Hello! I’m Javier Porras-Valenzuela, a second-year PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, advised by Professor Alejandro Ribeiro. My research interests include: GNNs, transformers, optimization, LLMs, and RL/Stochastic Optimization.

In a past life, I worked as a software and ML engineer for 7+ years, applying ML and OR to areas such as Supply Chain, Fraud Detection, and AdTech.

Education

• PhD Electrical and Systems Engineering, (2023-present) University of Pennsylvania.
• MSc Computer Science, (2022) Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (ITCR).
• BSc Information Systems Engineering, (2015) Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica (UNA).

Publications

• Loss Shaping Constraints for Long-Term Time Series Forecasting (ICML 2024)
• A Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach to Multistage Stochastic Network Flows for Distribution Problems (Master’s Thesis)