Diego Serrano Ortega

I am a PhD candidate in Statistics for Data Science at the Department of Statistics of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and a member of the NICDA research group (Nonparametric Inference for Complex Data and its Applications). My thesis, Topics on random forests in metric spaces, is supervised by Eduardo García-Portugués and Marco Raiola.

I read Mathematics at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (BSc, 2018–2022) and Statistics for Data Science at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (MSc, 2022–2023). I have devoted myself to research and teaching since October 2023.

Research

I work on inference for random objects: data valued in a general metric space rather than a Euclidean one — distributions, covariance matrices, curves, directions, shapes. Only a distance is assumed, so the tools apply across very different kinds of data, at the price of having to redefine very basic notions such as the mean or the variance. My thesis envisages an application of metric space data analysis to aeroacoustics, since the data used in this area — flow fields and acoustic curves — is often complex.

In the first work of my thesis we introduced out-of-bag prediction balls: uncertainty regions for the prediction of any bagging regression model with responses in a metric space, with asymptotic coverage guarantees. More recently, together with Ingrid Van Keilegom (KU Leuven) and Eduardo García-Portugués (UC3M), I have been working on a goodness-of-fit framework for distributions on separable metric spaces, built on distance profiles.

Research interests

  • Statistics for random objects and metric-space-valued data
  • Goodness-of-fit testing
  • Empirical processes
  • Nonparametric statistics
  • Uncertainty quantification and prediction regions
  • Random forests and Fréchet regression

Education

PhD in Statistics for Data Science · since November 2024
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Thesis: Topics on random forests in metric spaces. Supervisors: Eduardo García-Portugués (Department of Statistics) and Marco Raiola (Department of Aerospace Engineering). Expected 2028.
MSc in Statistics for Data Science · 2022–2023
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Best academic record of the graduating class. Thesis: Shape-constrained estimation in functional regression by means of P-splines (supervisors: M. Durbán and V. Guerrero).
BSc in Mathematics · 2018–2022
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Thesis: Continued fractions and some infinite sums (supervisor: F. Chamizo).

Awards and honours

  • Best Poster Award

    6th International Workshop on Functional and Operatorial Statistics (IWFOS 2025), Novara, Italy. One of two prizes awarded by the Scientific and Organizing Committees.

  • First prize, Thesis Talk 2025

    Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. University-wide competition in which doctoral candidates present their thesis in four minutes; first among 92 participants from all research areas, 15 of whom reached the final.

    Competition Video
  • Extraordinary Master's Degree Award

    Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 2023.

  • First prize, Master's Excellence Awards Programme

    Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 2023. Awarded for the best academic record of the graduating class.

Research stays

  • ORSTAT, KU Leuven, Belgium

    October 2025 – January 2026. Host: Prof. Ingrid Van Keilegom. Two visits, on goodness-of-fit testing for distributions on metric spaces, towards the International Doctorate mention.

Funding and contracts

  • Predoctoral research contract (PIPF)

    Programa para Personal Investigador Predoctoral en Formación en el ámbito de la Inteligencia Artificial, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Since February 2025.

  • EuroCC Spain Testbed award

    EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, grant agreement No. 101101903 (2025). Project Uncertainty estimation in the prediction of Fréchet random forests for complex data: 50,000 CPU core-hours, 100 GB of storage and expert consultancy at the Galicia Supercomputing Centre (CESGA).

  • Team member, grant PID2024-158399NB-I00

    MICIU/AEI, co-funded by ERDF/EU.

  • Research technician

    Project TED2021-129813A-I00 (Spanish State Research Agency), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. October 2023 – August 2024.

  • Mobility grants for the KU Leuven visits

    2025/2026. Three competitive calls of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid: Becas Santander / Ayudas Predoctorales, the travel grant of the Department of Statistics, and the mobility grant of the Doctoral School.