Artificial Life, Adaptive Cognition, Evolvability

Interested in numerical models and new conceptual ideas, applications from industry to medicine.

I focus on numerical modeling of mechanics of solid materials and cell mechanics. The models that I developed so far address granular matters, bio-fluids, cellular tissues, and individual cells.

I further develop Agent-based Models, which are methods to predict collective behavior from individual dynamics controlled by rules or differential equations. Examples: tumor growth, swarms, crowd movement.

The methods I used are Particle-based methods which offer great flexibility within physical modeling, and can operate in a large range of scales, from atomistic scales (e.g. Molecular Dynamics) to continuum approaches (e.g. Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics).

I am interested in combining social with cognitive sciences in order to model decision-making facing uncertainty. I am particularly interested in connectionist models of individual and organizational decision-making.

I may make use of agent-based models, statistical network analysis, neural networks, evidence theory, cognitive maps as well as qualitative research, with no preference for any particular method. I dislike theoretical equilibrium models and empirical research based on testing obvious hypotheses.

Agent based modeling and simulation for social sciences
Model exploration

Technology empowers us to act locally, autonomously and in decentralized ways and my research objective is to, in a global context, find ways to govern, communicate and scale the impact of alternative monetary models. This with a special focus on achieving a more inclusive and community owned financial system.

As a Ph.D. fellow for the Agenda 2030 Graduate School, I expect to identify challenges and conflicting elements in the sustainability agenda, contribute with new perspectives, and create solutions for the challenges ahead

I am a geographer interested in exploring tourism system dynamics and assessing tourism’s role in environmental sustainability using agent-based modelling (ABM). My current work focus is on human complex systems interactions with the environment and on the application of tools (such as scenario analysis, network analysis and ABM) to explore topics systems adaptation, vulnerability and resilience to global change. I am also interested in looking into my PhD future research directions which pointed the potential of Big Data, social media and Volunteer Geographical Information to increase destination awareness.
I have extensive experience in GIS, quantitative and qualitative methods of research. My master thesis assessed the potential for automatic feature extraction from QuickBird imagery for municipal management purposes. During my PhD I have published and submitted several scientific papers in ISI indexed journals. I have a good research network in Portugal and I integrate an international research network on the topic “ABM meets tourism”. I am a collaborator in a recently awarded USA NCRCRD grant project “Using Agent Based Modelling to Understand and Enhance Rural Tourism Industry Collaboration” and applied for NSF funding with the project “Understanding and Enhancing the Resilience of Recreation and Tourism Dependent Communities in the Gulf”.

My research focus is on the economic analysis of agri-environmental policy instruments as means to navigate ecosystem service trade-offs in multifunctional landscapes. In this context, I am particularly interested in identifying policy instruments and instrument mixes allowing to align societal preferences with biophysical potential of landscapes to provide multiple ecosystem services. Here, the mutual relationship between regulatory and incentive-based instruments is of much interest. Using agent-based modelling, but also more qualitative approaches, I look at the emerging landscape-level patterns that result from various policy mixes given realistic descriptions of farmers’ behaviour and institutional settings.

My general research interest is on modeling of complex natural and human systems systems. Specifically, I am interested in modeling agricultural production systems, that blends the complexity, multiplicity of scales and feedbacks of biophysical interactions in natural ecosystems with the additional intricacies of human decision-making. During last years I have coordinated the development and evaluation of an agent-based of agricultural production systems in the Argentinean Pampas.

Agent Based Modeing in geosimulation

GeoSimulation
GeoWeb
GeoAI

I have been working in the software implementation of different kinds of complex networks inspired in real-life populations. My software may be classified on several categories: complex networks, Aedes aegypti development, dengue epidemics, cultural behavior of populations. I am also researching in education of Deaf people in Colombia.