Campinas, Brazil
Rafael
Melo
Engineer & researcher, building at the edge of AI, robotics and entrepreneurship.
I'm a Mechatronics Engineering student at Unicamp (Top 2 in class) working at the intersection of AI, engineering and entrepreneurship. I've built autonomous perception systems, generative models for medical imaging and quantitative finance models, and I've published research. I also lead the largest entrepreneurship organization at my university.
Work & Research
A path across autonomous systems, generative AI, quantitative finance, research and leadership.
Tivio Capital
Fund of Funds Summer Analyst, Quantitative Finance
São Paulo, Brazil
↳ Quantitative modeling of the investment process (Total Portfolio Approach)
Summer analyst on the Fund of Funds team, applying quantitative finance and data science to the investment process. Built quantitative models based on the Total Portfolio Approach (TPA), developed a monitoring scorecard using rolling windows, z-scores and percentiles, and compared TPA portfolios against the existing Strategic Asset Allocation.
Unicamp Entrepreneurship League
President
Campinas, Brazil
Manage a 30-person team developing startups and products to enhance the university's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Impacted 3,000+ students. Interact with Brazil's most influential entrepreneurs and C-suite executives, receiving individualized mentorship and organizing high-impact events. Partners: Itaú, XP, Nubank, Fundação Estudar, Kaszek Ventures, Atlantico VC.
University of West Bohemia
Exchange Visiting Researcher
Plzeň, Czech Republic
↳ 3D Vision System for Autonomous Mars Rover (European Rover Challenge)
Selected for a merit-based two-month exchange program focusing on robotics and computer vision. Developed the 3D Vision System for an Autonomous Mars Rover to compete in the European Rover Challenge (ERC), using image processing and spatial awareness algorithms. The project resulted in 2 scientific papers submitted to international academic journals.
NVIDIA · LIDS, Laboratory of Image Data Science at Unicamp
Undergraduate Research, Computer Vision
Campinas, Brazil
↳ Synthesis of 3D Brain MRI using Diffusion Models
Selected for a research position by Prof. Dr. Alexandre Xavier Falcão (one of Brazil's most cited CS researchers in Computer Vision). Engaged in graduate-level studies in Deep Learning, Computer Vision, Medical Imaging and Diffusion Models, including auditing a graduate-level Image Processing and Deep Learning course. Research supported by NVIDIA.
LAMAR, Laboratory of Rotating Machines at Unicamp
Undergraduate Research, Machine Learning & AI
Campinas, Brazil
↳ Numerical Modeling of Journal Short Bearings using ML & AI
Ranked 2nd in a Statics class of 71 students, leading the professor to invite me to research journal bearing dynamics. The study involves numerical modeling of hydrodynamic behavior using Reynolds' equations to build a dataset for ML in predicting dynamic coefficients. Presenting at the MECSOL 2026 International Congress at ITA in Oct/26.
Geomatics, Natural Hazards & Risk (International Journal)
Researcher, Remote Sensing & Environmental Monitoring
Brazil
↳ Flood-pulse confounding in wetland disturbance monitoring: Pantanal (2020–2025)
Published article in Geomatics, Natural Hazards & Risk (May 2026): "A reproducible regime-aware unsupervised framework to reduce flood-pulse confounding in wetland disturbance monitoring: Pantanal (2020–2025)". Applied remote sensing and unsupervised machine learning to monitor environmental disturbances in the world's largest tropical wetland.
Unicamp E-racing, Formula Student Team
Perception Division, Autonomous Vehicles & Robotics
Campinas, Brazil
↳ Cone detection with YOLO + LiDAR fusion on ROS2 for autonomous Formula car
Developed and implemented perception systems for a fully autonomous (driverless) Formula electric car. Progressed from basic to advanced proficiency in Python, Linux, Git, ROS2, Computer Vision and Image Processing in six months. The project secured 3rd place in Brazil's National Autonomous Vehicles Competition against the top 20 universities.
Harvard Business School, Aspire Leaders Program
Program Participant, Business & Leadership
Online (Global)
Participated in Harvard University's Aspire Leaders Program. Interacted with a diverse global cohort and connected directly with top educators from Harvard, MIT and Stanford, gaining significant insights into entrepreneurship, robotics and AI.
High School Independent Project
Project Lead, Documentary Film
Barueri, Brazil
↳ Barueri: Comércio e Educação, Documentary on Social Inequality
Led a team of 10 in producing the first feature-length documentary exploring a sociological perspective on my hometown, highlighting social inequality and the consequences of limited education access. Honored with a school-wide award for its impact and pioneering nature.
3 Published Books
Co-Author & Project Coordinator
Brazil
↳ Além de Belas Palavras · Jovens Entre(linhas) · Cofre de Pensamentos
Co-authored three books during high school, serving as project coordinator for two and leading teams of 50+ people each. Wrote about social, literary and philosophical topics, including societal pressure on individuals and the perception of time in modernity.
Education
Mechatronics Engineering (Control & Automation)
State University of Campinas (Unicamp), BEng
Perfect grades in
- •Algorithms & Programming (Python)
- •Data Structures (C)
- •Calculus I, II & III
- •Linear Algebra
Also covered
- ·Digital Logic Circuits (VHDL / FPGA)
- ·Physics Laboratory (NumPy, Matplotlib)
- ·Statics & Dynamics
Visiting Student, Exchange Program
University of West Bohemia, Plzeň, Czech Republic
Two-month merit-based exchange in robotics and computer vision. Developed a 3D Vision System for an Autonomous Mars Rover for the European Rover Challenge (ERC), resulting in 2 scientific papers submitted to international journals.
Selected Projects
Click any image to enlarge it.
Dark Lands, Narrative RPG
Turn-based narrative RPG on the high seas where you battle marine creatures like the Enchanting Mermaid, the Fish-Man and the Kraken across three stages with random events and dropped weapons. Built in Java 21 using the Strategy and Builder design patterns, with Gradle, JAXB and JUnit 5.
PantanalBurns, Wetland Disturbance Monitoring
Reproducible regime-aware unsupervised framework that separates fire disturbance from seasonal flood-pulse signals in the Brazilian Pantanal, using Landsat NDVI/NBR time series, K-means eco-spectral regimes and a Random Forest. Published in Geomatics, Natural Hazards & Risk (2026).
Night-Task Navigation for Competition Rovers
Sim-to-Real pipeline evaluating ArUco marker detection in near-zero-lux conditions for the European Rover Challenge Night Task, using ROS2 Jazzy and Gazebo Harmonic and validated against physical experiments at the University of West Bohemia. Developed for the Artificial Life and Robotics journal.
ML for Journal Bearing Dynamics
Numerical modeling of hydrodynamic behavior in journal short bearings using Reynolds' equations and machine learning to predict dynamic coefficients. Presenting at MECSOL 2026 at ITA.
Brazilian Fixed-Income Fund Ranking
Data pipeline that ranks Brazilian fixed-income funds by retail client profile using public CVM and Central Bank data, validating 6.3M rows and producing reproducible top-five rankings for any reference date, with CI and quality reports.
3D Brain MRI Synthesis (Diffusion Models)
NVIDIA-supported research generating synthetic 3D brain MRI scans using Diffusion Models at LIDS/Unicamp, addressing data scarcity in medical imaging. Graduate-level research.
Autonomous Perception (E-racing)
Cone detection pipeline using YOLO and LiDAR sensor fusion with ROS2 for a Formula Student driverless electric car. Secured 3rd place in Brazil's National Autonomous Vehicles Competition.
'Ifome' Food Delivery App
iFood replica in Java with advanced OOP concepts, design patterns and data structures. MC322, Unicamp.
Rubik's Cube Solver
Graphical and gamified Rubik's Cube solving algorithm with step-by-step visualization.
Skills
Programming
Python
C
Java
SQLAI & Machine Learning
PyTorch
Scikit-learn
NumPy
PandasTools & Platforms
Git
Linux
GitHub
WindowsLanguages
Portuguese
Native
English
Fluent (C1)
French
Intermediate
Spanish
Intermediate
Awards & Publication
A reproducible regime-aware unsupervised framework to reduce flood-pulse confounding in wetland disturbance monitoring: Pantanal (2020–2025)
Remote sensing and unsupervised machine learning to monitor environmental disturbances in the Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland, using satellite time-series from 2020 to 2025.
Read paper (DOI)Top 2 in Class, Mechatronics Engineering
2024–26GPA 3.6/4.0, ranked Top 2 in the Mechatronics Engineering class at Unicamp (Top 3% of the program).
Super Liga X, 1st Place National
2025Entrepreneurship competition with 90+ universities and 290+ participants across Brazil. My team won 1st place.
Robocar Race, 3rd Place National
2025Autonomous vehicle competition against the 20 best universities in Brazil, combining robotics, AI and computer vision.
Merit-Based Research Selections (×2)
2025Selected for Computer Vision research after the highest grade in Data Structures; selected for ML research after ranking 2nd in Statics (71 students).
Contact
Always open to research collaborations, interesting projects, or a good conversation.