People

I am Stefano Sarao Mannelli, a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Data Science and AI division in the Computer Science department of Chalmers University of Technology and Gothenburg University, and Visiting Lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand. Prior to my current position, I worked as a postdoc with Andrew Saxe at the University College London and the University of Oxford and obtained a Ph.D. in Physics applied to Machine Learning at the University of Paris-Saclay supervised by Lenka Zdeborova. My research focuses on analysing machine learning problems using a model-based approach, where the complexity of the problem is reduced to obtain a parsimonious solvable model that still captures the phenomenon of interest. In my previous works, I applied several variations of this approach to study problems in learning, such as transfer learning, continual learning, and curriculum learning.

I am Flavio Nicoletti, a postdoc researcher in the Data Science and AI division in the Computer Science department of Chalmers University of Technology and Gothenburg University. Before joining Prof. S. Sarao Mannelli lab, I worked in the years 2020-2023 as a PhD student with Prof. Federico Ricci-Tersenghi (Sapienza University of Rome) and Prof. Silvio Franz (Université Paris-Saclay) in an international cotutelle program, studying the low temperature physics of vector spin glasses. From July 2023 until March 2025, I worked as a Postdoc with Prof. Federico Ricci-Tersenghi, studying generalizations of vector spin glasses to neural network models. My actual research focuses on understanding the impact of bias in Machine Learning and Animal Behaviour, building on simplified and solvable neural networks models.

I am Chenxiao Ma, a PhD student in the Data Science and AI division in the Computer Science department of Chalmers University of Technology and Gothenburg University. Before joining Prof. S. Sarao Mannelli lab, I studied at the University of Copenhagen and wrote my thesis on theoretical aspects of reinforcement learning with Prof. Sadegh Talebi. My current research focuses on how bias generalizes and amplifies in artificial and biological learning systems.

I am Loek van Rossem, a PhD student in the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit at University College London as part of Andrew Saxe's lab and am also part of Stefano Sarao Mannelli's lab at the Data Science and AI division in the Computer Science department of Chalmers University of Technology and Gothenburg University. Previously, I have completed my masters degree in mathematical physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Technical University Munich. In my current research I try to apply approximations and physics-inspired intuitions to find relatively simple answers to questions regarding deep neural networks, such as how they can learn generalizing solutions.