PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Margarida Carvalho

Margarida Carvalho is a researcher whose work applies machine learning to game theory and combinatorial optimization. She completed a computer-science PhD at FCUP in 2016, then came to Canada as an IVADO postdoctoral fellow at Polytechnique Montréal in 2017. Her dissertation won the 2018 EURO Doctoral Dissertation Award, and she joined Université de Montréal as an assistant professor in 2018; in 2019, the department named her to the FRQ-IVADO Research Chair in Data Science for Combinatorial Game Theory. Her research includes multi-agent reinforcement learning for combinatorial optimization, a language-model benchmark for college admission, neural tangent kernel analysis, and a method for cooperation among AI agents. As of October 2026, she is an associate professor in UdeM's Department of Computer Science and Operations Research.

Timeline

  1. 2016

    A computer-science thesis

    She completes a computer-science PhD at FCUP in 2016 with the thesis “Computation of Equilibria on Integer programming games.”

  2. 2017

    An IVADO postdoc

    In 2017, she comes to Canada as an IVADO postdoctoral fellow at Polytechnique Montréal.

  3. 2018–2019

    A EURO award and research chair

    In 2018, she wins the EURO Doctoral Dissertation Award for her PhD from the Universidade do Porto and becomes an assistant professor in Université de Montréal's Department of Computer Science and Operations Research. In 2019, the department names her to the FRQ-IVADO Research Chair in Data Science for Combinatorial Game Theory.

  4. 2020

    A NeurIPS learning method

    In 2020, she coauthors “Curriculum learning for multilevel budgeted combinatorial problems” for NeurIPS. The paper presents a value-based multi-agent reinforcement-learning method for multilevel budgeted combinatorial problems involving two players.

  5. September 2025

    A language-model benchmark

    In September 2025, she coauthors a benchmark of 369 instances of the College Admission Problem for language models.

  6. November 2025–June 2026

    Neural tangent kernel analysis

    In November 2025, she coauthors “Revisiting the Neural Tangent Kernel: the role of large width and depth” with William St-Arnaud and Golnoosh Farnadi. Its June 2026 revision shows that scaling depth and stopping time yields a well-behaved, nontrivial output in infinitely-wide ReLU networks.

  7. October 2026

    Cooperation without shared rewards

    In October 2026, she coauthors “Cooperation Without Shared Rewards via Reciprocal Q-Augmentation.” The method uses a latent-variable opponent model to augment each agent's Q-function with estimates of how its actions affect other agents.

  8. As of October 2026

    Associate professor at UdeM

    She is an associate professor in Université de Montréal's Department of Computer Science and Operations Research.

Career

  1. Since 2018Université de MontréalAssistant professor, Research Chair in Data Science for Combinatorial Game Theory
  2. 2017Polytechnique MontréalPostdoctoral fellow

Education

  1. 2016University of PortoPhD

From the biography.

  1. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Université de Montréal. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  2. 20% of people at companies who shape AI also hold a university role, led by Google and Stanford UniversityIncludes Université de Montréal. We estimate that 539 of the 6,766 people with a known current organization (8%) hold both a university role and a company role, including 20% of people at companies and 13% of people at universities.
  3. Of 943 people shaping AI who worked at Google, 446 work there nowIncludes Université de Montréal. Our estimates of where the 943 people shaping AI who worked at Google and Google DeepMind work now: 446 at Google and 452 across 278 other organizations.
  4. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Université de Montréal. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Margarida Carvalho yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Ph.D. Theses dcc.fc.up.pt. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Margarida Carvalho margaridacarvalho.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Margarida Carvalho | Mila mila.quebec. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. 2019 - Département d'informatique et de recherche opérationnelle - Université de Montréal diro.umontreal.ca. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Curriculum learning for multilevel budgeted combinatorial problems papers.neurips.cc. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. [2509.13131] Reasoning with Preference Constraints: A Benchmark for Language Models in Many-to-One Matching Markets arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. [2511.07272] Revisiting the Neural Tangent Kernel: the role of large width and depth arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. [2610.24793] Cooperation Without Shared Rewards via Reciprocal Q-Augmentation arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Margarida CARVALHO - La recherche - Université de Montréal recherche.umontreal.ca. Checked 21 October 2026.