People

Meet the team of the Machine and Human Intelligence group at the University of Helsinki and our international collaborators.

If you are interested in joining us, please check our open positions page.

Luigi Acerbi (PI)

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

Luigi Acerbi leads the Machine and Human Intelligence 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 Wei Ji Ma and at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) with Alexandre Pouget, where he collaborated with the International Brain Laboratory. He obtained his PhD from the University of Edinburgh (UK) as part of the Doctoral Training Center in Neuroinformatics and Computational Neuroscience, working with Sethu Vijayakumar and Daniel Wolpert. He spent several months of his PhD at the Computational and Biological Learning Lab 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 ELLIS (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems). He enjoys boardgames and speculative fiction.

Postdoctoral researcher (open position)

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 the Open Positions page for more information.

Martin Jørgensen (Postdoc)

Postdoctoral Researcher
martin.jorgensen [at] helsinki.fi | Personal page
Researcher in Sample-Efficient Probabilistic Machine Learning

Martin joined the lab as a postdoctoral researcher in October 2023. Before that he was a postdoc at University of Oxford (2021-2023) and he obtained his PhD from the Technical University of Denmark in 2020. His work mostly focuses on scalable Bayesian inference techniques and Gaussian processes. Outside of work, he likes to watch and participate in (almost) all kind of sports.

Nasrulloh R.B.S. Loka (Postdoc)

Postdoctoral Researcher
nasrulloh.satrio [at] helsinki.fi | Personal page
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.

Paul Chang (Postdoc)

Postdoctoral Researcher
paul.chang [at] helsinki.fi | Personal page
Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence FCAI

Paul is an FCAI postdoc, co-supervised with Jukka Corander, who joined the team in March 2024. Paul's interests lie in amortized inference, Bayesian machine learning, sequential decision making and foundation models. In his spare time, Paul likes to do any form of sport to get outdoors, snowboarding, cycling, bouldering or surfing.

Petrus Mikkola (Postdoc)

Postdoctoral Researcher
petrus.mikkola [at] helsinki.fi | Personal page
Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence FCAI

Petrus is an FCAI postdoc co-supervised by Arto Klami (University of Helsinki). He joined the group in September 2023. Petrus did his PhD in the Probabilistic Machine Learning Group at Aalto University under the supervision of Samuel Kaski. 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.

Francesco Silvestrin (Postdoc)

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.

Chengkun Li (PhD student)

Doctoral Researcher
chengkun.li [at] helsinki.fi | Personal page
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.

Daolang Huang (PhD student)

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

Daolang is a doctoral student co-supervised with Samuel Kaski (Aalto University) since July 2022. Previously, Daolang has worked as a research assistant in the Probabilistic Machine Learning Group at Aalto University. He received his master’s degree at Aalto University, with a major in Machine Learning, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (Macadamia). 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.

Yang Yang (PhD student)

Doctoral Researcher
yang.yang [at] helsinki.fi | Personal page
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 Samuel Kaski (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. 

Collaborators

Student collaborators

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

Past collaborators

  • Michael S. Landy (Department of Psychology, NYU)
  • Dora E. Angelaki (Center for Neural Science, NYU; formerly at Baylor College of Medicine)
  • Daniel M. Wolpert (Zuckerman Institute, Columbia University)
  • Sethu Vijayakumar (School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh)
  • Bas van Opheusden (Department of Psychology, Princeton University)
  • Aspen H. Yoo (Department of Psychology, UC Berkeley)
  • Berk Gerçek (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)
Alumni
  • Ulpu Remes (2022-24; FCAI Postdoc)
  • Victor Yeom Song (2023-24, MSc thesis; Master's student in Data Science @ University of Helsinki > PhD student @ Aalto University)
  • Huaiyu Li (2024, MSc research assistant; Master's student in Mathematics and Statistics @ University of Helsinki > PhD student @ University of Helsinki)
  • Yinong Li (2023-24, MSc thesis; Master's student in Data Science @ University of Helsinki).
  • Grégoire Clarté (2021-23; FCAI Postdoc > Lecturer in Statistics @ University of Edinburgh).
  • Bobby Huggins (2022-23, research assistant; Master's student in Mathematics and Statistics @ University of Helsinki).
  • Julia Perathoner (2023, BSc thesis; Bachelor's student in Mathematics and Statistics @ University of Trento).
  • Gurjeet Singh (2022, MSc thesis; Master's student in Data Science @ University of Padova > PhD student @ University of Geneva).
  • Jordy Dal Corso (2022, MSc thesis; Master's student in Data Science @ University of Verona > PhD student @ University of Trento).
  • Aki Rehn (2021-22, MSc thesis; Master's student in Data Science @ University of Helsinki > PhD student @ University of Helsinki).
  • Jaakko Koli (2021-22, MSc thesis; Master's student in Data Science @ University of Helsinki).
  • Mikko Aarnos (2021, MSc research assistant; Master's student in Mathematics and Statistics @ University of Helsinki).
  • Marlon Tobaben (2021, MSc research assistant; Master's student in Data Science @ University of Helsinki > PhD student @ University of Helsinki).