Donna Vakalis
Post-doctoral Fellow (AI Buildings) at Racing to Zero
Grand-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolDonna Vakalis is a postdoctoral researcher and practitioner bridging machine learning and low-carbon building systems, currently co-supervised by Yoshua Bengio and David Rolnick at Mila. With nine years of experience spanning academia, consulting, and industry, she develops world models for planning and control that make building operation and design more energy- and carbon-efficient. Her work has translated into practical tools for carbon accounting, sustainability strategy, and event-level impact estimation through a startup and leadership roles with Racing to Zero. Trained as a PhD civil engineer with a background in architecture and machine learning, she combines quantitative modeling, sensor deployments, and interdisciplinary design expertise to deliver actionable insights. Fluent in English and French and based in Guadeloupe, she routinely communicates technical findings to diverse stakeholders from policymakers to students. An uncommon strength is her ability to move from high-level life-cycle assessments down to hands-on drawing coordination and sensor fieldwork, enabling end-to-end climate solutions for the built environment.
9 years of coding experience
7 years of employment as a software developer
Junior Fellow, Resident, Junior Fellow, Resident at Massey CollegeB. ArtsSc., Arts & Science. Math/Multimedia, B. ArtsSc., Arts & Science. Math/Multimedia at McMaster UniversityOxford Machine Learning Summer School, Oxford Machine Learning Summer School at University of OxfordSemester Exchange, Astronomy, Math, Eastern Studies, Semester Exchange, Astronomy, Math, Eastern Studies at University of NewcastleDoctor of Philosophy (PhD), Civil Engineering, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Civil Engineering at University of Toronto
French, Chinese, Greek
Stackoverflow
1reputation
0reached
0answers
0questions
Github Skills (42)
energy9
constrained-optimization9
dynamical-systems9
water9
nonlinear-dynamics9
predictive9
nonlinear-optimization9
system-identification9
control-systems8
renewable-energy8
model-predictive-control8
power-systems8
consumption8
modeling-tool8
simulation7
Programming languages (4)
Github contributions (5)
DonnaVakalis/HousingLCA
Oct 2019 - Aug 2021
Analysis of weather, indoor environment, thermal comfort
Contributions:4 PRs, 99 pushes, 2 branches in 1 year 10 months
thermal-comfortpythonthermalcomfortindoor
DonnaVakalis/success-patterner
Aug 2018 - Oct 2020
Contributions:2 PRs, 12 pushes, 2 branches in 2 years 3 months
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