Dr. Elena Gavagnin

Work at ZHAW

Position

• Co-Head of Information Systems and Technologies
• Senior Lecturer and Project Leader for Data Science

Focus

• Machine Learning
• Predictive Analytics
• Computational Astrophysics

Teaching

Senior Lecturer and Project Leader for Data Science

Experience

• Business Intelligence Data Scientist
  SWISS Intl. Air Lines
  11 / 2017 - 09 / 2019
• Teaching Assistant
  University of Zurich
  01 / 2013 - 02 / 2017

Education and Continuing education

Education

• PhD / Institute of Computational Science
  University of Zurich
  01 / 2013 - 02 / 2017
• MSc / Astrophysics
  Università degli Studi di Bologna
  09 / 2010 - 12 / 2012
• BSc / Physics
  Università degli Studi di Bologna
  09 / 2007 - 12 / 2010

Continuing Education

CAS Higher and Professional Education
Zurich University of Applied Sciences
07 / 2021

Network

Membership of networks

• SKACH
• Alumni Association of Collegio Superiore, University of Bologna

ORCID digital identifier

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5146-3759

Projects

• AI-Accelerated Radiative Transfer Simulations for SKAO / Project leader / ongoing
• Square Kilometre Array: Mock-observations via generative deep learning (GenAI4SKA) / Project leader / ongoing
• Multimodal Detection of Toxicity in Video Games / Project leader / completed
• Multimodal Anonymization of Gameplay Data / Project leader / completed
• Transforming clinical assessments: Explicitly articulating implicit clinical decision-making to train AI / Team member / completed
• Intent detection in citizen-based damage reporting systems / Project leader / completed
• Tele-Assessment: Leveraging Deep Learning to Assess Upper Limb Kinematics after Stroke with Off-the-shelf Webcams / Team member / completed
• Square Kilometre Array: Mock-observations via generative deep learning / Project leader / completed
• Digital Companion / Team member / completed
• Dynamic pricing against food waste in university catering facilities / Project leader / completed
• Acceptance of an app for contact-tracing of SARS-CoV-2 in the Swiss population / Team member / completed
• Gamification: A browser-based Tool for Experiments / Team member / completed

Publications

• Unger, Tim; Kühnis, Benjamin; Sauerzopf, Lena; Spiess, Martina R.; de Spindler, Alexandre; Luft, Andreas R.; Easthope Awai, Chris; Schönhammer, Josef G.; Gavagnin, Elena,

  2025.

  Using deep learning to detect upper limb compensation in individuals post-stroke using consumer-grade webcams : a feasibility study.

  Frontiers in Medicine.

  12(1645369).

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2025.1645369

• Sauerzopf, Lena; Chavez Panduro, Celina G.; Luft, Andreas; Kühnis, Benjamin; Gavagnin, Elena; Unger, Tim; Easthope Awai, Christopher; Schönhammer, Josef G.; Degenfellner, Jürgen; Spiess, Martina,

  2024.

  Evaluating inter- and intra-rater reliability in assessing upper limb compensatory movements post-stroke : creating a ground truth through video analysis?.

  Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.

  21(217).

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-024-01506-7

• Unger, T.; de Sousa Ribeiro, R.; Mokni, M.; Weikert, T.; Pohl, J.; Schwarz, A.; Held, J.P.O.; Sauerzopf, L.; Kühnis, B.; Gavagnin, E.; Luft, A.R.; Gassert, R.; Lambercy, O.; Awai Easthope, C.; Schönhammer, J.G.,

  2024.

  Upper limb movement quality measures : comparing IMUs and optical motion capture in stroke patients performing a drinking task.

  Frontiers in Digital Health.

  6(1359776).

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2024.1359776

• Schilling, Frank-Peter; Flumini, Dandolo; Füchslin, Rudolf Marcel; Gavagnin, Elena; Geller, Armando; Quarteroni, Silvia; Stadelmann, Thilo,

  2022.

  Foundations of Data Science : a comprehensive overview formed at the 1st International Symposium on the Science of Data Science.

  Archives of Data Science, Series A.

  8(2).

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.5445/IR/1000146422

• Gavagnin, Elena,

  2025.

  AI for architects.

  In:

  Gerber, Andri; Atalay Franck, Oya; Mieskes, Michael, eds.,

  Architectural intelligence in the age of artificial intelligence.

  Bielefeld:

  Transcript.

  pp. 29-36.

  Architecture ; 93.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839430699

• Heierli, Jasmin; Gavagnin, Elena; Wu, Wenyuan; Händler-Schuster, Daniela; Dolata, Mateusz; Schwabe, Gerhard; de Spindler, Alexandre,

  2025.

  From conversation to agent : LLM-driven design of structured healthcare agents[paper].

  In:

  15th International Conference on Current and Future Trends of Information and Communication Technologies in Healthcare (ICTH), Istanbul, Türkiye, 28-30 October 2025.

  Elsevier.

  pp. 269-276.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2025.10.205

• Mladenov, Petar; Heierli, Jasmin; de Spindler, Alexandre; Gavagnin, Elena,

  2025.

  Missing pieces : how humans and GPT-4.1 detect absence and predict the unseen[paper].

  In:

  Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on MLLM for Unified Comprehension and Generation.

  1st International Workshop on MLLM for Unified Comprehension and Generation (MUCG), Dublin, Ireland, 31 October 2025.

  Association for Computing Machinery.

  pp. 9-13.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1145/3746276.3760466

• Sauerzopf, Lena; Schweizer, Celina; Luft, Andreas; Kühnis, Benjamin; Gavagnin, Elena; Unger, Tim; Easthope Awai, Christopher; Schönhammer, Josef G.; Degenfellner, Jürgen; Spiess, Martina,

  2025.

  Toward ground truth : evaluating therapists’ reliability in video-based assessment of upper limb compensatory movements post-stroke[poster].

  In:

  RehabWeek, Chicago, USA, 12-16 May 2025.

• Wu, Wenyuan; Heierli, Jasmin; Meisterhans, Max; Moser, Adrian; Färber, Andri; Dolata, Mateusz; Gavagnin, Elena; de Spindler, Alexandre; Schwabe, Gerhard,

  2024.

  PROMISE : a framework for model-driven stateful prompt orchestration[paper].

  In:

  Islam, Shareeful; Sturm, Arnon, eds.,

  Intelligent Information Systems.

  36th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE), Limassol, Cyprus, 3-7 June 2024.

  Cham:

  Springer.

  pp. 157-165.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61000-4_18

• Chavez Panduro, Celina G.; Spiess, Martina; Gavagnin, Elena; Kühnis, Benjamin; Unger, Tim; Schönhammer, Josef; Sauerzopf, Lena,

  2024.

  Movement analysis through videos in occupational therapy : insights from an ongoing research project for clinical practice[poster].

  In:

  6. Kongress der Ergotherapie, Fribourg, Schweiz, 24.-25. Mai 2024.

• Städeli, Rico; Leu, Roman; Heierli, Jasmin; Meisterhans, Max; Gavagnin, Elena; de Spindler, Alexandre,

  2024.

  Multimodal conversational interactions for facial composites : a case for stateful prompt orchestration[paper].

  In:

  Capol, Corsin; Cieliebak, Mark; Weichselbraun, Albert; Musat, Claudiu; Maier, Elisabeth; Zimmermann, Lucas, eds.,

  Proceedings of the 9th edition of the Swiss Text Analytics Conference.

  9th Swiss Text Analytics Conference – SwissText 2024, Chur, Switzerland, 10-11 June 2024.

  Association for Computational Linguistics.

  pp. 59-67.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-32139

• Wu, Wenyuan; Heierli, Jasmin; Meisterhans, Max; Moser, Adrian; Färber, Andri; Dolata, Mateusz; Gavagnin, Elena; de Spindler, Alexandre; Schwabe, Gerhard,

  2024.

  PROMISE : model-driven stateful prompt orchestration for persuasive conversational interactions[paper].

  In:

  9th Swiss Text Analytics Conference – SwissText 2024, Chur, Switzerland, 10-11 June 2024.

• Unger, Tim; Weikert, Thomas; Mokni, Marwen; Luft, Andreas; Gassert, Roger; Lambercy, Olivier; Sauerzopf, Lena; Gavagnin, Elena; Kühnis, Benjamin; Spiess, Martina; Schönhammer, Josef; Awai Easthope, Chris,

  2024.

  Quantifying upper limb movement quality after stroke with a webcam[poster].

  In:

  13th World Congress for Neurorehabilitation, Vancouver, Canada, 22-25 May 2024.

• Helland, Solveig; Gavagnin, Elena; de Spindler, Alexandre,

  2023.

  Divide et impera : multi-transformer architectures for complex NLP-tasks[paper].

  In:

  Proceedings of the 8th edition of the Swiss Text Analytics Conference.

  8th Swiss Text Analytics Conference – SwissText 2023, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 12-14 June 2023.

  Association for Computational Linguistics.

  pp. 70-75.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-30386

• Denzel, Philipp; Weiss, Manuel; Gavagnin, Elena; Schilling, Frank-Peter,

  2026.

  Optimization of deep learning models for radio galaxy classification.

  arXiv.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.04773

• Brucker-Kley, Elke; Keller, Thomas; Borghoff, Birgitta; Stutz, Isabelle; Michot, Janick; de Spindler, Alexandre; Gavagnin, Elena; Turegard, Jonathan,

  2024.

  Science fiction prototyping : friendship with artificial intelligence.

  Winterthur:

  ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-2495

• Brucker-Kley, Elke; Keller, Thomas; Borghoff, Birgitta; Stutz, Isabelle; Michot, Janick; de Spindler, Alexandre; Gavagnin, Elena; Turegard, Jonathan,

  2024.

  Science Fiction Prototyping : Freundschaft mit Künstlicher Intelligenz.

  Winterthur:

  ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-2494

• Denzel, Philipp; Schilling, Frank-Peter; Gavagnin, Elena,

  2023.

  Map-to-map translation for SKA mock observations and cosmological simulations[poster].

  In:

  Hammers & Nails 2023 - Swiss Edition, Ascona, Switzerland, 29 October - 3 November 2023.

  Winterthur:

  ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-29047

• Denzel, Philipp Benedikt; Schilling, Frank-Peter; Gavagnin, Elena,

  2023.

  Deep learning the SKA : the Square Kilometer Array project[poster].

  In:

  Datalab Symposium, Winterthur, Schweiz, 11. Januar 2023.

  ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.

  Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-27219

• Sauerzopf, Lena; Chavez Panduro, Celina G.; Luft, Andreas R.; Kühnis, Benjamin; Gavagnin, Elena; Unger, Tim; Easthope Awai, Chris; Schönhammer, Josef G.; Degenfellner, Jürgen; Spiess, Martina,

  2024.

  Transforming clinical assessments : rater reliability in video-based evaluation of upper extremity after stroke.

  In:

  Annual Conference of the Swiss Society for Biomedical Engineering (SSBE), Winterthur, Switzerland, 5 September 2024.

Publications before appointment at the ZHAW

• Elena Gavagnin, Andreas Bleuler, Joakim Rosdahl, Romain Teyssier, Star cluster formation in a turbulent molecular cloud self-regulated by photoionization feedback, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 472, Issue 4, December 2017, Pages 4155–4172,
• Elena Gavagnin, Michela Mapelli, George Lake, A critical look at the merger scenario to explain multiple populations and rotation in iron-complex globular clusters, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 461, Issue 2, 11 September 2016, Pages 1276–1287,
• M. Mapelli, A. Vallenari, R. D. Jeffries, E. Gavagnin, T. Cantat-Gaudin, G. G. Sacco, M. R. Meyer, E. J. Alfaro, M. Costado, F. Damiani, A. Frasca, A. C. Lanzafame, S. Randich, R. Sordo, S. Zaggia, G. Micela, E. Flaccomio, E. Pancino, M. Bergemann, A. Hourihane, C. Lardo, L. Magrini, L. Morbidelli, L. Prisinzano and C. C. Worley, "The Gaia-ESO Survey: N-body modelling of the Gamma Velorum cluster", A&A, 578 (2015) A35,

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