DEGREES, FORMER POSITIONS
I got a Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Granada (Spain) in 2009. Then I did two postdocs, one at the University of Granada between 2010 and 2013 and another one at Aalborg University between 2014 and 2016. In 2017, I was awarded a prestigious grant for young researchers by the Spanish Ministry of Science, and I moved back to Spain to the University of Almería. I was a Senior Researcher there for almost two years, and I also got a tenure-tracked Assistant Professor position at this same university from September 2018 to July 2021.
RESEARCH AREA AND FOCUS
My main research interest lies in the use of the probabilistic framework to design machines that learn from experience. This field of research is known as probabilistic machine learning. I am mostly interested in the application of machine learning to high-stake decisions making problems (e.g., health care, hiring, etc). In this context, the models need to quantify their confidence when making predictions (i.e., models that know what they do not know).
Robustness is a key consideration in this setting too. We need models that are robust to changes in the environment. And, finally, we also need models that can explain to a human how they produced a given decision.
PROJECTS
A machine learning model is typically learned over a finite amount of training cases (i.e. a bunch of patients), but we expect this machine to perform well when making predictions on similar but unseen cases (i.e. future patients). How do we learn a model that makes accurate predictions and assess its confidence on cases it has not seen before? How do we learn a model that can do that even in cases that are not so similar to those cases the model was exposed to? I am currently working on methodological foundations that can help us to answer these kinds of questions.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO CONTINUE YOUR CAREER AT AALBORG UNIVERSITY?
I enjoyed a lot my postdoc at AAU. The research environment was very stimulating and supportive. The PBL approach was something I really like a lot when I had the opportunity to supervise two Master Thesis projects. I also realised that Denmark is a great place to live.
PRIVATE/FUN FACTS
I love tea, especially Japanese green tea. So, if you are also into tea and come to Copenhagen, feel free to reach me and I can point you to some very nice tea places.