Safa’s research is centered around safe AI, generative models (energy-based models) and reinforcement learning and motivated by applications in computer vision and health intelligence. Safa obtained her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign working with Prof. Alexander Schwing. She graduated with Bachelor and Master degrees in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from the Technical University of Munich. She obtained a Master degree in Computer Engineering from Virginia Tech advised by Prof. Sandeep Shukla. She was a visiting scholar at UC-Berkeley, where she worked on her Master thesis under the supervision of Prof. Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli and Prof. Andreas Herkersdorf.