People

Principal Investigator
luigi.acerbi [at] helsinki.fi | | |
Associate Professor, University of Helsinki, Finland
Department of Computer Science | Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence (FCAI)

Luigi Acerbi leads the group at the University of Helsinki. Before that, he was a postdoctoral researcher in computational neuroscience and machine learning at New York University (NY, USA) with and at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) with , where he collaborated with the . He obtained his PhD from the University of Edinburgh (UK) as part of the Doctoral Training Center in Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience, working with  and . He spent several months of his PhD at the  in Cambridge (UK). Before that, he studied theoretical physics and computer science at the University of Milan-Bicocca (Italy). He obtained the title of Docent of Computer Science from the University of Helsinki and is a member of . He enjoys boardgames and speculative fiction.

Postdoctoral Researcher
name.surname [at] helsinki.fi
Researcher in probabilistic machine learning

We often have openings for postdoctoral researcher positions, either from our own grants or with funding from the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence (FCAI), in collaboration with other research groups. These openings may occasionally be suitable for exceptional doctoral students. Check for more information.

Postdoctoral Researcher
nasrulloh.satrio [at] helsinki.fi | 
Researcher in Probabilistic Machine Learning for Pharmaceutical R&D 

Loka pursued his PhD at Ghent University in Belgium, focusing on Bayesian Optimization for engineering applications. He joined the team in February 2024 to work on amortized inference methods and their applications. His interests revolve around Bayesian Optimization, Neural Networks, and their applications in Science and Engineering. Outside research, he enjoys playing computer games and has recently taken up running to balance his gaming hours.

Postdoctoral Researcher
petrus.mikkola [at] helsinki.fi | 

Petrus is an FCAI postdoc co-supervised by  (University of Helsinki). He joined the group in September 2023. Petrus did his PhD in the  at Aalto University under the supervision of . His research interests lie in Bayesian machine learning and statistics, with a particular focus on elicitation and Bayesian optimization. When taking a break from solving challenges, Petrus enjoys being in nature, engaging in activities such as cross-country skiing, running, or sauna sessions.

Postdoctoral Researcher
francesco.silvestrin [at] helsinki.fi
Postdoctoral Researcher in Probabilistic Machine Learning

Francesco comes from a computational neuroscience background, having spent his PhD studying human learning under uncertainty at the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK. After a few years working in startups, he joined the lab in September 2024 to investigate sample efficient methods for hierarchical Bayesian inference. Outside of work, he enjoys hiking, skiing, and the outdoors in general.

Postdoctoral Researcher
herilalaina.rakotoarison [at] helsinki.fi
Postdoctoral Researcher in Probabilistic Machine Learning

Heri joined the team in September 2025 as a postdoctoral researcher. Previously, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Freiburg with . Heri received his PhD in 2022 from the Université Paris-Saclay, under the supervision of and . His research interests include AutoML, black-box optimization, meta-learning, and more specifically, amortized inference and Bayesian optimization, which are also his main focus with the team. Besides work, he enjoys connecting with nature and calm activities but also likes get-togethers with friends.

Postdoctoral Researcher
cen-you.li [at] helsinki.fi |

Cen-You (Scott) Li is an FCAI postdoc co-supervised with since June 2025. Previously, Scott did his PhD at the and on Bayesian active learning under safety constraints. His research interests include Bayesian machine learning, sequential decision-making, and generative models. Outside research, he enjoys board games, skiing, traveling, and the occasional video games.

Postdoctoral Researcher
paul.chang [at] helsinki.fi | 

Paul is an FCAI postdoc who joined the team in March 2024. Paul's interests lie in amortized inference, Bayesian machine learning, sequential decision making and foundation models. He is currently collaborating with the team part-time, working as a machine learning engineer at in his day job.  In his spare time, Paul likes to do any form of sport to get outdoors, snowboarding, cycling, bouldering or surfing.

Doctoral Researcher
chengkun.li [at] helsinki.fi | 
Researcher in Sample-Efficient Probabilistic Machine Learning

Chengkun joined the lab in August 2021 as a doctoral student. Previously, he completed the Bachelor program at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and a double Master program at SJTU and Ecole Centrale Paris. After working on computer vision and robotics problems, he now focuses on the foundations of machine learning and novel probabilistic learning methods, with a special interest in sample efficiency. In his spare time, Chengkun enjoys reading, playing the guitar and taking photographs.

Doctoral Researcher
daolang.huang [at] aalto.fi |
Researcher in Amortized Probabilistic Machine Learning

Daolang is a doctoral student co-supervised with  (Aalto University) since July 2022. Previously, Daolang has worked as a research assistant in the  at Aalto University. He received his master’s degree at Aalto University, with a major in Machine Learning, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (). In his spare time, he is also an electronic music producer, mainly producing house music. Daolang's work in the lab focuses on amortized inference with applications to decision making and multi-agent modeling.

Doctoral Researcher
yang.yang [at] helsinki.fi | 
Researcher in Amortized Probabilistic Machine learning

Yang joined the lab as a doctoral student in September 2024 as part of the AI-DOC doctoral pilot. His second supervisor is (Aalto University). Previously, Yang received his Master’s degree from TU Eindhoven (NL), and his Bachelor's degree from Nankai University (CN), majoring in computer science. He is broadly interested in probabilistic machine learning and generative models, and mainly focuses on amortized inference in the group. In his spare time, he enjoys reading and playing strategy games. He has been trying bouldering recently and is enjoying it. 

Doctoral Researcher
xinyi.wen [at] helsinki.fi |
Researcher in Amortized Probabilistic Machine Learning

Xinyi joined the lab in September 2025 as an FCAI doctoral student, co-supervised with (Aalto University) and (Aalto University). Previously, she completed a Bachelor’s degree in Artificial Intelligence in China and a Master’s degree at Aalto University, where she majored in Machine Learning, Data Science, and Artificial Intelligence () with a minor in New Media. Her research in the lab focuses on amortized inference, user modeling, and design. In her spare time, Xinyi enjoys photography, traveling, culinary exploration, and dancing.

•  (Center for Neural Science & Department of Psychology, NYU)
•  (Department of Neuroscience, University of Geneva)
• (Department of Computer Science, Aalto University & University of Manchester)
•  (Department of Computer Science, Aalto University)
• (Departments of Neuroscience and Computer Science, Aalto University)
• (VTT)

Student collaborators

•  (Department of Neuroscience, University of Geneva)
• Xiang Li (Department of Psychology, NYU)
• Daisy Lin (Center for Data Science, NYU)
•  (Department of Computer Science, Aalto University)

Past collaborators

• (Department of Psychology, NYU)
• (Center for Neural Science, NYU; formerly at Baylor College of Medicine)
• (Zuckerman Institute, Columbia University)
• (School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh)
• (Department of Psychology, Princeton University)
•  (Department of Psychology, UC Berkeley)
•  (Department of Neuroscience, University of Geneva)
• Kalpana Dokka (formerly at Baylor College of Medicine)
• Elyse H. Norton (formerly at Department of Psychology, NYU)
• Yanli Zhou (Center for Data Science, NYU)