Hi, I’m Mike. I’m a PhD student in Frank Wood’s group working on statistical machine learning. I am passionate about how technology and AI can be used to impact art/design fields, such as painting, film making, or architecture.
For my research, I’m currently interested in how the frameworks of probabilistic inference and reinforcement learning (RL) can be combined, for example in `RL as inference’ or distributional RL. I’ve also worked on generative modeling, semi-supervised learning, and Bayesian optimal experimental design. Prior to my PhD, I was a software engineer at a couple startups in the Bay Area, which was nearly as exciting as the research grind.
I grew up in Boston and Chicago, but usually tell people I’m from California, where I lived for 6 years. Outside of work, I enjoy climbing, films, standup comedy, tacos, and other things you can find in LA. At the moment, I live in Vancouver with my Blue Heeler pup, Vesper. You can find us hanging out in Squamish or one of the many dog parks in the city.