Contact
pcosta@gmu.edu
+1(703) 879-6687
+55(61) 8167-6666
Current Positions
Affiliate Professor
GMU C4I
Center
Brazilian Air Force Officer
Air Force Chiefs of Staff
Invited Professor
Instituto Tecnológico da Aeronáutica
University of Brasília
Research engineer with doctorate in Information Technology, affiliate faculty at George Mason University's Center of Excellence in C4I, Invited Professor at the Brazilian Air Force's Instituto Tecnológico da Aeronáutica (ITA) and at the University of Brasilia (UnB), Brazilian Air Force Officer, former fighter pilot, and invited expert of the W3C. Background in C3I, systems design and engineering, electronic warfare, multi-sensor data fusion, probabilistic representation and reasoning, knowledge engineering, and Semantic Web languages. Experienced in managing projects from conception to completion.
Doctor of Philosophy
George Mason University - 2005
Dissertation topic: Bayesian Semantics for the Semantic Web.
Master of Science
George Mason University - 1999
Thesis topic: The Fighter Aircraft’s Autodefense Management
Problem: A Dynamic Decision Network Approach
Bachelor of Science
Brazilian Air Force Academy (Engineering Degree) - 1986
Major Courses and Certificates
Curso de Comando e
Estado-Maior (Command and General Staff Course)
Universidade da Força Aérea – ECEMAR
– Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil - 2003
Command, Control,
Communications and Intelligence Certificate
George Mason University – Fairfax, VA, USA. 1999
Eficácia do
Armamento Aéreo (Weapons Allocation Course)
Universidade da Força Aérea – CIEAr
– Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil - 1995
Curso de
Aperfeiçoamento de Oficiais (Officer Training School)
Universidade da Força Aérea – EAOAr
– Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil - 1995
Electronic Warfare
Specialist Course
Dundridge College – Totnes, Devon, UK. 1994
Curso Básico
de Guerra Eletrônica (Electronic Warfare Officer - Basic)
1o/7o G.Av. – Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. 1994
Curso de
Segurança de Vôo (Flight Safety Officer Course)
CENIPA - Brasília, DF, Brazil. 1989
Paulo Cesar G. da Costa was born in Rio de Janeiro and is a Brazilian citizen. He graduated with honors in the Brazilian Air Force Academy in 1986 and started his career as a fighter pilot, having flown nearly 1.800 hours in fighter aircraft such as the Brazilian-Italian made AM-X. During this period, he pursued specialization in the Electronic Warfare field, attending courses in both Brazil and England, acting as Electronic Warfare Officer in the Brazilian Air Force's first AM-X Squadron, and then as an invited lecturer in most of the courses from the BAF's Electronic Warfare Center (CGEGAR).
In 1995, he graduated first place out of 115 students, all in the rank of Captain, in the BAF's EAOAr, a major career course. In 1997, he moved to the USA and started his Master of Science degree in Systems Engineering at George Mason University, where he graduated in 1999. At that time, Dr. Costa also earned the GMU Engineering School's C3I Certificate and became a recipient of the Academic Excellence in Systems Engineering Award.
Back to Brazil in 2000, he served in the Air Force Chiefs of Staff, where he participated in many projects in the IT field. In 2003, he graduated with honors from the BAF's ECEMAR, another major career course, and returned to the USA, where he earned his PhD degree in Information Technology at George Mason University. At this time, he became a leading researcher in the field of probabilistic ontologies and developed a probabilistic extension to the OWL Web Ontology Language, called Pr-OWL, which extends the former to first-order Bayesian expressiveness using Multi-Entity Bayesian Networks. He is also a key contributor to the development of UnBBayes-MEBN, an open source, freely available, java-based probabilistic reasoner and PR-OWL GUI that enables reasoning with probabilistic ontologies.
Dr. Paulo Costa currently holds the positions of Assistant Professor to the George Mason University's C4I Center, Invited Professor at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, and Commissioned Officer at the Brazilian Air Force Chiefs of Staff. He is also an invited expert at the W3C, where he provides advice on uncertainty representation and reasoning.
Curso de
Formação de Oficiais (Baccalaureate Degree)
– 3rd Place Award
Academia da Força Aérea – Pirassununga,
SP, Brazil. 1986
Curso de
Aperfeiçoamento de Oficiais (Officer Training Course)
– 1st Place Award
Universidade da Força Aérea – EAOAr
– Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. 1995
Academic Excellence in
Systems Engineering
George Mason University – Fairfax, VA, USA. 1999
Curso de Comando e
Estado-Maior (Command and General Staff) – 3rd Place Award
Universidade da Força Aérea – ECEMAR
– Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. 2003
Best Student Paper
– Modeling and Simulation Track
10th International Command and Control Research Symposium, McLean, VA,
USA.2005
