Ph.D. student Monteiro Paes named Apple Scholar in AI/ML

Lucas Monteiro Paes, a Ph.D. student in applied mathematics at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), has been awarded an Apple Scholars in AIML fellowship. Monteiro Paes, who is advised by Flavio Calmon, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, was selected for his research contributions in computer science and engineering.

“I’m very interested in the ethics of artificial intelligence,” Monteiro Paes said. “I try to ensure that machine learning algorithms don’t discriminate against or harm you, and that we can understand their predictions and ensure they are based on data and are not arbitrary. I spend most of my time developing tools for machine learning for social good, and I use mathematics to ensure they work in the real world.”

Monteiro Paes joined Calmon’s group after finishing his undergraduate and master’s degrees in mathematics in his native Brazil. He was drawn to Harvard’s combination of strong mathematics and social sciences coursework and wanted to do research at the intersection of both.

“These past two years, there has been a revolution in AI,” he said. “Everyone is interacting with artificial intelligence nowadays, and in such times it’s extremely necessary for us to control how these models interact with users. My research approaches how to make these interactions safer.”

Monteiro Paes is the second SEAS student to be named an Apple Scholar in AIML, following Sushmita Bhattacharya in 2022. The Apple Scholars in AIML PhD fellowship recognizes the contributions of researchers in computer science and engineering at the graduate and postgraduate level. Each Scholar receives funding as they pursue their PhD, internship opportunities, and mentorship with an Apple researcher in their field.

“I will have more freedom and flexibility to collaborate with other researchers,” Monteiro Paes said. “Moreover, the interaction with Apple's mentors will help me understand the main topics in trustworthy machine learning in which companies are interested and actively developing solutions.”