Juan Diego Cardenas Cartagena

Researcher & ML Engineer
Trustworthy AI for safety-critical systems

I am a researcher and engineer at the intersection of applied mathematics, control theory, and machine learning. My work focuses on designing trustworthy AI agents for safety-critical mechatronics systems — building techniques that are high-performing, provably safe, and interpretable.

I recently joined Youwe Concept B.V. in The Netherlands as a Machine Learning Engineer, and I am finalizing my Ph.D. at the University of Agder, Norway. Previously I was a Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Groningen, where I received the Teacher of the Year Award for AI & CCS in 2025.

Outside academia I enjoy analyzing geopolitics and finance, and I support education outreach initiatives to engage young people in science and research.

Research Interests

Safe Reinforcement Learning Data-Driven Control Trustworthy AI Autonomous Systems

News

[Mar 2026] Started as Machine Learning Engineer at Youwe Concept B.V., The Netherlands.
[Jun 2025] Received the Teacher of the Year Award for AI & CCS from the Programme Committee AI & CCS, University of Groningen.