Berfin Sakallioglu
PhD Student
berfin.sakallioglu@gmail.com
berfin.sakallioglu@phd.units.it
I’m a PhD student* in Applied Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Trieste, Italy, working under the supervision of Prof. Eric Medvet and Prof. Luca Manzoni. I’m a member of the Evolutionary Robotics and Artificial Life Lab.
My research focuses on transparency and learning for intelligent evolutionary systems. I work with various forms of genetic programming (GP), including grammatical evolution (GE) and geometric semantic GP (GSGP). This involves combining them with large language models (LLMs) to enhance interpretability and optimization. Representations of these methods, their applications in healthcare and robotics, and their learning behavior are also central to my work. Beyond research, I greatly enjoy university-level teaching.
Outside of academia, I do music. My life's passion is singing and playing guitar. I also like learning languages and reading about evolutionary biology, psychology, and neuroscience.
Publications
Berfin Sakallioglu, Giorgia Nadizar, Eric Medvet
Conference Paper, ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), 2026 (to appear)
Frederico J.J.B. Santos, Jose Manuel Muñoz Contreras, Berfin Sakallioglu, Damaris Nieri Melendez Hualinga, Alberto Tonda, Leonardo Trujillo
Conference Paper, ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), 2026 (to appear)
James Ashford, Berfin Sakallioglu, Marta Tataryn, Alessandro Valerio, Benedikt Hartl, Léo Pio-Lopez, Marko Cvjetko, Richard Löffler, Stefano Nichele
Conference Paper, Evolving self-organisation Workshop (EvoSelf@GECCO), 2026 (to appear)
Best Poster Award - Runner Up
Berfin Sakallioglu, Frederico J.J.B. Santos, Daniel Parra, Yuxin Qiu, Miguel Nicolau, Leonardo Trujillo and J. Ignacio Hidalgo
Conference Paper, 28th European Conference on Genetic Programming (EvoStar), 2026
Constança Jalles, Rita M. Simões, Berfin Sakallioglu, Leonardo Vanneschi, Joaquim J. Ferreira, Sofia Reimão
Journal Article, Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, 2026
Runner Up Award on Workshop
James Ashford, Marko Cvjetko, Richard Löffler, Berfin Sakallioglu, Alessandro Valerio, Marta Tataryn, Benedikt Hartl, Léo Pio-Lopez, Stefano Nichele
Preprint, arXiv, 2026
Berfin Sakallioglu, Giorgia Nadizar, Luca Manzoni, Eric Medvet
Conference Paper, Graph-based Genetic Programming Workshop (GGP@GECCO), 2025
Eric Medvet, Giorgia Nadizar, Michel El Saliby, Francesco Rusin, Berfin Sakallioglu
Conference Paper, 5th Convegno Nazionale CINI sull'Intelligenza Artificiale (Ital-IA), 2025
G. Nadizar, B. Sakallioglu, F. Garrow, S. Silva, L. Vanneschi
Journal Article, Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines (GPEM), 2024
G. Nadizar, F. Garrow, B. Sakallioglu, L. Canonne, S. Silva, L. Vanneschi
Conference Paper, ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), 2023
Berfin Sakallioglu
MSc Thesis, 2023
Education
- PhD – Applied Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, University of Trieste, Italy, 2024–Present
Research Field: Evolutionary Computation - MSc – Data Science & Advanced Analytics, NOVA Information Management School,
Portugal, 2020–2023
Thesis: A Study of Geometric Semantic Genetic Programming with Linear Scaling (20/20) | GPA: 18/20 - BSc – Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Hacettepe University, Turkey,
2015–2020
Honors Student | GPA: 3.21/4.00
Achievements
- FCT PhD Scholarship (3rd Place National Rank 2024) – Awarded by Portugal’s national
research agency FCT
Proposal: Evolutionary Computation for Explainable and Interpretable Medical Decision Making
Conferences
- The Leading European Event on Bio‑Inspired AI (EvoStar) – Toulouse, France, April 2026
Student Affairs - ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO) – Málaga, Spain, July 2025
- The Leading European Event on Bio‑Inspired AI (EvoStar) – Trieste, Italy, April 2025
Senior Volunteer of Local Organization Team - ACM Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO) – Lisbon, Portugal, July 2023
Student Volunteer of Local Organization Team
Schools
- ALICE Workshop: Artificial Life, Intelligence, Complexity & Evolution – Copenhagen, Denmark, February 2026
Evolving Symbiosis, from Baricelli’s Legacy to Collective Intelligence: a Simulated and Conceptual Approach
(Runner-up Award) - SPECIES Summer School – Moraira, Spain, August 2025
Combining Grammatical Evolution with LLM-based Local Search to Improve Interpretability
(Best Poster Award - Runner Up ) - SIGEVO Summer School – Málaga, Spain, July 2025
- DataSLO: Summer School on Data Science, Learning and Optimization – Norcia, Italy, June 2025
Sentiment-Driven Social Graphs: Analyzing User Behavior on Xigua
Reviewing
- IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation – Journal, 2026
- Applied Soft Computing – Journal, 2026
- Parallel Problem Solving From Nature (PPSN) – Conference, 2026
Teaching Experience
Invited Lecturer – NOVA IMS, Portugal
(with average student perception
5.8/6 across
all courses)
- Computational Intelligence for Optimization – 2022, 2023, 2024
Contents: Optimization Problems, Fitness Landscapes, Hill Climbing, Simulated Annealing, Genetic Algorithms, Advanced Genetic Algorithm Methods, Particle Swarm Optimization. - Introduction to Computational Thinking & Data Science – 2024
Contents: Computational Thinking, Problem Decomposition and Abstraction, Optimization Problems, A Gentle Introduction to NLP, Introduction to Graph Theory. - Algorithms & Data Structures – 2023
Contents: Recursion, Time Complexity, Searching Algorithms, Sorting Algorithms, Data Structures, Trees. - Introduction to Programming (Python) – 2021, 2022, 2023
Contents: Data Types, Expressions, Input/Output Facilities, Conditional Instructions, Iterative Instructions, Lists, Functions. - Big Data Analysis & Marketing – 2023, 2024
Contents: Hadoop, HDFS, Hive, Functional Programming, Map Reduce with Docker. Spark, SQL, ML, Data Pipelines, Graphframes, Streaming with Databricks.
Work Experience
- Research Engineer – IoT, Smart Cities – Ratio Technologies, Turkey,
2020
Participated in Internet of Things applications & transformations on smart city projects for several cities in Turkey including the capital, Ankara. Conducted research on smart energy technologies for a TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) project. - Intern – Simulink, MATLAB – TUSAŞ Aerospace Industries, Turkey, 2018
Researched model-based design and control engineering. Assisted a simulation development. - Intern – GUI Development – ASELSAN Electronics, Turkey, 2018
Developed a Graphical User Interface using CVI/LabWindows for the Test Systems and Process Design department. Presented the product several times to the department and enhanced it to respond to the department’s requests.
Extracurriculars & Skills
- General Secretary – IEEE Student Branch – Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey, 2016
Exemplary Branch Award - Alto – Choir of the University of Trieste – Trieste, Italy, 2025
- Alto & Tenor – PortuGals International Female Jazz Choir – Lisbon, Portugal, 2022–2023
- Volunteer – União Zoófila Animal Shelter – Lisbon, Portugal, 2023
Technical Skills: Python (Optimization Algorithms, Evolutionary Computation, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Data Mining, Text Mining). Former experience with several Database Management Systems (MongoDB, Neo4j, Redis) and SQL for Big Data Analytics, Modeling and Management. Besides, Dash with Python for Data Visualization.
Other Skills: Research, teaching, presentation and verbal communication, adaptability, multitasking.
Interests: Musical performing; singing, guitar, piano. Translatorship. Evolutionary biology, psychology, neuroscience.
Languages: Turkish (Native), English (C1), Portuguese (B1), Italian (A2).