The MagIC Research Centre marked an important milestone by hosting its first visiting researcher through its visiting program.

In October 2025, Gloria Pietropolli, Assistant Professor at the Università di Trieste, Italy, joined the centre for a focused collaboration with Mauro Castelli, Professor at NOVA IMS. The visit was supported by an FCT Mobility grant under the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia mobility program, which promotes international researcher exchanges to advance joint scientific work.

The stay enabled intensive methodological research at the intersection of meta heuristic optimization, composite based structural equation modeling (PLS SEM or PLS PM), and applied machine learning. The collaboration resulted in two main scientific contributions: a best practices paper on rigorous experimental design in optimization research, with a focus on the responsible use of large language models (LLMs), submitted to the Evo* 2026 international conference; and AGAS PLS, a novel genetic algorithm based approach for automated specification search in composite based SEM. This second contribution integrates tailored genetic operators with PLS estimation and information criterion based evaluation to enhance model discovery and robustness and was submitted to the journal Computational Statistics & Data Analysis.

Beyond publications, the visit also included advanced mentoring activities. Gloria Pietropolli contributed to co supervision and provided hands on guidance for a PhD project at the intersection of oceanography and machine learning, with a focus on optimization driven model selection and reproducible experimental pipelines.

Reflecting on the collaboration, Mauro Castelli highlighted the importance of the mobility period in creating the conditions needed for sustained methodological work, particularly in the areas of experimental rigor and reproducibility, while also strengthening advanced training for doctoral students.

Gloria Pietropolli emphasized the value of the in person collaboration, noting that working at NOVA IMS enabled an effective exchange of complementary expertise in optimization and structural equation modeling, and supported the translation of methodological ideas into robust and publishable research outputs.

This inaugural visit reinforces the strategic role of the MagIC visiting program in fostering international collaboration, advancing innovation in data science and information management, and enriching training opportunities for early stage researchers. Building on this experience, the centre plans to pursue further joint publications, continued doctoral co supervision, and applications for competitive research funding.