user@massimogollo.cloud ~ $

Massimo Gollo

About Me

I like understanding why systems break, and building them so they don’t. That curiosity led me from a PhD in Distributed Systems at the University of Catania to production Kubernetes clusters, where I learned that elegance on a whiteboard rarely survives first contact with real traffic.

These days I split my time between backend engineering, infrastructure automation, and a growing obsession with LLMs. I’m currently interested in fine-tuning LLM for domain-specific tasks and figuring out how to deploy them without melting the hardware budget.

When I’m not debugging YAML or staring at Prometheus dashboards, I’m probably over-engineering my homelab or convincing myself that this side project will actually get finished.

Latest Posts

Skills

Languages
Python Golang Java Shell Swift C
Infrastructure
Docker Kubernetes OpenShift Proxmox Nginx
Automation
Ansible Terraform Helm GitLab CI/CD Operators
Observability
Prometheus Grafana Jaeger Istio
Data
PostgreSQL MySQL Redis Kafka

Experience

Software & AI Engineer Jun 2021 - Nov 2025
Catania, Italy
  • Developed microservice backends (Python, Golang) for IoT and mobile apps (WeeNet, Ruppu, YouSpeed)
  • Managed Kubernetes deployments, GitLab CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure with Prometheus monitoring
  • COAT project (NGI Sargasso EU-funded): on-premise LLM inference with Ollama/vLLM, fine-tuned Qwen3 with Unsloth for privacy risk analysis in online agreements
Visiting PhD Researcher Jan 2025 - Jul 2025
Palaiseau, France
  • Built a Kubernetes Event Generator to simulate workloads, node failures, and scheduler configurations
  • Research on distributed systems scheduling and resource management in cloud-native environments
Teaching Assistant Sep 2022 - Feb 2025
Italy
  • Object Oriented Programming: Conducted lab sessions on Java programming, assisted students with exercises and projects
  • Distributed Systems and Big Data: Tutored students on distributed computing concepts and cluster technologies
Software Developer Intern Sep 2020 - Feb 2021
Catania, Italy
  • ASP.NET Core backend development

Education

PhD in Computer Engineering - Distributed Systems | University of Catania, Italy
2022 - 2025
Master's Degree in Computer Engineering | University of Catania, Italy
2018 - 2022 Grade: 110/110 cum laude
Thesis: Resource Allocation with Multiple Offloading Options in Cloud-Edge Scenarios
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering | University of Catania, Italy
2014 - 2018
Thesis: Sentiment Analysis on Web Comments Using Azure Machine Learning

Activities

Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WETICE 2025) | IEEE
Jul 23-25 2025 Catania, Italy
Grifin Workshop on AI, Networks & Cybersecurity | Sorbonne University & LINCS
Apr 22-23 2025 Paris, France
AI, Science & Society Conference | Institut Polytechnique de Paris
Feb 6-7 2025 Paris, France
Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WETICE 2024) | IEEE
Jun 26-28 2024 Reggio Emilia, Italy
VIII Mediterranean School of Complex Networks
Jun 25-30 2023 Catania, Italy

Publications