Ferdinando (Nando) Fioretto is an assistant professor of Computer Science at the University of Virginia. He leads the Responsible AI for Science and Engineering (RAISE) lab, whose research focuses on addressing foundational challenges to advance artificial intelligence, privacy, safety, and the intersection between machine learning and optimization for scientific applications.

In particular, his group focuses on two key questions: (1) How to endow foundation models the ability to comply with constraints, uphold physical principles, and adhere to safety standards, and (2) How to ensure that ML models and decision making systems adhere to safety, privacy, and fairness principles.

A strong emphasis of Nando’s research group is the development of foundation models to support scientific and engineering research, with applications spanning protein design, material science, robotics, power systems, policy optimization, and beyond.