Valentina Colla is Associate Professor of Metallurgy at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa (Italy), where She coordinates a team of 21 researchers named “ICT for Complex Industrial Systems and Processes”. Her research interests comprise modelling, simulation, monitoring, and optimization applications for the steel sector targeting optimal management of steelmaking processes, sustainability improvement and by-products management and reuse, among other objectives. She pioneered the adoption of Artificial Intelligence tools and techniques in metallurgy for material properties estimation, product quality control and improvement as well as production processes monitoring and optimization. She participated in 86 projects funded by the European Union, in 14 of them also with the function of project coordinator. She is an active member of ESTEP, where She chairs the Focus Group “Smart Factory,” and She is vice-Chairman of the Focus Group “Circular Economy”.