Federica Villa received her M.Sc. degree (summa cum laude) in Electronic Engineering in 2010 and her Ph.D. degree in Information and Communication Technology in 2014, both from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. In 2010, she was a visiting researcher in the Department of Biochemistry at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles).
She has been an Associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano since 2021.
Her research activities focus on the design and development of Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) detectors, arrays, and systems for health monitoring and bioimaging applications, including super-resolution and quantum imaging techniques. Her main research projects involve Quantum Ghost Imaging, quantum communications, protein sequencing through Raman spectroscopy, and autofluorescence-based tumor classification.
She is also the Principal Investigator of a Joint Research Program with Luxottica, focusing on the development of smart eyewear for biomarker monitoring.