Leandro de Castro Silva

Leandro de Castro Silva is a Full Professor in the Department of Computing & Software Engineering at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), serving as Program Director of the DENDRITIC Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Unicamp (2001) and an MBA from the Catholic University of Santos (2008). His academic roles include Visiting Associate Professorships at Unicamp and University of Salamanca, and prior positions as Associate Professor at Mackenzie Presbyterian University and CEO of In.lab (AI health innovation center).

Education:

• B.Sc. Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Goiás (1996)
• M.Sc. Computer Engineering, Unicamp (1998)
• Ph.D. Computer Engineering, Unicamp (2001)
• MBA in Strategic Business Management, Catholic University of Santos (2008)

Research Focus: Dr. Silva specializes in Artificial Intelligence, Natural Computing, and Machine Learning applied to optimization and data science. His work integrates computational intelligence with real-world challenges such as healthcare diagnostics and environmental analytics. Notable projects include developing AI-driven clinical decision support systems at USP and a water quality monitoring dashboard for the Charlotte Harbor watershed with SAS.

Awards & Impact:

• Top 2% global researcher ranking (2020-2022)
• Author of over 250 peer-reviewed papers and books like Artificial Immune Systems (Springer, 2002)
• Founder of three AI startups and angel investor in others

Teaching & Leadership: Teaches courses on data mining, predictive analytics, and entrepreneurship. Leads interdisciplinary initiatives at FGCU’s Water School and collaborates internationally with institutions like Unicamp, USP, and Siemens.