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Contact Information
| Name | Salvatore Alfio Sambataro |
| Professional Title | PhD Student @ University of Catania & AI Researcher @ iCTLab s.r.l. |
| salvatore.sambataro@phd.unict.it | |
| Alternative Email | salvosambataro2001@gmail.com |
Professional Summary
I am a PhD student in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision at the University of Catania, with a strong focus on synthetic media forensics and deepfake detection. Currently, I work at iCTLab s.r.l., an AI research lab, where I combine academic research with practical applications in machine learning and AI. My research interests include the development of robust detection systems for generative models and synthetic content, with emphasis on real-world applications and generalization across different domains.
Experience
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2025 - present Catania, Italy
AI Researcher
iCTLab s.r.l.
I work on both client-oriented AI projects and internal research initiatives within the AI team. My responsibilities include applying state-of-the-art machine learning and AI models to real-world use cases, designing custom modeling solutions, exploring different modeling strategies, prototyping innovative methods, and managing the full experimentation lifecycle. My work spans diverse domains (e.g., automotive), allowing me to apply AI and machine learning to real-world challenges.
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2023 - 2025 Bronte (CT), Italy
High School Computer Science Teacher (B016 – Computer Science Laboratory)
IIS Benedetto Radice
Appointed to a teaching position after successfully passing the 2020 National Public Competitive Examination for Secondary School Teaching (Concorso Ordinario). Taught Computer Science and laboratory courses, including programming, algorithms, and IT fundamentals, to upper-secondary students. Developed curricula, lesson plans, and practical lab exercises in line with national standards. Supervised student projects and promoted computational thinking, problem-solving, and hands-on technical skills.
Education
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2025 - present Catania, Italy
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2023 - 2025 Catania, Italy
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2020 - 2023 Catania, Italy
Awards
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2024 Premio Archimede XX ed. 2024 (Bachelor Degree)
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Catania
The ‘Premio Archimede’ award is awarded annually by the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Catania, to the Bachelor graduate in Computer Science who have achieved excellent results during their academic career and in their final thesis work.
Publications
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2026 SynthForensics: A Multi-Generator Benchmark for Detecting Synthetic Video Deepfakes
arXiv Preprint
A comprehensive benchmark for detecting purely synthetic video deepfakes created by text-to-video models. The benchmark comprises 6,815 unique videos from five state-of-the-art open-source T2V generators, with human-in-the-loop validation and multiple compression versions. Experiments demonstrate limitations of current detectors with mean performance drops of 29.19% AUC, while proposing methods to achieve 93.81% AUC for unseen generators.