Mr. Franco Farrugia is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher at MCAST and a researcher specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Decentralized Finance (DeFi). With over 13 years of academic experience, his work focuses on reinforcement learning for Automated Market Makers (AMMs), sentiment-driven crypto analytics, and AI-powered liquidity management. He previously served as Head of IT at ZBX crypto exchange and is a board member at Crypto Hub Malta. Franco bridges academia and industry by developing AI-driven financial prototypes, conducting statistical validation of trading models, and transforming research into practical fintech solutions aligned with European innovation initiatives.