ELLIS Meet the Board Nicolo Cesa-Bianchi, ELLIS Board Member, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Milan, with photo of Nicolo
February 9th, 2026
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Meet the Board: Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi

Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi, ELLIS Board Member and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Milan 🇮🇹, shares his perspective on modular architectures, algorithms, and the future of machine learning research in this episode of our Meet the Board series.

Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi is an ELLIS Board Member and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Milan 🇮🇹 and one of Europe’s leading researchers in machine learning algorithm design, particularly in online learning. His work has shaped key foundations of the field, including multi-armed bandit algorithms with applications in recommender systems and online auctions, as well as graph analytics applied to social networks and bioinformatics.

In this episode of Meet the Board, Nicolò answers rapid-fire questions on some of today’s biggest AI debates — including whether we need more data or better algorithms, end-to-end vs. modular architectures, and whether progress depends on breakthroughs or steady scaling.

📘 Nicolò recommends the book "Understanding Machine Learning: From Theory to Algorithms" by Shai Shalev-Shwartz and Shai Ben-David, saying, “This is a wonderful introduction to the foundations of machine learning written by two amazing scientists I had the privilege to work with. It is also the main textbook for my machine learning course.”

👇 Watch the full video now

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