Education
University of Florida — Ph.D., Electrical & Computer Engineering (expected 2030)
University of Florida — B.S., Electrical & Computer Engineering (2020–2025)
Doral Academy Charter School — STEM diploma (2013–2020)
About
About Raul Valle
I am a Ph.D. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida. My current research in the SmartDATA Lab builds machine-learning surrogate models for computational fluid dynamics — fast learned stand-ins for expensive physics solvers that are audited against the physics they approximate. That work sits on a foundation of signal processing, time-series machine learning, and neuroengineering built in the Computational NeuroEngineering Lab.
The work that matters most to me sits at the intersection of physical modeling, signals and systems, and machine learning. I care about models that remain interpretable under noise, limited data, and real deployment constraints instead of only looking good in idealized benchmarks.
Affiliations and profiles
My current work is connected to UF ECE, the SmartDATA Lab, and the Computational NeuroEngineering Lab. I am the 2026–2027 president of the IEEE Signal Processing Society student chapter at UF, where I built the chapter's workshop curriculum and maintain its website.
Research approach
How I think about the work
I favor problems where modeling assumptions, signal quality, and system design all interact. In practice that means thinking about the data collection stack, the mathematics, and the evaluation pipeline together rather than pretending they are separate tasks.
That mindset carries into teaching and community work too. If a concept cannot survive being explained clearly, tested, and reused by someone else, the pipeline is probably not rigorous enough yet.
Primary topics
CFD surrogate modeling
Scientific ML
Signal processing
Time-series ML
Neuroengineering
Secondary interests
Controls
Embedded systems
GPU acceleration
Technical writing
Off the clock
The rest of the signal
memento mori
Now · updated October 2026
What I am on right now
- Research
- CFD surrogates in the SmartDATA Lab: learned stand-ins for slow physics solvers.
- Wrapping up
- Closing out my calcium-imaging work at CNEL, including NeuRev Review, a browser tool for labelling events.
- Chapter
- Running IEEE SPS @ UF as 2026–27 president: workshops, curriculum, and the chapter site.
A little more about me
The constants
My taste is all over the place, but these are the artists I always come back to.
- Jamiroquai
- Daft Punk
- Two Door Cinema Club
- The Hours
- Kanye West
- The Weeknd
I am also pretty into raving. The atmosphere is the point, and as a Miami native the scene has always been right there.
Under the bar
Just lifting at the moment. I am not training for anything specific, just functional strength.
Related: Ora, the training app for lifters I co-founded.
Behind the lens
I shoot on a Sony Alpha 6700, mostly friends, nights out, and whatever the light is doing.
I also wrote a local-first photo-culling suite for my own shoots. The results live in the photography archive.
Assorted lore
- Jibby2k1 is a middle-school tribute to Jimin, my favourite member of BTS. He was known for a certain asset, and I took the name. It stuck.
- The photo at the top of this page is from the grand opening of Malachowsky Hall at UF. I showed up trying to vibe-match Jensen Huang's leather jacket, then was so star-struck I could not say a single word to him.
- Doral Academy: Mu Alpha Theta, FAMAT, AMC and AIME, plus proof-based competitions around Florida. I was also in Zeta Omicron and the Robotics Society, and I founded the school's Physics-Chemistry Club.
There is an easter egg on this page. ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A (on a phone, tap the motto three times).
Daily drivers
These days I work almost entirely out of the Codex app and a terminal.
- Desk
- Ubuntu, bash, an RTX 4070 SUPER, and UF's HiPerGator cluster for anything bigger
- Research
- Python: PyTorch, NumPy, SciPy, CuPy, Jupyter, with uv and conda for environments
- Apps & web
- TypeScript and React, Flutter and Firebase, and plain Node scripts for this site
- Writing
- LaTeX for papers
- Camera
- Sony α6700 plus my own culling pipeline
Proof of life
A few times I ended up on the other side of a camera, plus a few frames from mine.
-
GatorHack, 1st place. UF AI Days, 2025. The full shot has Albert and Alberta in it too.
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HiPerGator Early Career Award. University of Florida, 2025. String lights, folders, and an evening reception.
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Sandevistan. Time moves slow.
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untitled1. The lights glimmering was a cool effect, haven't been able to recreate this intentionally.
Friends on the web
People whose corners of the internet are worth a visit.
-
Evan Partidasevanpartidas.com ↗
Freelance full-stack developer.
-
Matheus Kunzler Maldanermatheus.wiki ↗
Building AI systems people can inspect and trust.
Writing, recognition, and visual work
Writing
Research notes and commentary
Short reflections, paper notes, and research journal entries connected to signal processing, machine learning, and neuroengineering.
Recognition
Awards and milestones
Selected recognitions tied to research, hackathons, computing, and public-facing project work.
Photography
Selected visual work
A small personal portfolio: live music, portraits, and the occasional experiment with light.