Francisco Madaleno, João Böger, and Oskar Bohn Lassen have joined our group as PhD students, working on the ‘APEX – Artificial Intelligence for Policy Excellence in the Climate Crisis’ project, under the supervision of Professor Francisco Camara Pereira, along with three colleagues: Associate Professor Carlos Lima Azevedo, Assistant Professor Guido Cantelmo (Transportation Systems Modelling – DTU), and Associate Professor Filipe Rodrigues. Their work in APEX focuses on developing various machine learning-based approximations to simulation tools, which aim to significantly accelerate their runtimes by several orders of magnitude. APEX will be applied in crucial domains such as transport, energy, and the environment, areas that have significant societal impact. Committed to the principles of human-aligned AI, APEX ensures that its artificial intelligence operates with a focus on transparency, fairness, and accountability, aligning technological advancements with human values and ethical considerations.

Francisco holds a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, specializing in Aerodynamics. After completing his studies, he worked as an Applied Scientist at Zalando, focusing on price optimization and item flow distribution. João holds a Bachelor’s degree from UFSC and a Master’s degree from IFT-Unesp in Physics, where he specialized in Theoretical, Particle, and Computational Physics. Following his studies, he worked on Computer Vision and Deep Learning applications in Geophysical Sciences at LTrace – Geophysical Solutions. Oskar holds a Master’s degree in Business Analytics from DTU, where he focused on machine learning, operations research, and differential geometry. He brings two years of experience as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he worked on strategy and digital topics. He is excited to apply his industry experience and academic expertise to the fields of AI and machine learning.