Founder, ProtaAI
Turning complex, high-stakes data into decisions, from predicting epileptic seizures to building production GenAI systems.
| 📄 50 | 🏛️ 8+ | 🌍 5 | 🎤 15 | 📈 60+ | ⏳ 15+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peer-Reviewed Publications | Postdoc Offers Accepted Worldwide | Countries Worked In | Invited Talks Worldwide | Peer Reviews & Editorial Seats | Years Continuously Funded (CNPq/CAPES/FAPESP) |
🔎 Open to: AI/ML Engineer · GenAI/LLM Engineer · Data Scientist · Applied/Research Scientist · AI Research Lead · Marketing/Decision Analytics
📍 Brazil (open to remote/hybrid/relocation) | 📧 protachevicz@gmail.com | 📞 +55 42 999409383
About · Projects · Achievements · Skills · Education · Experience · Publications · Press · Contact
PhD Physicist and AI/Data Science professional with 15+ years turning complex, nonlinear systems into decisions, from predicting epileptic seizures in the brain to forecasting financial markets and building production-ready AI products.
I bridge rigorous scientific method with applied engineering: 50 peer-reviewed publications, accepted into 8+ postdoctoral positions worldwide (5 taken up so far, at USP, UTFPR, University of Aberdeen, and the Potsdam Institute), and hands-on delivery of ML, LLM/GenAI, and data products end-to-end, from research question to deployed model to stakeholder decision.
Today I combine two worlds that rarely meet: deep technical execution (Python/C/C++, deep learning, LLM fine-tuning, multi-agent systems) and leadership & translation skills, coordinating research teams, mentoring, writing for non-technical audiences, and connecting AI capability to business, health, and marketing outcomes. Comfortable operating as an individual contributor (AI/ML Engineer) or as a technical lead/project coordinator who can set direction, manage stakeholders, and make data-backed decisions under uncertainty.
What I bring (with receipts):
- 🧠 AI/ML & GenAI Engineering: deep learning, time-series forecasting, Bayesian inference, LLM fine-tuning (LoRA/QLoRA on DeepSeek-R1), multi-agent/multi-LLM orchestration (OpenRouter), RAG-style workflows, prompt engineering, and evaluation of model outputs for reliability and safety, applied in production-style projects published on GitHub, not just coursework
- 📊 Decision Science: a publication record spanning Physical Review E, Chaos, Neural Networks, and Scientific Reports shows a sustained ability to turn noisy, high-dimensional data into statistically rigorous, defensible conclusions, several results picked up by science media (e.g. dengue forecasting with climate variables, autapse synchronization covered by 5 outlets)
- 🧭 Leadership & Coordination: currently Project Coordinator for an AI/epilepsy-prediction initiative at UEPG; continuously funded by CNPq, CAPES, and FAPESP since 2010 (undergrad fellowship through a 2025-2029 research grant), a 15-year uninterrupted track record of winning and executing on competitive funding
- 🧑🏫 Mentoring & Governance: Advisory Committee Member at FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) since 2022, evaluating research proposals; Editorial Board member of 5 journal sections (Frontiers in Physics, 3 sections of Frontiers in Network Physiology, Brain Sciences/MDPI); 60+ peer-review assignments since 2019 across Chaos, Physical Review E, IEEE Transactions, Scientific Reports, and others
- 🎤 Cross-functional & cross-cultural communication: 15 invited talks at institutions including NIH, University of Chicago, ETH Zurich, Max Planck Institute, UC San Diego, University of Aberdeen, and Radboud University, translating technical findings for audiences ranging from physicists to clinicians and funding bodies; co-organizer of 4 international scientific meetings (Perspectives on Oscillation Control 2019/2024, PratiCoNeuro, CNS*2021)
- 🌍 Global collaboration: built and sustained research partnerships across 5 countries (Brazil, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, US) through postdoctoral and visiting positions at USP, UTFPR, University of Aberdeen, and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, working directly with groups led by Prof. Jürgen Kurths, Prof. Murilo Baptista, and Prof. Iberê Caldas, among others
- ⚙️ End-to-end ownership: from writing the grant proposal and designing the study, to building the model (Python/C/C++), validating it statistically, and presenting results that drive a publication, a policy recommendation, or a product decision
- 📈 Business-adjacent thinking: the same forecasting, segmentation, and hypothesis-testing toolkit behind the publication record applied to applied/commercial problems, including financial time-series simulation (B3 market), industrial predictive maintenance, and A/B testing experimentation, directly transferable to marketing analytics, risk, and operations decision-making
- 🧩 Adaptability: equally comfortable deep in a C/C++ neuronal simulation, fine-tuning an LLM in Python, writing a funding proposal in English or Portuguese, or presenting findings to a non-technical board; demonstrated across 6 role changes and 5 countries in the last 6 years
A selection across GenAI/AI engineering, applied data science, and published computational-neuroscience research code. Every repository is linked, not just named.
- Python_experiments: a curated portfolio of 8 sub-projects: a ReAct tool-calling agent, a RAG pipeline with ChromaDB, a from-scratch MCP server (TypeScript), A/B testing simulations, teacher-student distillation, and more, each with its own README
- deepseek-r1-medical-finetune: LoRA fine-tuning of DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B on a medical chain-of-thought dataset using Unsloth
- Multi-LLM-via-OpenRouter: multi-LLM orchestration and automation via OpenRouter
- AI_ML_DP: applied AI/ML/deep learning experiments
- failure_equipament: industrial equipment failure analysis and predictive maintenance
- ant-interactions-sql: behavioral data analysis with SQL-based pipelines
- Finance_Project_Analysis: financial data analysis and modeling
Each repository below is the companion simulation code for a peer-reviewed paper:
- Chimera-and-Plasticity: AIP Advances, 2022: chimera states induced by STDP
- Synaptic_potentiation_dependence: EPJ Special Topics: synaptic potentiation dependence on spike variability
- STDP_Delay: Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 2023: plastic networks with transmission delays
- Autapses_in_a_neuronal_area: Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 2020: influence of autapses on synchronization (media-covered)
- Brain_Areas_Interaction: phase, anti-phase, and shift-phase synchronization between brain areas
- Short-term-Plasticity: analytical and numerical approaches to single-synapse short-term plasticity
- protachevicz.github.io: personal academic portfolio site
See all repositories for the complete list, this README highlights a curated selection.
Every project and publication below shipped a concrete, verifiable outcome, not just effort. This is a selected sample, the full list of publications is on Google Scholar and the full list of code is on GitHub.
| Project / Publication | Achievement | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Influence of autapses on synchronization (Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 2020) | Picked up by 5 independent news outlets; became one of the author's most-cited results | Code |
| Climate-informed dengue forecasting (EPJ Special Topics, 2024) | Covered by 2 news outlets; demonstrated that climate variables measurably improve outbreak forecasting accuracy | Scholar |
| Analytical solution to short-term plasticity (Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 2024) | Derived a closed-form analytical solution to a problem previously solved only numerically, with Prof. Murilo Baptista | Code |
| Unpredictability in seasonal infectious disease spread (Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 2023) | Showed epidemic unpredictability stems from bistable, chaos-preferring dynamics, not just parameter uncertainty | Code |
| Chimera states induced by STDP (AIP Advances, 2022) | Showed plasticity enlarges the parameter range and lifetime of chimera states in neuronal networks | Code |
| Neuronal silence as a predictive biomarker (Scientific Reports, 2026) | Identified a novel predictive biomarker and intervention target for epileptic seizure suppression | Scholar |
| Plastic neural network with transmission delays (Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 2023) | Demonstrated equivalence between network function and structure under transmission delays | Code |
| Intermittency in a temporal lobe epilepsy model (Epilepsy & Behavior, 2023) | Showed optogenetic control of synchronized bursts is effective only when targeting IAIN neurons | Code |
| Seizure detection & prevention project (UTFPR/UEPG, 2024-present) | Leading (Project Coordinator) a funded initiative building real-time ML models for seizure prediction, aiming at non-invasive clinical devices | (internal) |
| DeepSeek-R1 medical fine-tuning (LoRA/QLoRA, Unsloth) | Fine-tuned an 8B-parameter reasoning model on medical chain-of-thought data using consumer-grade GPU memory via 4-bit quantization | Code |
| Multi-LLM orchestration via OpenRouter | Built a working multi-agent automation system routing tasks across multiple LLM providers | Code |
| FAPESP Advisory Committee (since 2022) | Entrusted to evaluate competitive national research grant proposals for one of Brazil's largest funding agencies | (internal) |
| Editorial Board, 5 journal sections (since 2022) | Helped shape editorial direction and curated 2 special topic issues (Brain Sciences/MDPI, Frontiers in Network Physiology) | (internal) |
| 60+ peer reviews since 2019 | Serves as a trusted referee for Chaos, Physical Review E, Scientific Reports, IEEE Transactions, and more | (internal) |
| Industrial equipment failure analysis | Delivered a predictive maintenance model translating sensor/failure data into actionable risk signals | Code |
The 4 first-author papers already profiled above are a sample, not the full record. Here are the other papers led as first author, full list and citation counts on Google Scholar:
- How synapses can enhance sensibility of a neural network. Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 492, 1045-1052, 2017.
- Synchronous behaviour in network model based on human cortico-cortical connections. Physiological Measurement, 39, 074006, 2018.
- Bistable firing pattern in a neural network model. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 13, 1-8, 2019.
- Influence of delayed conductance on neuronal synchronization. Frontiers in Physiology, 11, 1-9, 2020.
- Noise induces continuous and noncontinuous transitions in neuronal interspike intervals range. Pramana Journal of Physics, 2020.
- Emergence of neuronal synchronization in coupled areas. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 15, 1-12, 2021.
- Influence of the connectivity on the synchronization of two coupled neuronal networks. Journal of Computational Neuroscience, 49, 3-208, 2021.
- Large coefficient of variation of inter-spike intervals induced by noise current in the resonate-and-fire model neuron. Cognitive Neurodynamics, 1-10, 2022.
Collaborative work across 30+ co-authors and research groups worldwide, beyond the papers already profiled above.
Click to expand the full list (33 papers)
- Synaptic plasticity and spike synchronisation in neuronal networks. Brazilian Journal of Physics, 47, 678-688, 2017.
- Synchronised firing patterns in a random network of adaptive exponential integrate-and-fire neuron model. Neural Networks, 90, 1-7, 2017.
- Alterations in brain connectivity due to plasticity and synaptic delay. European Physical Journal Special Topics, 227, 673-682, 2018.
- Inference of topology and the nature of synapses, and the flow of information in neuronal networks. Physical Review E, 97, 022303, 2018.
- Recurrence quantification analysis for the identification of burst phase synchronisation. Chaos, 28, 085701, 2018.
- Synchronization of coupled neurons in a master-slave configuration. Mathematics in Engineering, Science and Aerospace, 10, 55-64, 2019.
- Spike-burst chimera states in an adaptive exponential integrate-and-fire neuronal network. Chaos, 29, 043106, 2019.
- Bistable firing patterns: one way to understand how epileptic seizures are triggered. BMC Neuroscience, 20, 56, 2019.
- Self-sustained activity of low firing rate in balanced networks. Physica A, 537, 122671, 2020.
- Short-term and spike-timing-dependent plasticity facilitate the formation of modular neural networks. Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation, 2020.
- Spiral wave chimera states in regular and fractal neuronal networks. Journal of Physics: Complexity, 2, 015006, 2020.
- Effects of drug resistance in the tumour-immune system with chemotherapy treatment. Pramana Journal of Physics, 2020.
- Influence of inhibitory synapses on the criticality of excitable neuronal networks. Pramana Journal of Physics, 2020.
- Effects of burst-timing-dependent plasticity on synchronous behaviour in neuronal network. Neurocomputing, 433, 126-135, 2021.
- Mathematical model of brain tumour growth with drug resistance. Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation, 2021.
- Control attenuation and temporary immunity in a cellular automata SEIR epidemic model. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 155, 111784, 2022.
- Dynamics of uncoupled and coupled neurons under an external pulsed current. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 155, 111734, 2022.
- Effect of two vaccine doses in the SEIR epidemic model using a stochastic cellular automaton. Physica A, 127258, 2022.
- On the dynamical behaviour of a glucose-insulin model. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 155, 1-8, 2022.
- The effect of time delay for synchronisation suppression in neuronal networks. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 2022.
- Analysing bursting synchronization in the structural connectivity matrix of a human brain under external pulsed currents. Chaos, 33, 033131, 2023.
- Chaotic dynamics in memristive circuits. Revista Brasileira de Ensino de Física, 45, 2023.
- Phase synchronization in a sparse network of randomly connected neurons under effect of Poissonian spike inputs. Chaos, 33, 123115, 2023.
- The roles of Potassium and Calcium currents in the bistable firing transition. Brain Science, 3(9), 1347, 2023.
- Fractional diffusion equation under general kernel and its stability. Fractal and Fractional, 7(11), 792, 2023.
- Adaptive exponential integrate-and-fire model with fractal extension. Brain Science, 34(2), 2024.
- Transient dynamics of fractional Fisher equation. Fractal and Fractional, 8(3), 143, 2024.
- Spiral wave dynamics in a neuronal network model. Journal of Physics: Complexity, 5, 025010, 2024.
- Control, bi-stability and preference for chaos in time-dependent vaccination campaign. Chaos, 34, 1-13, 2024.
- Collapse of multi-headed chimera states in neuronal networks. Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science, 35(9), 2025.
- Complex Bifurcation Structures in a Hodgkin-Huxley Model of Thermally Sensitive Neurons under Periodic Perturbation. Physical Review E, 111(5), L052203, 2026.
- Astrocytic Signatures in Neuronal Activity: A Machine Learning-Based Identification Approach. Cognitive Neurodynamics, 19(1), 89, 2026.
- Seasonality-induced riddling in conceptual model for global changes. Frontiers in Forest and Global Change, 2026.
Languages
Generative AI, LLMs & Agents
Machine Learning & Deep Learning
Data Science, Statistics & Decision Support
Big Data, Cloud & Infra
Scientific Computing & Modeling
Leadership, Strategy & Communication
- 🔹 Ph.D. in Physics (2016-2020), UEPG, Brazil | Firing Patterns in Neuronal Networks: neural networks, nonlinear dynamics, epileptic seizure prediction, computational modeling
- 🔹 M.Sc. in Physics (2014-2016), UEPG, Brazil | Dynamic Range in Neural Networks Modeled by Cellular Automata: discrete math, linear algebra, ETL
- 🔹 B.Sc. in Physics (2010-2013), UEPG, Brazil | Lyapunov Exponent Methods for Chaos Detection: numerical simulation, complex systems, algorithm development
Recent complementary training: Applied Machine Learning: Algorithms (LinkedIn Learning, 2025) · Deep Learning: Model Optimization & Tuning, Neural Networks in C++, ML with Scikit-Learn (2024) · ML/AI with Python & Data Science with Python (HarvardX) · Data Science Tools & Intro to Data Science (IBM) · The Complete Python Developer (Udemy) · Machine Learning (Stanford, Prof. Andrew Ng, 2022)
| Period | Role | Institution | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-present | Founder | ProtaAI | AI/GenAI consulting and product development |
| 2025-present | Project Coordinator, Computational Neuroscience, Data Analysis & AI | UEPG, Brazil | AI/ML for epilepsy prediction, unsupervised learning, Bayesian inference, Hodgkin-Huxley/AdEx simulation, neuronal avalanches, Kuramoto order parameter |
| 2025-2026 | Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Electrical Engineering & Industrial Informatics | UTFPR, Brazil | Seizure detection/prevention, signal processing, R/Python/SQL, deep learning, A/B testing, optimization, Big Data |
| 2020-2024 | Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Applied Physics | USP, Brazil (FAPESP) | Synaptic plasticity, ML, causal inference, forecasting models, k-nearest clustering, data mining, Python/R |
| 2023-2024 | Visiting Scientist | Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany | Probabilistic models, synchronization, data wrangling, statistical modeling, model deployment |
| 2022-2023 | Honorary Research Fellow | University of Aberdeen, UK | Short-term plasticity, reinforcement learning, PCA, linear/logistic regression, causal inference, C/Python development |
🗂️ Research project portfolio (8 concurrent and historical projects, click to expand)
- 🧠 Epileptic Seizure Detection, Prediction & Prevention (2024-present, with Prof. Paulo José Abatti): computational neural network models of healthy vs. pathological brain activity, targeted neuronal stimulation for seizure prevention, working toward non-invasive clinical devices
- 🔁 Long-Term Synaptic Plasticity & Synchronization (2023-present, with Prof. Jürgen Kurths): modeling how random vs. periodic input currents shape synchronous/asynchronous firing in neuronal networks
- ⚡ Short-Term Synaptic Plasticity (2022-present, with Prof. Murilo da Silva Baptista): how STP regimes relate to normal/abnormal synchronization and stimulus encoding
- 🔗 Synaptic Plasticity in Neuronal Networks (2020-present, with Prof. Iberê Luiz Caldas): long- and short-term plasticity effects on synchronization, linked to Parkinson's and epilepsy
- 🌐 Synchronous Behaviour in Stochastic Neuronal Networks (2019-present, with Prof. Kelly C. Iarosz and Prof. Chris Antonopoulos): weak synchronization in heterogeneous, clustered networks modeling the cerebral cortex
- 🧩 Coupled System Dynamics Analysis (2018-present): cellular automata, coupled maps, and differential-equation models of neural synchronization and its link to brain disorders
- 📊 Dynamic Range in Cellular-Automaton Neural Networks (2014-2016): topology and connectivity intensities that maximize a network's stimulus-encoding range
- 🔬 Single-Neuron Hodgkin-Huxley Dynamics (2012-2013, with Prof. A. M. Batista): C-code simulation of action-potential generation under varying current intensities
💰 Continuous competitive funding, 2010-2029 (CNPq, CAPES, FAPESP, 15 consecutive years, click to expand)
Undergrad research fellowships (2010-2013) → M.Sc. fellowship (2014-2016) → Ph.D. fellowship (2016-2020) → postdoc fellowship at USP (2020-2024) → honorary fellowship at Aberdeen (2022-2023) → visiting scientist fellowship at Potsdam (2023-2024) → postdoc fellowship at UTFPR (2024-2025) → current research funding fellowship at UEPG (2025-2029).
15 consecutive years funded without a gap, a track record of continuously winning competitive, peer-reviewed research funding.
Leadership, governance & dissemination:
- Advisory Committee Member, FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation), since 2022, evaluating research proposals
- Editorial Board member: Frontiers in Physics, 3 sections of Frontiers in Network Physiology, Brain Sciences (MDPI), since 2022-2023
- Proposed and curated 2 journal topic issues: Recent Advances in Neuroinformatics (Brain Sciences/MDPI) and Chaotic Firing in the Brain and Their Effects on Collective Brain Behavior (Frontiers in Network Physiology)
- 60+ peer-review assignments since 2019 across Chaos, Physical Review E, Scientific Reports, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems & Rehabilitation Engineering, Journal of Neuroscience Methods, Nonlinear Dynamics, Physical Biology, and more
- Co-organizer of 4 international scientific meetings/courses: Perspectives on Oscillation Control (2019 and 2024), PratiCoNeuro (Practical Course of Computational Neuroscience Modeling, 2018), and CNS*2021 (30th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting)
- 15 invited talks at NIH, University of Chicago, ETH Zurich, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, UC San Diego, University of Aberdeen, Radboud University, University College Cork, and University of São Paulo
50 peer-reviewed journal articles (Physical Review E, Chaos, Neural Networks, Scientific Reports, Frontiers journals, among others) plus 14 invited talks, 14 conference abstracts, and multiple media-covered findings, full record on Google Scholar.
Selected research themes:
- ✔ AI-Driven Epilepsy Prediction: deep learning & probabilistic models for seizure detection/prevention from brain signals
- ✔ Neural Synchronization & Plasticity: autapses, synaptic plasticity, chimera states, criticality in neuronal networks
- ✔ Infectious Disease & Climate Modeling: ML-based dengue forecasting using climate variables (media-covered)
- ✔ Glucose-Insulin Dynamics: AI models for diabetes control
- ✔ Mathematical & Fractional Modeling: tumor growth, epidemic spread, fractional diffusion systems
Applied engineering projects:
- ✔ LLM Fine-Tuning & Multi-Agent Systems: LoRA fine-tuning of DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-8B (medical chain-of-thought) with Unsloth; multi-LLM orchestration/automation via OpenRouter
- ✔ Financial Time-Series Forecasting: B3 (Brazilian stock market) simulator
- ✔ Industrial Predictive Maintenance: equipment failure analysis and prediction
- ✔ Behavioral & SQL Analytics: ant interaction modeling with SQL-based data pipelines
- ✔ Business Systems Engineering: Odoo-based dental clinic management system with REST API & authentication
Research covered by science and general media outlets, evidence that the work translates beyond academia:
- 🧠 Autapses & neuronal synchronization (Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 2020): featured by 5 independent news outlets
- 🦟 Climate-informed dengue forecasting (EPJ Special Topics, 2024): featured by 2 news outlets, demonstrating real-world public-health relevance of the forecasting methodology
🔗 LinkedIn · 🔗 Google Scholar · 🔗 HackerRank · 🔗 Portfolio Sample
💡 Open to AI/ML Engineering, Data Science, GenAI, and technical leadership roles, bringing research-grade rigor to real-world product, health, and business problems.