Elena Vasquez

Elena Vasquez brings world-class machine learning expertise to JPL. After completing her PhD in Computational Neuroscience at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, she spent four years at DeepMind London working on multi-agent reinforcement learning and sim-to-real transfer for robotic systems.

Elena joined JPL drawn by the challenge of deploying AI in environments where failure has physical consequences — not just a lower benchmark score. At JPL, she leads the AI & Autonomy division, overseeing everything from neural architecture design to real-time edge deployment on autonomous vehicles.

"At DeepMind, I trained agents to play games. At JPL, I train them to survive reality. The stakes are infinitely higher — and that's exactly why I'm here."