czechs are enthusiastic drinkers but also the most sporty individuals. The sporty and contradictory nature of Prague made me feel at home.

Work Experience

The Adecco Group - Data Scientist

Nov 2022 - Now --- Berlin, Prague

The Adecco Group is the world's second-largest Human Resources provider and temporary staffing firm. It is a Fortune 500 firm. I'm part of the global data and AI team. The team is responsible to deliver data-driven digital solutions at scale in different countries. I'm part of the matching project. The aim of the project is to provide a semantic engine that can help recruiters to fill orders and candidates to find jobs. In particular, I'm responsible for designing and developing the ontology of the skills and job titles. The ontology is used to normalize and associate skills and job titles. The ontology is based both on NLP and graph theory. The service is available through a scalable API. In 2022 the matching service was rolled out in the LHH app in the US. Compared to the previous matching solution, it almost doubled the conversion rate of candidates searching for a job in the app. The challenge for 2023 is adoption in other languages and business units.

Bip Consulting - Data Scientist

Mar 2019 - Nov 2022 --- Rome

Bip is a consulting firm with a specialized big data analytics team. Bip has 2600+ employees and 100+ data scientists. I was involved in the design and development and maintenance of the following projects:
- Revenues forecasting: Application that predicts the revenues of the month. Estimated time saved: 24 working hours per month saved. Sector: telco, finance
- Cognitive search: An information retrieval system for technical projects. Sector: digitaliazation of pubblic administration
- Traffic forecasting: Application that spots traffic jams in real-time and predicts future traffic jams. Sector: digitaliazation of pubblic administration

Diana corp. - Intern Data Scientist

Jul 2017 - Sep 2017 --- Venice

Diana is a start-up specialized in the management and promotion of e-commerce for luxe fashion brands. The main project of the intern was a POC to detect which features of an image The main project of the intern was a POC to detect which features of an image capture client's attention.

Projects

Here you can find a list of projects I've worked on in my carrer, during the univeristy, or in my free time.

Generative AI News Alert

Dec 2023 - Now --- Project done @The Adecco Group --- Team members: 2

An AI-powered application extracts relevant news regarding clients and prospects, applies generative AI to summarise and tag the news. The relevant salespeople are then notified by email with the summaries..
Skills Python - WebScriaping - DataBriks - ChatGPT

JOB TITLES AND SKILLS ONOTOLOGY

Apr 2020 - May 2023 --- Project done @The Adecco Group --- Team members: 5+

The ontology is a mathematical space able to represent the relationships and distances among skills and job titles. We developed a service able to normalize input raw skills/job titles, output the most similar skills/job titles and suggest which are the most relevant skills given a job title. The ontology is based both on NLP and graph theory. The service is available through an API. The ontology is the backbone of the semantic matching search. The semantic matching search was rolled out in the LHH app in the US. Compared to the previous matching solution, it almost doubled the conversion rate of candidates searching for a job in the app. The challenge for 2023 is adoption in other languages and business units.
Skills Python - Pandas - NLP - GraphTheory - Node2Vec - Transformers - Flask - Azure

Machine learning Betting Bot

Jan 2020 - Dec 2021 --- Free time project --- Team members: 1

System able to spot the best value bets in the market. A value bet is a bet that has a better percentage of return than the expected risk. The application runs daily on AWS. It collected the data, trains the model, and outputs the forecasts. The suggested bets were sent via a Telegram group one hour before the match. The report of the week is published in a web App. The has been on the "premium" subscription on an app for betting suggestions, reaching out to hundreds of users and generating a stable income derived by subscriptions/app ads.
Skills Python - Pandas - Web scraping - Time serires forecasting - Docker - AWS - Streamlit

Sentece similarity API service

Dec 2022 --- Free time project --- Team members: 1

Exploring an embedding space is complicated. This project aims to create a user-friendly backend API in which the user can explore the similarity of the embedding space generated from a sentence transformer. The user can add entities, remove entities from the space, and compare distances among them. I did this project to get familiar with FastAPI and Redis search.
Skills Python - FastAPI - NLP - HuggingFace - Redis

Balance sheet forecasting

Feb 2020 - Oct 2020 --- Project done @Bip Consulting --- Team members: 3

Given daily fine-grained time series about the tradings of the company coming from different platforms, we developed a system that predicts the balance sheet of the month. The output was available to C-level stakeholders of a telco company with 15+ million in revenue, through a PowerBI dashboard.
Skills Python - Pandas - Sklearn - Time series - Automation

Data Science on Road operations

Aug 2019 - Jan 2020 --- Project done @Bip Consulting --- Team members: 3

Starting from data coming from cars' black boxes, the application spots the traffic jams and predicts future traffic jams. Moreover, the application predicts the effect of external factors on typical traffic conditions.
Skills Python - Hadoop - PySpark - Hive - Time series

Eye Blink Detection Algorithm

Dec 2017 - Jan 2018 --- University time project --- Team members: 4

The application sports eye blinks in a video. It first detects the eyes, then computes the Eye Aspect Ratio (EAR) over time. The time series of EARs is the input of a tailored classier. Given the EAR time series, it predicts if it corresponds to a blink or not.
Skills Python - Pandas - Sklearn - OpenCV - Video Analytics - Computer vision - Time series classification

COGNITIVE SEARCH ON A DIGITALIZED DOCUMENTS'COLLECTION

May 2019 - Sep 2019 --- Project done @Bip Consulting --- Team members: 1

It is an information retrieval system for technical projects. Given a project as input, the system extracts relevant. The information is extracted firstly by identifying the relevant area of the project through convolutional neural networks. Then the information got read by an OCR. The insights extracted, are leveraged to provide the most relevant projects given a user input query.
Skills Python - PyTorch - Computer Vision - convolutioanl neural network - OCR - Information retrieval

My Articles

I wrote a couple of articles that has been published in Codemotion magazine. Codemotion is an onlime magazie for techies. Have a look:

Logging in Python: a broad, gentle introduction

A crucial step in writing production-quality code is the ability to log properly. In this article introduce the best practices to log in Python.

Four Things I've Learned After Three Years as a Data Scientist

Lessons learned as a data scientist. Key tools, insights, best practices and code examples based on real industry experience.

Thoughts

List of articles I wrote about ideas and topics I'm intersted in.

Two powerful mindsets to let go negative events..

2023.07.20

Have you ever gotten stuck in a negative mind space. A space where you end up ruminating "what if" sentences. This article may help you to get rid of these thoughts.
Tag Mindfulness

A stoic perspective about daily problems.

2023.06.22

Have you ever experienced a period when problems take control over you? This article may give a new prospective about daily problems.
Tag Mindfulness

Empathy: the game changer in your relationships.

2023.05.11

Have you ever had the feeling that you were not able to click with a person? This article may help you to go deeper in your conversations.
Tag Relationships

A resilience lesson from the Paris-Roubaix

2023.04.11

Unexpected and uncontrollable events can turn our life upside down. How can we survive to this black swarns?
Tag Self-development

The last time. A hidden way to be more mindful.

2023.04.08

Have you ever thought that whatever you are doing now or have you done yesterday, could be the last time you have done it? Would you behave in the same way?
Tag Mindfulness

Validation overdose. Thoughts about one of most dangerous and spread drug in our time.

2023.03.20

Thoughts regaring validation. Why are we seeking it, why it can be a problem in modern times. How to avoid to overdose.
Tag Sociology

Why breakups are so painful?

2023.02.25

I analyzed why breakups are so painful. They are painful because our brain's normal behaviors backfire in this specific situation. The solution is to ground ourselves and tackle our thoughts one per time.
Tag Relationship - Psychology

Why you should start blogging

2022.12.29

Blogging is my solution to address two problems: the former is the fragmentation of my personal information, and the latter is the benefit of writing. Writing my thoughts can help to make my mind clear and improve my communication skills.
Tag Self-Development

Things that I like

Books that I have enjoyed

• L'era del cuore Andrea Mazzuchelli
  Self development book that helps to discover your values and make bold decisions.
• Fattore 1% Andrea Mazzuchelli
  It taks about how to build new habits and the imporance of small but constant changes.
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck Mark Manson
  By chosing our goals, we choose the probles we have to deal with. We have a limeted number of fucks to give. We have to choose them wisely.
• Eight dates John Gottman
  You and your parthner should share the same core values. These books helps you to figure them out.
• How to Not Die Alone Logan Ury
  It applies social science to the realm of dating and relationship. Offers guidelines to navigate the modern dating terrain and avoid common mistakes.
• Think like a Monk Jay Shetty
  Book written by a former monk. It contains extraordinary peices of advices to find gratitue and purpose in your life.

Places with a soul

• Giardino degli aranci - Rome 🇮🇹
  Best place to enjoy the sunset in Rome. Usually, some street artist plays melancholy songs. Great vibes, great memories.
• Musei Vaticani - Rome 🇮🇹
  Mainstream. But I have to mention it. I bet you think the three homosexual kisses in the Sixtine chapel. It's quite hilarious that in the place where the Pope is elected three homosexual kisses are depicted, isn't it?
• Galleria Borghese - Rome 🇮🇹
  Get amazed by Benini and Caravaggio masterpieces. Do you know that Caravaggio portrayed himself as the head of Golia defeated by David?
• Via Dei Tribunali - Naples 🇮🇹
  The soul of Naples. Street food and great pizzerias, mixed with the motorcycles' noises. An amazing mix of craziness and culiary art.
• Sentiero degli Dei - Naples 🇮🇹
  The best hiking trail I have ever done. I did it on the 31st of December at 20 degrees. We start from the top of the mountain, admiring the Costiera Amafitana. We ended up with a well-deserved bath in Positano.
• Maretimo - Sicily 🇮🇹
  The dolomites of Sicily. It is a little island, not super touristic with great hiking trails, crystal blue water, and delicious Sicilian food.
• Cadini di misurina - Bonacossa hike - Veneto 🇮🇹
  The most beautiful mountains I've ever seen. The hike is a bit diffcult. Ferrata equipemnt is recommend but not mandatory.
• Pico - Azores 🇵🇹
  A little island in the middle of the ocean. The island is famous for its wine and its volcano. It is 2.351m tall, and it is the tallest pick in Portugal. The island is basically composed only of this huge mountain. Its pick is covered by clouds most of the time. It looks like they want to hug him. I suggest climbing the volcano in the morning to see the sunrise from the top.
• Sagres - Algarve 🇵🇹
  The chin of Portugal. Today, it is a small surfers' village. It was the last piece of land that many sailors saw before approaching the Atlantic Ocean. It looks like a cruise place. Always windy. It has a unique, nostalgic wild vibe.
• Teufelsberg - Berlin 🇩🇪
  On top of the "hill of hell", a hill constituted by the ruins of the building destroyed by the 2nd war world. You can admire an abandoned military cover by hipster street art. It is a representation of Berlin's history.
• MauerPark - Berlin 🇩🇪
  Flea Market and random live music. Full of Berliner lay down with a beer. This place holds the soul of Berlin
• Hermitage Museum - San Petersburg 🇷🇺
  Where else can you find int the same place Caravaggio, Vag Gogh, Canova, and Matisse? When I saw Matisse's Dance I was close to passing out.
• La Gomera - hike from Imada to Playa Santiago - Canary Islands 🇪🇸
  La Gomera is a wild isalnd near Tenerife. Is outside the tourist flow that hits Tenerife. It is wild, pacific and senic. The hike from Imada to Playa Santiago is the best one in the isalnd.
• Roque del Taborno - Tenerife - Canary Islands 🇪🇸
  Tenerife is unique. A bit too touristic but the nature's varaiety in the isalnd is outstanding. If you have time only for one hike go here. Great view, not so many people and you'll start the hike in a local village where locals still live in the middel of the National Parque.
• Tatra mountains - Hike from Popradské pleso to Batizovské pleso - Slovakia 🇸🇰
  Tatras are very underrated mountains. I was suprised by their beauty. I did this hike in May when lot of snow was still there. I strongly recommend you to be there in the same period. The snow white color makes these mountains special.
• O circuit - Torres del Paine Patagonia - Chile 🇨🇱
  Hiking and camping for 8 days in the harsh Pataognia weather is not for everyone. You have to fight against wind, snow, heavy rains and hunger. But you'll be rewarded with amazing mountain views, neverending glaciers and new frieds. It is not just a trip, it is also an internal journey.
• Puna - Tollar Grande - Argentina 🇦🇷
  Puna is a dry desert in the border between Argetina, Bolivia and Chile. It is famous in Argentina due to the litium mines. Icas thought that this place was the land of their gods. No tourists come here, there are only tiny villages of miners. No animals, no tree. The condiations are too harsh for life. If you feel in the moon here.
• Quebrada de las Señoritas - Tilcara - Argentina 🇦🇷
  La Quebrada de las Señoritas is a track in the middle of red giant canyons rock desert area outside of Uquia, in the northern Argentina province of Jujuy.

Elements

i = 0;

while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
    print 'Iteration ' + i;
    deck.shuffle();
    i++;
}

print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';