About me
I am an Assistant Professor (aka Professor Adjunto in Brazil) at the Computer Science Department, Federal Fluminense University (UFF), located in the beautiful and cosy city of Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro.
Research
My main research area is (Probabilistic) Logical and Relational Learning, which mainly combines ideas of Machine Learning and Logical Knowledge Representation. Probabilistic Logic Learning (aka Statistical Relational Learning) is an exciting, emerging research area in the intersection of Relational Learning and Uncertainty Reasoning. My thesis was about the design of feasible and effective theory revision techniques in Relational Probabilistic Logic Learning and ILP. Different from purely learning approaches, theory revision algorithms start from a preliminary knowledge and propose modifications to it, guided by faulting examples.
Research Topics
- Relational Transfer Learning;
- Automatic Theory Revision from Examples;
- Learning combinations of probabilistic, logical and relational knowledge representation formalisms;
- Abduction and Latent Variables Discovery;
- Relational Reinforcement Learning and Multiagents Systems;
- Applications of SRL in Natural Language Learning, Semantic web, Cognitive Networks and Software Engineering (failure prediction detection and bug mining).
Other Research Interests
- Belief Revision;
- General Game Playing;
- Computer Vision;
- Causality;
- Programming Languages.
Short Bio
I hold a D.Sc. (Doctor in Science) title from the Department of Systems Engineering and Computer Science (PESC), filiated to the Alberto Luiz Coimbra Graduate School and Research in Engineering (COPPE) at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). The supervisors of my D.Sc. thesis were Professor Gerson Zaverucha and Professor Vitor Santos Costa. During the PhD, from July, 2008 to July, 2009, I visited the Computational Bioinformatics Laboratory of the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, under the supervision of Professor Stephen Muggleton. My thesis won the national PhD competition of Artificial Intelligence thesis (2010-2012). From 2012 to 2013 I have been a post-doctoral research fellow at PESC/COPPE/UFRJ, under the supervision of professor Valmir Carneiro Barbosa. I also hold a M.Sc. in Systems Engineering and Computer Science from COPPE/UFRJ and a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science (2002) from University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).