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Mark SchmidtView profile

Professor

• Machine Learning
• Artificial Intelligence
• Mathematical Optimization
• +6 more

Mark Schmidt is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Science. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Large-Scale Machine Learning and is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute. His research spans multiple centers including CAIDA (Centre for Artificial Intelligence Decision-making and Action), the Data Science Institute, and the Machine Intelligence Learning Discovery (MILD) group. Dr. Schmidt's educational background includes a Ph.D. from UBC (2005-2010), an M.Sc. from the University of Alberta (2003-2005), and a B.Sc. from the University of Alberta (2000-2003). His academic career progressed from Postdoc positions at Simon Fraser University, Ecole Normale Superieure, and UBC to Assistant Professor (2014-2019), Associate Professor (2019-2024), and current Professor (2024-present) at UBC. His research focuses on machine learning optimization, with particular emphasis on improving numerical algorithms for large-scale machine learning applications. His work bridges theoretical optimization and practical applications across computer vision, natural language processing, and reinforcement learning. He has developed numerous optimization techniques including variants of stochastic gradient methods, coordinate descent algorithms, and natural gradient approaches. Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong focus on optimization for over-parameterized models, particularly transformers and large language models. His work addresses critical challenges in step-size selection, convergence guarantees, and efficient implementation of optimization algorithms. His research has significant implications for training deep neural networks more effectively and understanding why certain optimization methods outperform others in practice. Among his notable awards are the Dorothy Killam Fellowship (2025), Arthur B. McDonald Fellowship (2024), Sloan Research Fellowship (2017), and multiple UBC teaching awards. He has also received the Lagrange Prize in Continuous Optimization and Best Paper Award at AISTATS 2021. Dr. Schmidt actively supervises numerous graduate students, with over 40 PhD and Master's students listed as current or alumni members of his research group. His laboratory maintains strong connections with industry partners, with many alumni securing positions at leading AI companies including Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft.

Jason D. LeeView profile

Associate Professor

• Machine Learning
• Deep Learning
• Artificial Intelligence
• +7 more

Jason D. Lee is an associate professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) and Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, he held academic positions at Princeton University as an associate professor, and was a research scientist at Google DeepMind. He completed his Ph.D. in Computational and Mathematical Engineering at Stanford University under the advisement of Trevor Hastie and Jonathan Taylor. For students and collaborators, his primary contact email is jasonlee@princeton.edu, though prospective students and postdocs are asked to include "filter_student" in the subject line. Ph.D., Computational and Mathematical Engineering, Stanford University (2015) B.Sc., Mathematics, Duke University (2010) Lee's research lies at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and optimization, focusing on the theoretical foundations of artificial intelligence. His work addresses fundamental questions in deep learning, including optimization landscapes, representation learning, and reinforcement learning theory. He has made significant contributions to understanding how gradient descent operates in neural network training and has developed provably efficient algorithms for various learning scenarios. His ten most recent publications represent a diverse yet coherent body of work across machine learning theory, focusing on topics such as Gaussian multi-index models, transformer learning capabilities, shallow neural networks, and optimization techniques. These publications appear in top venues including COLT, ICML, NeurIPS, and JMLR. Among his notable accolades are: Samsung AI Researcher of the Year Award (2023) NSF Career Award (2022) ONR Young Investigator Award (2021) Sloan Research Fellow in Computer Science (2019) NIPS Best Student Paper Award (2016) Princeton Commendation for Outstanding Teaching (ECE538B) Lee has advised numerous students including Alex Damian, Wenhao Zhan, Eshaan Nichani, Tianle Cai, Zixuan Wang, and Yunwei Ren. Former advisees have gone on to positions at institutions like NYU Courant, Facebook AI Research, UW, MIT, Duke, and Microsoft Research. His research group and collaborators span multiple institutions, working on theoretical and applied aspects of machine learning and artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on the optimization and learning dynamics of neural networks and transformer models.

Nadia FigueroaView profile

Assistant Professor

• Robot Learning from Demonstration
• Human-Robot Collaboration
• Dynamical Systems
• +5 more

Nadia Figueroa is the Shalini and Rajeev Misra Presidential Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM) Department at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds secondary appointments in Computer and Information Science (CIS) and Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE), and is a core faculty member at the GRASP Lab. Prior to Penn, she was a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT’s CSAIL and earned her PhD in Robotics from EPFL under Prof. Aude Billard. Her research focuses on physical and perceptual adaptive intelligence for robots, enabling fluid collaboration with humans in dynamic environments. Key applications include robot learning from demonstration , human-robot co-manipulation , safe navigation in human-centric spaces , and rehabilitation robotics . Her work integrates machine learning control theory artificial intelligence biomechanics psychology with guarantees of stability, safety, and robustness . Recent publications highlight advancements in reactive collision avoidance dynamical system learning intent estimation EEG-driven assistive control origami-based reconfigurable robots across platforms like autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots. She has authored a 2022 textbook on dynamical systems for robot control and received the Presidential Assistant Professorship at Penn.

Luca CarloneView profile

Associate Professor

• Robotics
• Autonomous Systems
• Computer Vision
• +6 more

Luca Carlone is the Boeing Career Development Associate Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and a Principal Investigator at the Laboratory for Information & Decision Systems (LIDS) . He leads the SPARK Lab , focusing on developing certifiable perception algorithms for autonomous systems. PhD in Mechatronics (Polytechnic University of Turin, 2012) Research spans robotics, computer vision, and optimization Research Interests : Certifiable Perception algorithms for high-integrity systems High-level Perception (geometric, semantic, physical understanding) Efficient Perception methods for resource-constrained robots Scientific Contributions include: 2024 Outstanding Systems Paper Award (RSS) 2023 IEEE Transactions on Robotics King-Sun Fu Award 2021 NSF CAREER Award 2020 AIAA Advising Award 2019 Amazon Research Award Advising : Teaches graduate courses like Visual Navigation for Autonomous Vehicles and Robotics: Science and Systems . Collaborates with institutions including JPL, Caltech, and KAIST through the DARPA SubT Challenge.

Aarti SinghView profile

Professor

• Reinforcement Learning
• Bandit Algorithms
• Active Learning
• +7 more

Aarti Singh is a Professor in the Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University and Director of the NSF AI Institute for Societal Decision Making. She leads research at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and decision making, with applications to scientific and societal domains. Her work focuses on designing principled interactive algorithms for learning and decision making under uncertainty. Education: Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2008) M.S. in Electrical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2003) B.E. in Electronics and Communication Engineering, University of Delhi (2001) Research Interests: Professor Singh's research centers on developing interactive machine learning algorithms that go beyond finding input-output associations to make higher-level decisions about the most informative data and actions. Her work spans autonomous decision making, including active sampling, stochastic optimization, bandits, and reinforcement learning that are statistically optimal, computationally tractable, and robust. She also investigates human factors in decision making, designing algorithms that model and leverage human feedback while accounting for bias, memory effects, and calibration. Her research has applications in material science, cosmology, and peer review systems. Research Trends: Professor Singh's recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on reinforcement learning, particularly in developing more efficient and robust algorithms for decision making under uncertainty. Her work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications, spanning from fundamental algorithm development to real-world implementation in scientific domains. There's a clear trajectory toward integrating human factors into decision-making algorithms, with significant contributions to peer review systems and preference learning. Scientific Awards: NSF Career Award United States Air Force Young Investigator Award A. Nico Habermann Faculty Chair Award Harold A. Peterson Best Dissertation Award Multiple paper awards Advising and Grants: Professor Singh has advised numerous PhD and master's students, many of whom have gone on to faculty positions or research roles at leading institutions. Her research is supported by prestigious grants from ONR, Simons Foundation, AFRL, ARL, and NSF. She serves as General Chair (2025) and Program Chair (2020) for the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) and has held leadership roles in multiple professional organizations. Research Team: Professor Singh leads a vibrant research group within the Machine Learning Department at CMU, with current PhD students working on topics including reinforcement learning, human-AI collaboration, and decision making under uncertainty. She also directs the NSF AI Institute for Societal Decision Making, which brings together researchers from multiple disciplines to develop AI systems that support human decision making in societal contexts.

• Mathematics of Data
• Numerical Linear Algebra
• Randomized Algorithms
• +5 more

Liza Rebrova is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering (ORFE) at Princeton University's School of Engineering and Applied Science. She is also an associated faculty member of the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics (PACM) and the Center for Statistics and Machine Learning (CSML). Her research focuses on randomized numerical linear algebra and the mathematics of data science, with connections to high-dimensional probability and stochastic optimization. She develops mathematically justified randomized algorithms for large-scale data, particularly interested in settings where data exhibits mathematical structure such as spectral decay, multi-modality, or non-negativity. Her work addresses challenges in data compression, recovery, and optimization under structured noise conditions. Dr. Rebrova's recent publications show a strong trend toward developing robust algorithms for linear systems, tensor data compression, and nonnegative matrix factorization. Her work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in machine learning and data science, with emphasis on memory efficiency and handling corrupted or incomplete data. NSF DMS-2309685 (Single PI, 2024-2026): "Outliers are not what they seem: data-aware, flexible, and robust randomized iterative methods" NSF DMS-2108479 (Collaborative, 2022-2024): "Fast, Low-Memory Embeddings for Tensor Data with Applications" (co-PIs Mark Iwen and Deanna Needell) She currently advises three PhD students (Jackie Lok, Shambhavi Suryanarayanan, and Sofiia Shvaiko) and has previously advised Abraar Chaudhry (PhD 2024) and Nicolo Grometto (Masters thesis 2023). At Princeton, she teaches graduate courses including ORF526 (Graduate Probability), ORF387 (Networks), and ORF523 (Convex and Conic Optimization).

Sicun GaoView profile

Associate Professor

• Algorithms and Optimization
• Automated Reasoning
• Cyber-Physical Systems
• +3 more

Sicun Gao is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at the University of California, San Diego. His research focuses on practical algorithms for NP-hard search and optimization problems in computational systems, emphasizing combinatorial perspectives in numerical and statistical contexts to achieve reliable autonomy. Research Interests: Automated reasoning, Hamilton-Jacobi reachability, safe reinforcement learning, control barrier functions, and optimization in cyber-physical systems. Teaching: Courses on AI search, optimization, and graduate research seminars. The 15 most recent publications highlight advancements in safe AI control, motion planning, and policy optimization, often integrating neural networks with formal verification. Awards include the IEEE Power & Energy Society Technical Committee Prize Paper Award and the IROS RoboCup Best Paper Award. He advises PhD students working on AI-driven control and robotics, with alumni placed at institutions like Seoul National University, Amazon, and Apple. Grants include NSF Career, Air Force Young Investigator, and DARPA Assured Autonomy funding. His lab develops tools like dReal for automated reasoning in nonlinear theories over the reals.

Bo DaiView profile

Assistant Professor

• Reinforcement Learning
• Machine Learning
• Data-Driven Decision Making
• +3 more

Bo Dai is an Assistant Professor at the School of Computational Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind. His research focuses on Agent AI, Generative Models, and Representation Learning, aiming to create decision-making agents through world modeling. He holds a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech (2013–2018) and previously worked at Google Brain. Dai has authored numerous influential papers in top conferences like NeurIPS, ICML, and ICLR, and received the AISTATS Best Paper Award (2016). Education: Ph.D., School of Computational Science and Engineering, Georgia Tech (2013–2018) Research Interests: Reinforcement Learning and Representation Learning for decision-making agents Generative Models and their integration with Agent AI Provable and scalable algorithms for real-world applications His work bridges theory and practice, emphasizing spectral representations and provable guarantees in complex systems. Key Article Trends: His recent work emphasizes scalable spectral methods for multi-agent systems, diffusion policies, and representation-based techniques in reinforcement learning. He also explores LLM alignment and sim-to-real transfer learning. Awards: AISTATS Best Paper Award (2016) NeurIPS Workshop Best Paper (2017) Ross Fellowship (2011–2012) Advising & Grants: Supervises 6 current Ph.D. and M.S. students. Active in organizing workshops on reinforcement learning and serves as an Area Chair for top conferences. Labs & Software: Leads development of Representation-based Reinforcement Learning and Repr-Control toolboxes for nonlinear control and stochastic systems.

Raman AroraView profile

Associate Professor

• Machine Learning
• Statistical Signal Processing
• Stochastic Approximation Algorithms
• +16 more

Raman Arora is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University, with affiliations to the Mathematical Institute for Data Science (MINDS), the Center for Language and Speech Processing (CLSP), and the Institute for Data-Intensive Engineering and Science (IDIES). His research spans theoretical and practical aspects of machine learning, focusing on robustness, privacy, representation learning, and optimization. Research Interests: Machine Learning Theory Representation Learning (e.g., Deep CCA, Multi-view Learning) Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning (Differential Privacy) Robustness in Deep Learning Online and Reinforcement Learning Stochastic Optimization Algorithms His recent publications, primarily in top-tier venues like NeurIPS, ICML, and ICLR, demonstrate a strong focus on the theoretical foundations of adversarial robustness, multi-task learning, offline reinforcement learning, and differentially private optimization. His work often bridges theory and practice, with applications in speech, language, and data-intensive systems. Scientific Awards and Honors: NSF CAREER Award (2020) ICML Test-of-Time Award Finalist (2023) for Deep CCA Member, Institute for Advanced Study (2019–2020) Visiting Scientist, Simons Institute (2019, 2020, 2022) Advising and Grants: Raman Arora has advised numerous PhD and master’s students, many of whom are now researchers at leading tech companies like Google, Meta, and Microsoft. His research is supported by significant grants from the NSF (including CAREER, BIGDATA, TRIPODS, and CRCNS awards), DARPA, and other agencies, focusing on foundational aspects of machine learning such as inductive biases, privacy, robustness, and computational neuroscience. Laboratory and Research Group: He leads a dynamic research group at Johns Hopkins, comprising current PhD students and postdoctoral researchers working on the intersection of theory and applications in machine learning. The group is actively involved in projects related to adversarial robustness, meta-learning, offline reinforcement learning, and private optimization.

Alessio LomuscioView profile

Professor

• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning Verification
• Neural Network Verification
• +5 more

Alessio Lomuscio is a Professor of Safe Artificial Intelligence at Imperial College London, holding the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies and recognized as an ACM Distinguished Member. He leads the Safe AI Lab, which focuses on developing methods and tools for the verification of AI systems to ensure their safe and secure deployment in applications of societal importance. His research spans verification and robust learning for neural networks and decision trees, robust machine learning in aviation and finance, monitoring of machine learning systems, assurance for autonomous systems and AI, and verification and validation of neuro-symbolic systems. Lomuscio has made significant contributions to formal verification methods for AI systems, particularly in the context of safety-critical applications. His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on neural network verification techniques, with applications across multiple domains including finance, aviation, and autonomous systems. His work bridges theoretical advances in formal methods with practical applications in real-world AI systems, addressing critical challenges in AI safety and trustworthiness. Scientific Awards: Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies ACM Distinguished Member Lomuscio has served in numerous leadership roles, including as Co-Director (2023-present) and Deputy Director (2019-2023) of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Safe and Trusted Artificial Intelligence. He has also held positions as Director of Strategy and Planning (2017-2020), Member of Management Committee (2013-2020), and Deputy Head of Department (2016-2017). His editorial service includes roles as Associate Editor for Artificial Intelligence Journal and Editorial Board Member for Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research and Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems. His research group actively mentors students and researchers, with current openings for PhD and postdoctoral positions focused on AI verification and safety. Lomuscio's work has established him as a leading figure in the field of safe and verifiable AI systems, with significant contributions to both theoretical foundations and practical applications.

J. Andrew BagnellView profile

Professor

• Machine Learning
• Robotics
• Control Theory
• +7 more

J. Andrew Bagnell is a Professor at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). His research bridges planning, control theory, and computational learning, focusing on systems that can self-optimize under partial models. Key projects include the LAIRLab (Learning Applied to Intelligent Robotics) and initiatives in the ARM-S and BIRD MURI programs. Research domains: Machine Learning, Robotics, Control Theory, Optimization, Probabilistic Modeling Key applications: Mobile Robotics, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Multi-Robot Decision Making Recent work emphasizes imitation learning, trajectory optimization, and game-theoretic algorithms for decision-making. His publications highlight collaborations with students and researchers on topics like online learning, planning under uncertainty, and autonomous systems. Notable affiliations include advising Gokul Swamy and past students such as Wen Sun and Anirudh Vemula. Labs: LAIRLab, ARM-S, BIRD MURI team.

• Machine Learning
• Artificial Intelligence
• Algorithms
• +3 more

Zaid Harchaoui is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Washington. His research focuses on machine learning, generative AI, and algorithmic optimization, with applications spanning ecology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. He explores learning under distributional shifts and develops tools for scalable generative models in language and vision domains. University: University of Washington Department: Statistics Research Focus: Learning from data with computational, inferential, and mathematical rigor; distributional shift adaptation; generative model scaling Email: zaid@uw.edu His recent work emphasizes generative AI applications in ecology and neuroscience, stochastic optimization for robustness, and algorithmic efficiency in large-scale learning. Key contributions include techniques for distributionally robust optimization, interpretable authorship obfuscation, and uncertainty quantification in behavior classification. Scientific awards and honors are not explicitly mentioned in the provided text. Collaborative efforts often intersect with nonlinear control algorithms, spectral analysis, and privacy-preserving machine learning frameworks.

Daniel M. RoyView profile

Professor

• Machine Learning
• Statistics
• Probabilistic Programming
• +7 more

Daniel M. Roy is a Full Professor at the University of Toronto, with cross-appointments in the Department of Computer Science, Department of Statistical Sciences, and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He serves as Research Director at the Vector Institute and holds the CIFAR Canada AI Chair. Research Focus: Foundational principles of prediction, inference, and decision-making under uncertainty across machine learning, statistics, mathematical logic, applied probability, and computer science. Scientific Contributions: Key work in learning theory, statistical network analysis, probabilistic programming, and information-theoretic frameworks for generalization. Awards: ICML 2024 Best Paper Award for "Information Complexity of Stochastic Convex Optimization" and promotion to Full Professor in 2024. Student Advising: Actively mentors Ph.D. candidates and postdoctoral researchers with strong quantitative backgrounds, particularly at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and computer science. Email: daniel.roy@utoronto.ca

Virginia SmithView profile

Associate Professor

• Machine Learning
• Optimization
• Distributed Systems
• +3 more

Virginia Smith is the Leonardo Associate Professor of Machine Learning at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and undergraduate degrees from the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on developing efficient, privacy-preserving machine learning systems, particularly in federated learning, distributed optimization, and resource-constrained settings. Key areas include federated learning frameworks like CoCoA and Ditto, unlearning algorithms, and privacy amplification techniques. Smith's work bridges theory and practice, addressing challenges such as data heterogeneity, fairness, and robustness. She has led initiatives like the LEAF benchmark for federated learning and has contributed to open-source tools for scalable ML systems. Her awards include the Sloan Research Fellowship, Samsung AI Researcher of the Year (2023), and an NSF CAREER Award. She is actively involved in curriculum development, teaching courses on federated learning and large-scale ML at CMU. Her research group explores cutting-edge topics like federated optimization with sparse communication, unlearning in LLMs, and secure ML pipelines. Collaborations span academia and industry, with applications in healthcare, IoT systems, and AI safety. Smith serves as Program Chair for ICML 2025 and frequently contributes to workshops on federated learning and trustworthy AI.

• Quantum Information Theory
• Quantum Many-Body Systems
• Quantum Dissipative Evolutions
• +2 more

Angela Capel Cuevas is an Assistant Professor of Quantum Information Theory/Theoretical Quantum Computation at the University of Cambridge's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). Previously, she held a Junior Professorship at Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (2021-2024) and was an MCQST Distinguished PostDoc at TU München (2020-2021). Her research focuses on the intersection of quantum information theory and quantum many-body systems, particularly studying thermalization dynamics via quantum functional inequalities. She is a recipient of the Simons Emmy Noether Fellowship and Forbes 30 Under 30 (Spain 2023). Education: PhD in Mathematics, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid/ICMAT (2015-2019) Master in Computational Engineering and Mathematics, URV/UOC (2016-2018) Bachelor in Mathematics, Universidad de Granada (2009-2014) Research: Angela's work applies analytic and geometric tools to quantum systems, emphasizing decay of correlations in Gibbs states and quantum dissipative evolutions. Key topics include entropy inequalities, modified logarithmic Sobolev inequalities, and thermalization rates in spin chains. Her recent work bridges quantum functional analysis with practical implications for quantum computing and thermalization phenomena. Grants & Roles: PI of CRC TRR 352 'Mathematics of Many-Body Quantum Systems' (7M€) Co-PI of QuantERA project TouQan (1.25M€) Organized workshops at BIRS and Tübingen (2023-2024) Awards: Simons Emmy Noether Fellowship (2023) Forbes 30 Under 30 (2023) Vicent Caselles RSME-FBBVA Award (2022) Labs/Teams: Leads a group studying quantum dissipative systems and thermalization at DAMTP. Collaborates with institutions globally on quantum functional inequalities and Gibbs state properties.