About Me

I am Pedro Silva, a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, advised by Prof. Raluca Ilie. My research focuses on computational modeling of the Earth’s inner magnetosphere, particularly on how heavy ions shape ring current decay and plasmaspheric refilling during geomagnetic storms.

I develop and extend the HEIDI (Hot Electron–Ion Drift Integrator) model — a kinetic model that couples to the BATS-R-US MHD code within the Space Weather Modeling Framework (SWMF). My work integrates physics-based simulation, high-performance computing. I am also interested in emerging AI techniques such as graph neural networks and diffusion-based surrogate models to accelerate and enhance space weather prediction.

Beyond my core research, I am interested in the broader intersection of HPC, machine learning, and space physics, aiming to create models that bridge physical fidelity with computational scalability.