"Logic is the foundation of the certainty of all the knowledge we acquire."

Leonhard Euler
Me

Steve Dias Da Cruz

27 years old

Luxembourg

steve@cruz.lu

LinkedIn

In my opinion, for every problem there is always a satisfying solution. Even though it might be easy to find a solution for a given problem in the first place, this solution might be far from being optimal. Sometimes it might even be impossible to find the solution we are seeking and we might end up choosing the lesser of the two evils. I always liked thinking about how to crack down on a problem, which might be one of the reasons why I started studying mathematics in the first place. The latter not only taught me the tools to look efficiently for that mysterious X everybody is talking about, but sooner than later I noticed that it helpes me to analyze and solve problems in general, which do not necessarily need to be related to mathematics.

I am largely interested in optimization, modelling, machine learning, problem solving, cryptography and all sort of applying mathematics to the problems our society is facing. The beauty in mathematics lies in the fact that it enables us to solve complex problems, to make life easier and to provide the necessary knowledge to help our society.

I hold a Bachelor's and Master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Luxembourg, in which I specialized in Industrial Mathematics as well as Computer Science and Data Analysis. At the moment, I am an applied mathematician at IEE S.A. and I will start my PhD in Deep Learning in September.

Education

Master of Science in Mathematics

Grade: Very Good (17.2 / 20)

University of Luxembourg

September 2015 – August 2017

Specialization in Industrial Mathematics with focus on numerical analysis, data science, graph theory, software technologies, wavelets, linear optimization and finite element methods.



Bachelor of Science in Mathematics

Grade: Very Good (16.4 / 20)

University of Luxembourg

September 2012 – July 2015

Focus on numerical analysis, data structures and algorithms, object oriented programming, cryptography, statistics and data modelling.



Semester abroad

Erasmus

University of Strasbourg

September 2014 – January 2015



Business studies

Evening course

Luxembourg School for Commerce (LSC)

October 2011 – March 2012

Courses: Marketing Management, Regulatory Framework, Taxes and Social Security, Planning, Organisation, Leadership and Controls, Accounting and Financial Management.

Awards

Germain Dondelinger Prize for the best Master’s thesis in the Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication

2017



Mathematical Society of Luxembourg Student Prize for outstanding performance in the Master of Mathematics Programme

2017



Prize for the most successful semester abroad in the Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication

2015

Projects

Master’s thesis and internship

IEE S.A.

Grade: 20 / 20

Detection of vital signs in presence of car vibrations

Mathematical modelling for simulation and signal processing

February 2017 – August 2017

Development of a novel mathematical technique to extract the characteristics of person’s breathing motion (for passenger detection) from a very noisy radar signal recorded in a car. Development of a novel method and system for passenger classification using radar sensors. Pre- and post-processing simulation results using Fourier, Hilbert and Wavelet transform. Identification of hidden patterns using SVM and PCA. Solving a non-convex optimization problem numerically to calculate passenger’s weight (for passenger classification).



Seminar

Grade: 19 / 20

Introduction to TensorFlow and neural networks for the classification of handwritten digits by using a simple linear model.



Seminar

Grade: 17 / 20

Establishment of a new result in game theory by solving a differential equation to find the cases under which the lottey contest and the P contest result in the same equilibrium effort for risk-averse players under risky rent.



Student project

Grade: 15 / 20

MATLAB implementation and theoretical investigation of the reconstruction of images by using the basis pursuit algorithm and compressed sensing. Both methods combined allow to recover images and signals from much fewer measurements than traditional methods.



Bachelor’s thesis

Grade: 17 / 20

Introduction to elliptic curves and their application to encryption and decryption of messages. The theoretical feasibility and security were proven mathematically. The Weil Pairing was used to construct a possible attack on a cryptographic scheme based on elliptic curves and it was then further used to introduce an improved cryptosystem. The cryptographic schemes were implemented in Python.

Work Experience

IEE S.A.

Associate Scientist

Applied Mathematician

Contern, Luxembourg

January 2018 – Present

Continuation of Master’s thesis work “Detection of vital signs in presence of car vibrations - Mathematical modelling for simulation and signal processing”. Publication of a conference paper and preparation of a journal paper.



Nightler

Web-Developer

Luxembourg

August 2016 – January 2017

Development of a user interface for the management and completion of a MySQL database. Implementation of several tools and scripts to facilitate the integration of locations (e.g. restaurants, pubs, clubs, theaters) and detection of faulty or overlapping entries by the web crawler.



Depixit s.à r.l.

Founding Partner and Web-Developer

Luxembourg

February 2016 – January 2017

Implementation of a back-end system for efficient treatment of reported users and images. Development of a support ticket system and an interface for the management and completion of a MySQL database.



L-Pod s.à r.l.

Student Web-Developer

Luxembourg

October 2014 – October 2015

Development of several websites in WordPress using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP and creation of own WordPress template.



Betzdorf, Luxembourg

June 2015 – August 2015

Creation of documentation and implementation of Makefiles for Lua based in-house developed libraries and creation of a Lua C-API tutorial. Application of the D3.js library for a visualization of the scheduling system of the Space Operations Center. Analysis of the Luhn, Verhoeff and Damm algorithms for checksums in user inputs. Analysis of an existing database system.



Betzdorf, Luxembourg

June 2014 – August 2014

Assistance in the development of an algorithm for the scheduling system of the Space Operations Center in the programming language Lua. Assistance in the improvement of the user interface design for the scheduling system and analysis of cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generator (CSPRNG) for cryptographic applications.



Banque Raiffeisen

Helpdesk Agent E-Banking

Merl, Luxembourg

March 2011 – March 2012

Support for private and business customers for the internet banking (R-Net, Luxtrust, Multiline). Verification of contracts and testing of updates for the internet banking. Training in IFBL formations in finance and banking.