Chris Monterola
Current Positions
Founding School Head, Professor, Aboitiz Chair in Data Science
Aboitiz School of Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (SITE)
Asian Institute of Management, PhilippinesFounding Executive Managing Director and Principal Scientist
Analytics, Computing, Complex Systems (ACCeSs) Lab
Asian Institute of Management, PhilippinesFounding Program Director
Ph.D. in Data Science
Asian Institute of Management, PhilippinesAcademician
National Academy of Science and Technology, Philippines (June 2020 - present)
Other Active Positions
Independent Director (November 2022 - present)
Xurpas, Inc. (PSE:X)International Advisory Board Member
Center for Integrated STEM Inc.Policy Advisor
DTI National AI Roadmap, Philippine Development Plan 2022-2028, Standing Committee member of EDCOM 2,
Various enterprises and organizations on Digital Transformation
Previous Positions
Senior Scientist and Capability Group Manager of the Complex Systems (CxSy) Capability Group, Computing Science Department, Institute of High-Performance Computing, A*STAR, Singapore (August 2013-August 2017)
Principal Investigator/Scientific Director, Complex Systems Programme, A*STAR Urban Systems Initiative (2012-present)
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Complexity Institute, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. (October 2015-2020)
Associate Professor 7, National Institute of Physics, UP Diliman (2005-2012)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden (2003-2005)
Biography
Chris is a physicist and machine learning scientist, educator, entrepreneur, and technology advisor for various enterprises and organizations. He sits on the board of Xurpas, Inc. (PSE:X), a publicly listed technology company that has offered innovative IT products and services for the past twenty years. Dr. Monterola is also a NAST Academician who holds an Aboitiz Chair in Data Science and a Professorship at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM). He is also AIM's Head of the Aboitiz School of Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (ASITE). ASITE is the newest of the four AIM schools that house four academic programs: MS in Data Science, Masters in Innovation and Business, Masters in Entrepreneurship, and PhD in Data Science. Under ASITE is also an advanced analytics industry-facing research lab—the Analytics, Computing, and Complex Systems (ACCeSs) lab, where he is the Executive Managing Director. To date, Chris has mentored over 200 data scientists across different private and public sectors.
Before AIM
Before joining AIM, Dr. Monterola was a Senior Scientist at the Institute of High-Performance Computing in the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR) — Singapore’s lead government agency for fostering world-class scientific research. He was the Capability Group Manager (CGM) of the Complex Systems (CxSy) Capability Group at the IHPC. Chris was also the Principal Investigator and Scientific Director of the Complexity Science Programme (CSP) of the IHPC under the CxSy. The CSP was one of the programs under a bigger umbrella, the A*STAR Urban Systems Initiative. Prior to his stint in Singapore, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems. He obtained a Ph.D. in Physics in 2002 from the National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD), where he was an Associate Professor 7. He was also the Coordinator of the Instrumentation Physics Laboratory (IPL), a leading physics research group in the Philippines.
Aside from teaching at UPD, he also mentored and advised physics students (14 MS, 9 PhDs) on their research theses/dissertations. To date, he has advised/co-advised more than 100 students who have already successfully obtained various academic degrees. In 2023, he was the primary adviser of the first PhD in Data Science graduates in the Philippines and among the first in ASEAN. In 2008 and 2011 respectively, Chris received the Achievement award from the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) and the Outstanding Young Scientist Award (OYS) from the DOST National Academy of Science and Technology because of his significant contributions to science and technology in the country. Also, in 2011, he was given the top prize in NAST's Talent Search for Young Scientist Award.
In 2009, the SEA-EU-NET organized a mapping study of excellent researchers from the ASEAN member countries with the objective of raising "awareness for the existence of high-quality research" and presenting "a pool of excellent researchers in Southeast Asia." It featured Chris as one of the very few excellent researchers in the region.
Research
His current research activities revolve around Machine Learning, Complex Systems, Deep Learning, Algorithmic Auditing, Computational Physics, Complex Networks, and General Forecasting. His previous research focused on the following fields: Landslide and Granular Dynamics, Biological Physics, Social Networks, Physics Education, Network Science, Public Opinion Research, Game Theory, Olfactory Systems, and Econophysics. The image below qualitatively shows the frequency distribution of the top 100 words used across all the abstracts of his publications in ISI-indexed journals. The word cloud was generated using Wordle.
Awards
2020 Elevated to the rank Academician of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Philippines - this is a lifetime membership,
and Academicians are distinguished members of the National Academy of Science and Technology (abbreviated as NAST), the highest recognition and scientific advisory body of the Philippines.2016 Country Prize Winner (Singapore), United Nations Global Pulse's The Big IDEAS Competition for Sustainable Cities and Urban Communities, June 2016. EF Legara, C Monterola, JF Valenzuela. [presentation]
2016 SMRT Most Innovative Solution Award, IHPC (from CxSy MA Ramli, V Jayaraman, G Lee, C Monterola), SMRT Vendors' Day, 30 March 2016.
2014 ICCS Best Workshop Paper. N Othman, EF Legara, V Selvam, C Monterola, "Simulating Congestion Dynamics of Train Rapid Transit using Smart Card Data," International Conference on Computational Science, Cairns, Australia, 9-12 June 2014.
2013 IEEE SCALE Challenge. First Prize Winner. H Kasim, T Hung, EF Legara, C Monterola, G Lee, X Li, BS Lee, S Lu, L Wang, and V Jayaraman, "Scalable Complex System Modeling for Sustainable City," Sixth IEEE International Scalable Computing Challenge (SCALE 2013), Delft, Netherlands, 14-16 May 2013.
National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) Outstanding Young Scientists (2011)
NAST Talent Search for Young Scientist Awardee (2011)
Conferred the scientist rank one by the University of the Philippines System (2009-present)
University of the Philippines Centennial Professorial Chair (2008-2012)
National Research Council of the Philippines (NCRP) Lifetime Achievement Award for Physics (2008)
Most Outstanding PhD student / Dean`s Medallion / Batch Valedictorian (2002)
Edgardo Gomez Award for Excellence in Dissertation Research (2002)
Gawad Chanselor : Most Outstanding Graduate Student (Science & Technology Cluster) (2002)
Gawad Chanselor: Best Published Research (2002)
Most Outstanding Masteral Graduate student –Dean`s Medallion, Batch Valedictorian (1999)
Most Recent Scientific Publications
J Noel, C Monterola, DS Tan, "Improving recommendation diversity without retraining from scratch." International Journal of Data Science and Analytics, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41060-024-00518-9
MP Liponhay, A Valerio, C Monterola, "Time-delayed causal network analysis of meteorological variables and air pollutants in Baguio city," Journal of Atmospheric Pollution Research, 102095, 2024.
M Dorosan, D Dailisan, JF Valenzuela, C Monterola, "Use of machine learning in understanding transport dynamics of land use and public transportation in a developing city," Cities 144, 104587, 2024.
M Liponhay, A Valerio, G Fornan, C Alis, C Monterola, "Dynamic Assessment of Urban Carrying Capacity Load Number Using the Enhanced UCCLN Model," Sustainability 16 (1), 35, 2023.
M Liponhay, JF Valenzuela, M Dorosan, D Dailisan, C Monterola, "A Dynamic Urban Mobility Index from Clustering of Vehicle Speeds in a Tourist-Heavy City," Applied Sciences 13 (23), 12763, 2023.
S Ibañez, C Monterola, "A Global Forecasting Approach to Large-Scale Crop Production Prediction with Time Series Transformers," Agriculture 13 (9), 1855, 2023.
PJ Javier, MP Liponhay, CV Dajac, C Monterola, "Causal network inference in a dam system and its implications on feature selection for machine learning forecasting," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 604, 127893, 2022.
HE Tan, J Hong Wen Oon, NB Othman, EF Legara, C Monterola, et al., "Quantifying the resilience of rapid transit systems: A composite index using a demand-weighted complex network model," PLoS one 17 (4), e0267222, 2022.
D Dailisan, M Liponhay, C Alis, C Monterola, "Amenity counts significantly improve water consumption predictions," PloS one 17 (3), e0265771, 2022.
JFB Valenzuela, EF Legara, CP Monterola, "Typology, network features and damage response in worldwide urban road systems," PLoS One 17 (3), e0264546, 2022.
Past and Upcoming Event(s)
Using Complex Systems to Advance Transport Planning
Invited Speaker
Urban Sustainability R&D Congress
29-30 June 2017
Smart Data, Smart City: Insights on Creating Predictive Models of Urban Dynamics
Keynote Speaker
Computing Science Congress
16-18 March 2017
On Urban Planning and Human Mobility
Lecturer and part of the organising committee
2017 NTU-Warwick Complex Systems Winter School
09 -15 March 2017
IEEE 18th International Symposium on High Assurance Systems Engineering (HASE2017)
Main Organiser and Panel Moderator
IEEE International Symposium on HASE
12-14 January 2017
Mathematical and Computational Modeling of Biological System (MCMBS) 2016
Invited Speaker
Bio-inspired Computing: Noise, Structure, and Emergence
30 November – 02 December 2016
Accelerating the Way to a Smart Nation
Main Organiser and Panel Moderator
IHPC Symposium 2016
28 March 2016
Insights on Urban Mobility through Complexity Science
Lecturer and part of the organising committee
2016 NTU-Warwick Winter School
10-16 March 2016
A Modeling Perspective on How Interactions Shape the Complexity of City Dynamics
Invited Speaker
ISC High Performance Conference 2015 (Frankfurt, Germany)
12-16 July 2015
Introduction to Complexity Science
Lecturer
2015 NTU-Warwick Winter School
16-27 February 2015
Transitions in Discrete Choice 2014
Organiser Satellite Meeting
European Conference on Complex Systems
Lucca, Italy, 24 September, 2014