Claudia Soares holds a Ph.D., M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal, and a diploma in modern languages and literature, from Nova University of Lisbon. Prof. Soares is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science, NOVA School of Science and Technology, and a researcher at NOVA LINCS, Portugal. She uses real-world data problems to identify shortcomings of current machine learning, data science, and Big Data methods. She applies optimization, statistics, and probability theory to address those gaps, developing robust and interpretable learning methods that can be trusted in real life. Her application areas are in environmental and urban sciences, healthcare, transportation, and space.