Roberto is best known for his seminal work on Reactive Search Optimization (RSO), a methodology for integrating machine learning and neural network techniques into stochastic local search heuristics for solving complex optimization problems. His methods have been widely used by industry to solve challenging problems like knapsack, quadratic assignment, graph problems related to clustering and partitioning, vehicle routing and dispatching, power distribution, industrial production and delivery, telecommunications, industrial and architectural design, biology. He is a full professor of Computer Science at Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Scienza dell'Informazione Università di Trento, Italy. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.