DrFernando Ernesto Rosas De Andraca

I am part of the Centre for Psychedelic Research of the Department of Brain Sciences and the Centre for Complexity Science. My work focuses on the analysis of distributed complex systems, addressing problems at the interface between computational neuroscience, complexity science, and machine learning. In general terms, my work aims to reveal the fascinating principles that drive the computations performed by distributed multi-agent systems: how can they become more than the sum of their parts, perform tasks collectively that couldn't be achieved individually, and even give rise to novel features that were not predefined beforehand. These are exciting times to pursue these questions, as theoretical approaches can now be complemented by empirical investigations based on big data.

On the theoretical side, my research focuses on formulating novel mathematical frameworks based on foundational but elusive intuitions about how information is processed in distributed resource-constrained systems, which in turn lead to algorithms that enable new avenues of practical data analysis. My vision is that such analysis frameworks, which go beyond mere data fitting to truly reveal the inner workings of complex distributed systems, will be instrumental for future scientific advancements and technological breakthroughs. I am particularly interested in the potential of these tools to deepen our understanding of the inner workings of the human brain, and also our understanding of social scenarios involving collective experiences. I strongly believe that insightfulscience can lead us to a better world where humans are empowered by novel technologies that provide means for them to thrive and foster their creativity and well-being.
Short Bio

I first studied contemporary music composition and jazz improvisation (BA 2002), and the exposure to modern art triggered questions about methods and meanings that pushed me to also study philosophy (Minor 2002). However, philosophy opened many questions about everything, and the best way to deal with this was to study pure mathematics (BSc 2007). After all these endeavours I ended up with an overdose of abstractions, which was cured by doing research in electrical engineering (Master and PhD 2012). All this took place in the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC), one of the top-ranked universities of South America.

I worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at PUC (2013) and KU Leuven (2014-2016), where I could start to reconnect with my musical background by leading the design of an autonomous network of wireless acoustic sensors. Afterwards I return to work on more theoretical issues while working as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Taiwan University (2016), exploring the interface between communication theory and complexity. I arrived to Imperial in 2017 via a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship, and since then I've been working in the intersection of computational neuroscience and complexity science. I first was part of the Centre for Complexity Science and the departments of Mathematics and Electrical Engineering (2017-2019), and then the Centre for Psychedelic Research at the Department of Brain Sciences and the Data Science Institute (2019-2022). I am now a lecturer in the Department of Informatics of the University of Sussex, while still being affiliated with the Centre for Psychedelic Research and the Centre for Complexity Science.