1. Francesco Benincasa
Research Support Engineer - Earth Science Department
Barcelona Supercomputing Center
c/ Jordi Girona 29, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
phone +34 934137612
email: mailto:francesco.benincasa@bsc.es
web: http://www.bsc.es
Personal Details
Date of Birth : 4 March 1978
Place of Birth: Cosenza, Italy
Citizenship : Italian
Work
2010 - present Work at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - http://www.bsc.es
for the international project ”WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning
Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS)” as software developer.
of a web portal, we-based services, scientific data management
and visualization and network upload/download of data
using python/Zope/Plone, jQuery/javascript, XML and various
scientific packages and framework as: GrADS, OpenGrADS,
NetCDF library and matplotlib
2008 - 2010 Work for my company EcoScienze Societa’ Cooperativa -
http://www.ecoscienze.org, founded by myself,
on project, research and development of free software,
appropriate technologies, sustainability and renewable energies
2006 - 2008 Continuing the previous work at BioComputing Competence Center,
the biomedical division of Super Computing Solutions s.r.l. -
http://www.scsolutions.it, a company owned by CINECA
Interuniversity Consortium - http://www.cineca.it
2005 - 2006 : Work as web developer at Medical Technology Laboratory of
Istituti Ortopedici Rizzoli - http://www.ior.it/tecno
for developing a web portal and web-based services using:
C/C++, Plone CMS, Zope framework and python language
2002 - 2005 : Work at Yacme s.r.l. - http://www.yacme.com
an italian software company, as developer of network, web and
database applications on Linux/Unix environments using languages:
C/C++, perl, python, XUL, javascript, sql, plsql

2. Education
1996 - 2004 : Laurea (Master of Science) in Computer Engineering at
awarded in University of Bologna.
16 December 2004 Laurea Thesis Title:
Algoritmi Euristici per il Problema del Bin Packing
(Heuristic Algorithms for Bin Packing Problem)
Advisor: Prof. Paolo Toth
1991 - 1996 : Maturit` Scientifica (High School Level)
a
awarded in Liceo Scientifico “Giuseppe Moscati”, Grottaglie, Italy
July 1996
Languages
Mother tongue: Italian;
Other languages:
. English (Professional working proficiency)
. Spanish (Full professional proficiency).
Computer Skills
Operating Systems: GNU/Linux (all distributions), *BSD, GNU/Hurd.
Knowledge also of commercial Unix (AIX, Solaris) and Windows
but I avoid to use them :-P
Programming Languages: C/C++, python, javascript, perl, php, java, sql, plsql, html, xml,
prolog, assembly x86, shell Unix (bash, sh, ksh), XUL, L TEX
A
Software: all the most important software packages for common uses.
Deep knowledge of:
. Zope framework
. Plone Content Management System
. Django framework
. Ajax/jQuery javascript framework
. PHP-written CMSs Joomla and Drupal
. RDBMS systems: PostgreSQL, MySQL and Oracle
. Webservices: Soap/gSoap, ZSI, XML-RPC
. Scientific libs: Scipy/Numpy/Matplotlib
Software Projects
for university exams or for fun
fetch-webmail: software for downloading mail using webmail interface, useful if a provider doesn’t
provide POP3 or IMAP services. Written as a bash script, it uses perl and curl;
Proot: extensible language interpreter written in java, which uses knowledge bases written in prolog;
P2root: upgraded version of previous, written in python. It uses Jython technology to access to

3. java libraries. Designed according to client-server model;
dtifs: network filesystem, derived from NFS, written in C for GNU/Hurd operating system;
hi bp: heuristic algorithms written in C that resolve optimally the Bin Packing problems;
LTCSP: Linux Terminal Clustered Server Project. A software system based on LTSP Linux Ter-
minal Server Project - http://www.ltsp.org and OpenMosix -
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openmosix/ that combines the features of the two systems.
The purpose is optimization of old hardware.
for job
mithril: web application for managing scholarships. Written in perl and plpgsql, based on postgresql
RDBMS;
panoramix: web intranet software designed for both companies and public administrations. Written
in python, based on Zope framework. Furthermore, the system has a Samba module written in C,
for interfacing Linux servers and Windows clients;
1: text-based interface written in C and Ncurses libraries that connects with oracle database for
managing inventories. The application runs on a server, and wireless mobile clients connects to it;
Ah: automatic shop system developed for a Dutch big supermarket group. The system was Linux-
based with an Oracle RDBMS as server-side part, mobile terminals for barcode reading both for
clients and market-workers and administration workstation as client-side part. The administration
interface was written in XUL and javascript, and terminal interfaces in C + Ncurses for clients, and
html+javascript for workers.
Ref: http://www.yacme.com/index.php?/YSE/yacme-shopping-experience.html
DeC: graphic software for managing data of patients. It connects to an internet website, logs in,
download data and confront them to other stored in .csv files, returning a .csv file well written.
Developed in python with TK graphic toolkit.
BiomedTown.org/Physiomespace.com: web portal for biomedical communities, with permis-
sion levels, content publication system, forum/mailing list and various add-ons for collaborative work.
Furthermore it manages documentation archives and data of biomedical computational models. It
uses xmlrpc and soap webservices as comunication technology. It’s all based on Zope/Plone/python
technology.
Ref: https://www.biomedtown.org/, https://www.physiomespace.com/
openMAF: an open source framework for the rapid development of applications based on the Vi-
sualisation Toolkit and other specialised libraries almost written in C++. I developed its python
API for upload/download XML data and its webservices support written in C++/gSOAP for up-
load/download binaries.
Ref: https://www.biomedtown.org/biomed_town/MAF/Reception/
WMO SDS-WAS portal: web portal for a scientic Earth Science project, manages scientific
data archives and visualization. Developed with python/Zope/Plone technology combined with
javascript/jQuery framework.
Ref: http://sds-was.aemet.es/

4. Map Generator (not released yet): a software written in python for generation of visualization
maps of scientific data in NetCDF format. Developed with OpenGrADS, NetCDF and Matplotlib
libraries.
in general: configuration, design and development of web portals and services based on Zope/Plone,
Joomla and Drupal.
Teaching
january 2003: social and economic aspect of free software. Target: high school teachers;
april 2003: GNU/Linux and embedded and real-time systems. Target: high school students;
2003 - 2004: seminaries on free software. Both on social and technical aspects. Target: high school
students;
june 2004: seminaries on the danger of software patents;
june-december 2006: co-advisor for three thesis on computer engineering concerning clustering
and hardware optimization, for using old computers through the Trashware practice -
http://trashware.linux.it/ and with free software;
march-may 2007: conferences and presentations of previous thesis in various meetings/conferences
in Bologna, Italy -
http://www.vag61.info;
4-5 may 2007: presentation in Rome of Hackgrid project -
http://www.autistici.org/hackgrid/doku.php and of previous thesis
20 may 2007: conference on trashware and presentation of previous thesis at ”First Day of Digital
Decreasing” in Sommacampagna, Verona, Italy
Research Interests
Advanced Web Applications, Optimization algorithms, Embedded/Real-Time systems,
Trashware, Energetical Saving, Renewable Energies,
Artificial Intelligence, Microkernels, Operating Systems
Other Interests
Social: co-founder of no-profit organizations for promoting free software culture (Free as free speech,
not free as free beer), Bologna Free Software Forum - http://www.bfsf.it, and for fighting Dig-
ital Divide, Ingegneria Senza Frontiere - http://isfbologna.wordpress.com. Ex-Member of an
University Fraternity.
Other: love for literature, with preferred authors: John Fante, Elio Vittorini, Charles Bukowsky,
Raymond Queneau, Douglas Adams, Philiph Dick, Ray Bradbury. Love for music and for art in
general. I like painting and playing acoustic/classic guitar.