Hi!
I am Tiago Azevedo, a research associate at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, at the University of Cambridge. In this same department, I completed a PhD degree in computer science under the supervision of Prof. Pietro Lio', where I explored applications of machine learning in neuroscientific and genetic scenarios with a focus on graph representation learning. I was previously a research scientist at Arm, where I worked with efficient probabilistic ML modelling and graph neural networks.
I broadly like to research applications of artificial intelligence in the real world, with a particular interest in the medical and biological domains.
Feel free to drop me an email to discuss anything you want, related or not with what you find in this webpage :)

The rest of this webpage is currently outdated, but I hope to update it as soon(-ish) as possible!

Experience

Supervisor at University of Cambridge (Oct 2016 -)

Supervised Object-Oriented Programming (Michaelmas 2016/2017/2018), Databases (Lent 2017, Michaelmas 2017/2018), Machine Learning and Real-World Data (Lent 2018). In total more than 30 groups, around 70 students from 11 colleges. During 18/19, supervised 2 Part II dissertations.

Green Officer at Churchill College MCR (Oct 2016 - Oct 2018)

Helped Churchill College winning gold (in 2017) and platinum (in 2018) medals in the Green Impact Challenge, and the silver (in 2017) and gold (in 2018) awards in the Student Switch-Off Campaign. I also helped maintaining the student-run garden.

Tutor at Cambridge Coding Academy (Jul 2017; Jul 2018)

Tutored kids on how to program a game in one week.

Research Assistant at Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (Dec 2015 - Jul 2016)

Worked in the Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science Laboratory (LIACC) under the In2Rail project.

Undergraduate Research/Teaching Assistant at Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto (Mar 2014 - Feb 2015)

Assisted and tutored younger colleagues in varied courses during my MSc degree and got 2 research assistantships in LIACC and in Project Movercado.

Education

PhD in Computer Science (2016 -)

University of Cambridge (Churchill College)
Supervisor: Prof. Pietro Lio'

Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering (2010 - 2015)

Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal
Grade: 19 out of 20 (first of my class)
Thesis: From the Ground to the Cloud: Towards an Integrated Transportation Simulation Platform

Complementary Course of Flute (2005 - 2012)

Fundação Conservatório Regional de Gaia, Portugal
Grade: 17 out of 20

Main Awards and Distinctions

Selected to participate in Heidelberg Laureate Forum (Sep 2019)

Selected among 200 other young researchers

"Glintt Award" and "Academic and Civic Recognition Award Student André Silva" (Nov 2016)

Both prizes are awarded by the Faculty of Engineering. "Glintt Award" is given to the student who finishes the Masters in Informatics with the best grade. The "André Silva" award is given to the graduate who was able to combine both an excellent academic and civic performance

Merit Scholarships (2010/2011; 2011/2012)

For being a top student at Faculty of Engineering, awarded by University of Porto to 13 out of ~6000 students

Representative of Portugal in WSA-mobile (Jul 2014)

With Party Game application

Finalist & Best IT Project Honour Mention in iUP25k (May 2014)

With Party Game application in a business idea contest promoted by University of Porto

2nd Place in Agile Marathon for e-commerce (Oct 2013)

With team Agile Runners. 29 hours non-stop marathon for the development of an application for Continente's online store

Publications and Posters

Maj, Azevedo, Giansanti, et al. Integration of machine learning methods to dissect genetically imputed transcriptomic profiles in Alzheimer's Disease. In Frontiers in Genetics, 2019.

T Azevedo, et al. A machine learning tool for interpreting differences in cognition using brain features. In AIAI 2019.

T Azevedo, et al. (Poster) Integration of multi-modal connectomes to predict individual differences in cognition. In Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) Annual Meeting, 2019.

T Azevedo, and P Lio'. (Poster) Towards modeling metabolic and communication dysfunctions in neurodegenerative diseases. In 1st HBP Student Conference, 2016.

T Azevedo. From the Ground to the Cloud: Towards an Integrated Transportation Simulation Platform. Master’s thesis, Jun 2015. graded 19/20.

T Azevedo, et al. Densifying the Sparse Cloud SimSaaS: The need of a Synergy among Agent-directed Simulation, SimSaaS and HLA. In SIMULTECH 2015.

T Azevedo, et al. A State-of-the-art Integrated Transportation Simulation Platform. In MT-ITS 2015.

T Azevedo, et al. JADE, TraSMAPI and SUMO: A tool-chain for simulating traffic light control. In ATT 2014 workshop, held at AAMAS 2014.

Some Training Sessions and Events

Visiting researcher at Makerere University, Kampala, 22-28 Jul 2019

Intercultural Communication, by Kasia Lanucha and Dr. Steve Joy, University of Cambridge, 1 Mar 2019

The Art of Negotiation and Influence, by Richard Mullender, University of Cambridge, 20 Feb 2019

MBTI: Understanding Personality in a Research Environment, by Dr. Sonja Tomaskovic, University of Cambridge, 9 Mar 2018

OU32: Advanced Supervision, by Dr. Andrew Rice, Computer Laboratory, 2 Mar and 27 Apr 2018

Supervising Undergraduates More Effectively, by Dr. Rob Wallach, University of Cambridge, 15 Jan 2018

Workshop Computational Brain Connectivity Mapping, Juan-les-Pins, 20-24 Nov 2017

Effective Undergraduate Supervision (Physical Sciences and Technology), by Dr. Sonja Tomaskovic, University of Cambridge, 9 Nov 2017

Workshop Brain Medicine for non-specialists, Innsbruck, 5-7 Jul 2017

Workshop Neurobiology for non-specialists, Innsbruck, 3-5 Jul 2017

Workshop: The Virtual Brain, Marseille, 15-16 May 2017

Doctoral training: Biology at different scales: interplay between physics and integrative biology, Les Houches, 13-24 Mar 2017

Workshop Understanding Unconscious Bias, by Femi Otitoju, University of Cambridge, 19 Oct 2016

Supervising Undergraduates: An Introduction, by Dr. Rob Wallach, University of Cambridge, 5 Oct 2016

Music

Despite my focus in my academic career, I have always tried hard to maintain a variety of personal interests and activities that I love. During my time in Portugal I have participated in several classical music activities such as integrating orchestras, playing solo or playing with small ensembles notwithstanding I have an eclectic taste for different genres.


My activities as a musician can be summarised in the following list (I keep such very good memories of all these times): flutist in Crestuma Wind Band (Jan 2013 - Jul 2016), conductor/responsible for a small kids choral in my Parish (Dec 2012 - Jul 2016), flutist in the Jazz Group of Faculty (Nov 2012 - Nov 2015) and flute teacher (Sep 2014 - Dec 2015)


With hard work, even an amateur wind band can make good music. Just as an example, look at such a beautiful music I gladly participated in (Crestuma Wind Band got a 2nd place in this music contest!):



"Without music life would be a mistake" -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Doing good

"Doing good" is rather a very generic thing, but I do think that what we do in our lives must be not only centered on us. More and more we see examples of egoism, divisions, fear, and that's why I kindly let this section in my personal webpage. I hope this section can be useful to you to get ideas to improve our world, one step at a time. Please, feel free to drop me an email if you want to discuss or ask something related with this, good or bad!

Fortunately, I had quite a few good experiences:

Missão País (Feb 2015; Feb 2016)

Missão País (Nation Mission) is a catholic project in which college students go to a village and help the people there during one week in February. Each faculty goes to a different place. In my case, around 50 students from my Faculty went one week in February to Vila Nova de Foz Côa (Portugal) and helped in the Retirement Home by talking to the old people, animated children (with and without disabilities), knocked doors looking whether someone needed help, went to a local school talking about the project and animated local catholic masses

Grão (Nov 2015 - Sep 2016; Oct 2017 - Oct 2018)

Grão (Grain, in Portuguese) is a volunteer project with a Jesuit inspiration, formed by university students and young professionals in Porto, Portugal. Grão aims to promote development missions during the Summer in Portuguese-speaking African countries working with NGOs and other local organisations in the field. From November to July, we have training sessions, intense fundraising events and regular volunteer actions. So, after nine months, a group of five girls and I went on a mission to Benguela, Angola, for two months. Two other missions were sent to Mozambique this Summer. From October 2017 onwards, I’m helping this project by being in the External Relationships position.
Here it is one video per each mission (Benguela, Fonte Boa and Lifidzi) with few nice moments: