I have one PhD position available at the intersection of reinforcement learning and model-driven engineering with a start in September 2026.
Reach out in an email if interested.
I am an Assistant Professor of Software Engineering at McMaster University, Canada, where I lead the Sustainable Systems and Methods Lab (SSM) and work as a researcher in the McMaster Centre for Software Certification (McSCert).
My research is situated under the broader umbrella of systems engineering, with a particular interest in advanced digital technology in the overlap of model-driven engineering (MDE) and simulation, digital twins and AI.
In my lab, we work on novel reinforcement learning techniques, digital twin architectures, and modeling and simulation methods.
I received my PhD in Computer Science in 2019 from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, for my work on model consistency management in multi-paradigm settings with Prof. Hans Vangheluwe (ex-McGill, currently at University of Antwerp, Belgium). Afterwards, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Software and Sustainability group at VU Amsterdam, the Netherlands with Prof. Ivano Malavolta; and at University of Montréal, Canada, with Prof. Eugene Syriani and Prof. Houari Sahraoui. In my Master’s years, I worked on streaming model transformations by complex event processing with the VIATRA/IncQuery team at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary, headed by Prof. Daniel Varro (ex-McGill, currently at Linköping University, Sweden).
I’m active outside of academia as well, mainly in innovation consulting. I served in multiple management and technical roles, most recently as the Head of Innovation for a multinational quality engineering corporation.
Top news (click for more)
- Call for papers: 2nd International Workshop on Low Carbon Computing (LOCO2026)
https://lancaster-university.github.io/loco2026 The carbon footprint of ICT is rising despite the urgent need to decarbonise society and to stay within planetary boundaries. The operational and embodied carbon emissions from ICT are … - Call for papers: 3nd International Workshop on Sustainability and Modeling (SusMod) – co-located with MODELS’26
https://sustainability-and-modeling.github.io/ Sustainability is becoming a key characteristic of modern systems. While this trend has been long recognized, rigorous formal methods for assessing sustainability, reasoning about often contradicting sustainability properties, and … - Call for papers: International Workshop on Collaborative and Participatory Modeling – co-located with MODELS’26
https://copamo.github.io/ Collaborative modeling is a key enabler to engineering complex systems. While mostly focusing on the technical and technological aspects of collaboration, the MDE community has also recognized the need … - I reap what ISO — Guest lecture at Polytechnique Montréal on architecting digital twins on standardized architectures
On March 13, I had the pleasure of giving a guest lecture in Professor Bentley Oakes‘s LOG6953FE – Digital Twin Engineering graduate course at Polytechnique Montreal. Professor Oakes has been offering … - New publication at ICSA’26: A Reference Architecture of Reinforcement Learning Frameworks
Our paper A Reference Architecture of Reinforcement Learning Environments, co-authored with Xiaoran (Sharon) Liu (PhD student in our lab) has been accepted for the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Software … - Bellairs’26 on Continuous Software Engineering
Just wrapped up a fantastic and intensive week of research at the 2026 Workshop on Continuous Software Engineering (CSE), part of the highly successful workshop series at McGill University’s Bellairs … - SoSyM Best Reviewer Award 2025
I am honored to receive a Best Reviewer Award from the International Journal on Software and Systems Modeling (SoSyM) for my 2025 efforts. The award comes after two similar awards … - ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award at MODELS’25
We are honored to receive the ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award at the ACM/IEEE 28th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS) for our work “Complex Model …
Other news (click for more)
- Guest lecture by Professor Bentley Oakes in our Engineering Digital Twins courseIt is my pleasure to welcome my good friend, Professor Bentley Oakes (Polytechnique Montréal) as a guest lecturer in my Engineering Digital Twins course at McMaster University (CAS 782) this …
- Guest lecture by Dr Enxhi Ferko in our digital twin courseIt is my pleasure to welcome Dr. Enxhi Ferko (Digital Twin Specialist at Jotne Connect) as a guest lecturer in my Engineering Digital Twins course at McMaster University (CAS 782) …
- Distinguished Reviewer Award at MODELS’25I am truly honored to receive a Distinguished Reviewer Award from the ACM/IEEE 28th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS). Being invited to the Program Committee …
- Our PhD student Xiaoran (Sharon) Liu takes on new role in WISEOur PhD student, Xiaoran (Sharon) Liu has been appointed as Conference Communications and Logistics Director for WISE, the McMaster Women in Science and Engineering initiative. WISE is a network of …