Last updated: September 16, 2025

Research & Development Engineer | Formal Methods Specialist

Hola! I’m a Colombian R&D Engineer from Bogotá, passionate about exploring the intersection of mathematics, computer science, and philosophy. I specialize in technology backed by solid mathematical foundations, with particular enthusiasm for formal verification and AI systems that enhance reasoning capabilities.

Contact

prieto.jona@gmail.com | GitHub | LinkedIn | Twitter | ORCID | PDF CV.

Professional Summary

Research engineer with experience in mathematical conceptualization, compiler development, and protocol design. Currently building decentralized exchange infrastructure at Heliax AG, with a track record of leading complex technical projects from the Juvix programming language to the Anoma protocol specification.

Core Expertise: Formal methods • Type theory • Functional programming (Elixir, Haskell) • Compilers • Proof assistants • Python/Flask API • Mathematica • Graph theory • Distributed systems

Experience

Anoma Engineering | Heliax AG

June - September 2025 | Remote

• Built vault-based exchange prototype for the Anoma network implementing Speedex batch-processing algorithm
• Tech stack: Elixir, Rust, GitHub Actions CI

Research & Development Engineer | Heliax AG

Jan 2023 - June 2025 | Remote

• Led protocol specification and research documentation for Anoma ecosystem
• Key deliverables:
  • Anoma Protocol Specification - Technical architecture and design
  • Research Topics Index - Curated research directions
  • Engine Library - Core Elixir implementation
  • Tango - In-memory replicated data structures

Compiler Engineer & Product Lead | Heliax AG

Mar 2022 - Dec 2023 | Remote

• Led end-to-end development of Juvix, a functional programming language for smart contracts
• Delivered compiler toolchain, documentation, and developer ecosystem
• Tech stack: Haskell, Docker, CI/CD pipelines

Part-time Researcher | Heliax AG

Aug 2021 - Mar 2022 | Remote

• Contributed to PLT seminar series on type theory, compilers, and formal methods
• Topics: Two-level type theory, termination checking, bidirectional typing, HoTT

Previous Work Experience

Teaching Assistant, University of Bergen

• 2018-2021 | Bergen, Norway
• Graduate courses: Models of Computation, Concurrent Programming, Introduction to Logic, Software Engineering

Research Assistant, Universidad EAFIT

• 2016-2017 | Medellín, Colombia
• Contributed to Apia Haskell Project and developed Online-ATPs

Lecturer, Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano

• July - Dec 2016 | Medellín, Colombia
• Undergraduate courses: Linear Algebra, Linear Programming, Algebra

Machine Learning Engineer, Observatorio de Tierras

• 2014 - 2016 | Bogotá, Colombia
• Developed ML algorithms and text data mining tools

Lecturer, Universidad Sergio Arboleda

• 2012-2014 | Bogotá, Colombia
• Undergraduate courses: Algorithms I-II, Discrete Mathematics

Full-stack Python Developer, Vanitech

• 2012 | Bogotá, Colombia
• Developed booking platform and landing page

Software Developer, Scripta Software

• 2009 | Bogotá, Colombia
• Implemented RSA encryption/decryption API in C# .NET for financial applications

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Education

• PhD in Computer Science, University of Bergen

  • 2018 - 2023 | Bergen, Norway | Defended December 15, 2023

  • Thesis: Investigations into Graph-Theoretical Constructions in Homotopy Type Theory

    Abstract

    This thesis presents a novel constructive and proof-relevant development of graph theory concepts within Homotopy Type Theory (HoTT). HoTT, an extension of Martin-Löf’s intuitionistic type theory, incorporates novel features like Voevodsky’s Univalence principle and higher inductive types. Its structuralist perspective aligns with standard mathematical practise by promoting isomorphisms to equalities — inhabitants of the corresponding Martin-Löf’s identity type. This thesis primarily delves into the foundational mathematics of graphs, with less emphasis on their practical aspects. The core contributions are definitions, lemmas, and proofs, which often arise from a synthesis of informal presentation and formalisation within a proof assistant. We specifically work within the category of directed multigraphs in HoTT.

    Inspired by the topological and combinatorial facets of graphs on surfaces, we formulate an elementary characterisation of planar graphs. This is done without defining a surface or directly working with real numbers, as found in some literature. Our approach hinges on graph maps and faces for locally directed and connected multigraphs. A graph qualifies as planar if it features a graph map and an outer face, allowing any walk in the embedded graph to be merely walk-homotopic to another.

    Among our key discoveries, we ascertain that this kind of planar maps constitutes a homotopy set, which is finite when the graph is finite. Additionally, we introduce extensions of planar maps to inductively generate examples of planar graphs. We also delve into further concepts such as spanning trees and higher dimensional representations of graphs as spaces through graph maps.

    • PDF
    • Slides
    • Agda code and other related sources.

  • Supervisors: Håkon R. Gylterud and Marc Bezem.

  • Interests: type theory, logic, algorithms, graph theory, category theory

  • Talk on Modal logics and Kripke semantics

  • Motivation

    My PhD research is situated within the field of constructive mathematics and specifically, the study of mathematical constructions within the framework of Homotopy type theory. This relatively recent type theory is particularly noteworthy due to its mathematical interpretation and its structural principles. Arguably, type theories can be defined as formal systems and also as functional programming languages. From this perspective, there is no distinction between the process of proving mathematical statements and programming on a computer. This is facilitated by the proof-assistant tools, which allow the user to write proofs in a formal language and check their correctness.

    Keywords: dependent type theory, homotopy type theory, agda, functional programming, proof-assistant, univalence axiom, univalent mathematics

• MSc in Applied Mathematics - Logic and Algorithms, Universidad EAFIT

  • 2016 - 2017 | Medellín, Colombia
  • Thesis: Proof-Reconstruction in Type Theory for Propositional Logic
  • Supervisor: Andrés Sicard-Ramírez

• BSc in Mathematics, Universidad Sergio Arboleda

  • 2007 - 2013 | Bogotá, Colombia
  • Thesis: Introduction to Elliptic Curves and Mordell’s Theorem
  • Supervisor: Hermés Martínez

• Universidad Nacional de Colombia (2009-2013) - Economics & Systems Engineering (incomplete) | Bogotá

Summer Schools/Conferences

• Midlands Graduate School (MGS) in Cyberspace, 12-16 April 2021.
• UiB ICT Ph.D Forum in Voss, Norway, 26 October, 2020.
• HoTT Summer School in Pittsburgh, USA, August. 2019.
• TYPES 2019 in Oslo, Norway, June. 2019.
• Midlands Graduate School (MGS) at University of Birmingham, UK, April, 2019.
• EUTypes Summer School in Ohrid, Macedonia, 8-12 August, 2018.
• Agda Implementors’ Meeting XXVII in Gothenburg, Sweden, 4-9 June, 2018.
• Agda Implementors’ Meeting XXV in Gothenburg, Sweden, 9-15 May, 2017.

Seminar talks

• Investigations on graph-theoretical constructions in HoTT. Univalent Foundations For Daily Application (UFFDA), 18-19 November 2021, Bergen, Norway. (PDF)
• Automatic Theorem Proving, an act of trust. ICT Ph.D Forum, 26-27 October 2020, Voss, Norway,
• Planar Graphs in Univalent Mathematics. TYPES 2019 in Oslo, Norway, 11 June. 2019. (PDF)
• Pathovers, An Introduction to Dependent Type Theory. Lafayette Topology Seminar , 14 December 2018, Lafayette, USA.
• Proof-reconstruction in Agda. Agda Implementors' Meeting XXV 9-15 May 2017, Gothenburg, Sweden.

As a member of the Logic and Computation group at Universidad EAFIT, I presented the following talks:

• Proof-reconstruction in Agda. 2017. Logic and Computation group seminar, Universidad EAFIT.
• Model checking with Alloy. June 20, 2017. Universidad EAFIT.
• Simple typed lambda calculus. 2017. Universidad EAFIT.
• Kripke semantics. Logic and Computation group seminar, 2016. Universidad EAFIT.

Selected Publications

• Prieto‐Cubides, Jonathan and Håkon Robbestad Gylterud (2024). On planarity of graphs in homotopy type theory. Mathematical Structures in Computer Science, pp. 1–41. DOI: 10.1017/S0960129524000100.
• • (2024). Artefact: Mechanised proofs in Agda for the manuscript “Investigations into Graph‐theoretical Constructions in Homotopy Type Theory”. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11092174.
• – (2022). On Homotopy of Walks and Spherical Maps in Homotopy Type Theory. In: Proceedings of the 11th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Certified Programs and Proofs. CPP 2022. Philadelphia, PA, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 338–351. DOI: 10.1145/3497775.3503671.
• Prieto‐Cubides, Jonathan and Camilo Argoty (2018). Dealing with Missing Data using a Selection Algorithm on Rough Sets. International Journal of Computational Intelligence Systems 11.1, p. 1307. DOI: 10.2991/ijcis.11.1.97.
• Prieto‐Cubides, Jonathan (2017). Proof‐Reconstruction in Type Theory for Propositional Logic. Master’s Thesis. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1127672.

Personal Interests

Activities: Rock climbing at Gran Pared and local Bogotá gyms, tennis, and FPS gaming (Battlefield sniper main). Always up for a climbing session if you’re in town!

Additional Resources

Archived Software projects

• athena: a proof-reconstruction implementation in type theory for the propositional logic fragment of the automatic theorem prover Metis. (Haskell) (PDF).
• online-atps: a command-line tool to use popular automatic theorem provers.
• agda-metis: a formalisation of the propositional fragment in Metis.
• agda-prop: a deep embedding specification of classical propositional logic in Agda.
• prop-pack: a collection of TPTP problems and TSTP solutions of problems in classical logic to test automatic provers.
• agda-pkg: a simple example of a package-manager for Agda.
• hott-cheatsheets: a collection of homotopy type theory cheatsheets with the content of the HoTT Book.
• arsi: a selection algorithm on rough sets for missing data in databases.
• poirot: a text search, a package, and analysis platform programmed in Mathematica, designed for retrieval, analysis and systematization of large textual data (in the order of tens of thousands of files). Poirot is tailored for the needs of qualitative researchers, journalists, and state officials (in the judiciary, for example), that need to find specific textual bits in big masses of unstructured text. This development was part of a larger project by Observatorio de Restitución de Tierras and Universidad Sergio Arboleda, both Colombian research organizations. Therefore, the source code is private, but if you are interested in, you can contact me.

Some no academic-related open-source projects:

• flask-ponywhoosh: a Flask full-text search engine.
• ponywoosh: a Python package to make full-text searchable Pony databases.
• python-atxt: a tool to extract text data from different kind of files. Available upon request.
• dig: a web scrapper with a nice GUI. Available upon request.

Community initiatives

• ICFP 2024 Artifact Evaluation Committee
• A reading group on PL topics by graduate students and friends at UiB. See theuibcoworkers.
• Organizer and problem setter for a few programming contests at Universidad Sergio Arboleda.
• Quantum computing seminar for undergrads at Universidad Sergio Arboleda

Short Notes

• The Pigeonhole principle (Agda) (PDF).
• Pathovers.
• Circle equivalences.
• Recursive functions for dynamic programming problems - A compendium of recursive formulations for well-known algorithm problems.

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Jonathan Prieto-Cubides's website