Biography:Nando de Freitas

From HandWiki
Nando de Freitas
Born
Zimbabwe
Alma materUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Trinity College, Cambridge
Known for
Scientific career
FieldsComputer science
Institutions
  • University of British Columbia
  • Oxford University
  • Google DeepMind
  • Microsoft AI
ThesisBayesian Methods for Neural Networks (2000)
Doctoral advisor
  • Andrew Howard Gee
  • Mahesan Niranjan
  • Christophe Andrieu
  • Arnaud Doucet

Nando de Freitas is a researcher in the field of machine learning, and in particular in the subfields of neural networks, Bayesian inference and Bayesian optimization, and deep learning.[1]

Biography

De Freitas was born in Zimbabwe. He did his undergraduate studies (1991–94) and MSc (1994–96) at the University of the Witwatersrand, and his PhD at Trinity College, Cambridge (1996-2000).[2] From 2001, he was a professor at the University of British Columbia, before joining the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford from 2013 to 2017. In 2014, he joined Google's DeepMind when the company acquired Oxford spinoff Dark Blue Labs.[3][4][5] He was in charge of the team that worked on creating tools for generating audio and images at DeepMind.[6] In September 2024, de Freitas joined Microsoft AI as VP of AI.[7][6]

Awards and recognition

De Freitas has been recognised for his contributions to machine learning through the following awards:

  • Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Machine Learning (2016)
  • Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Learning Representations (2016)
  • Google Faculty Research Award (2014)[8]
  • Distinguished Paper Award at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (2013)[9]
  • Charles A. McDowell Award for Excellence in Research (2012)[10][11]
  • Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems Young Researcher Award (2010)[12][13]

References

  1. ↑ about (2013-12-19). "audioBoom / 'Deep learning' enabling computers to understand humans". https://audioboo.fm/boos/1808330-deep-learning-enabling-computers-to-understand-humans. Retrieved 2017-01-05. 
  2. ↑ "Nando de Freitas". https://www.cs.ubc.ca/~nando/biography.html. 
  3. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (2014-10-23). "Google's DeepMind Acqui-Hires Two AI Teams In The UK, Partners With Oxford" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2014/10/23/googles-deepmind-acqui-hires-two-ai-teams-in-the-uk-partners-with-oxford/. 
  4. ↑ Gibbs, Samuel (2014-10-23). "Google buys two more UK artificial intelligence startups" (in en-GB). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/23/google-uk-artificial-intelligence-startups-machine-learning-dark-blue-labs-vision-factory. 
  5. ↑ Katherine Gorman and Ryan Adams. "Solving Intelligence and Machine Learning Fundamentals". www.thetalkingmachines.com (Podcast). Talking Machines. Event occurs at 11:30. Archived from the original on 4 July 2015.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Coulter, Martin (2025-03-20). "Microsoft scoops up talent from AI video startup Haiper". https://sifted.eu/articles/microsoft-haiper-ai-hires-video-sora-inflection/. 
  7. ↑ Tremayne-Pengelly, Alexandra (2024-12-12). "Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman Is in a Talent War With His Former Companies" (in en-US). https://observer.com/2024/12/microsoft-ai-ceo-mustafa-suleyman-talent-poach/. 
  8. ↑ "Nando de Freitas receives Google Faculty Research Award for his work on deep learning". 2014-02-27. http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/news/761-full.html. Retrieved 2017-01-05. 
  9. ↑ "IJCAI 2013 Distinguished Papers | IJCAI 2013". http://ijcai13.org/program/distinguished_papers. Retrieved 2017-01-05. 
  10. ↑ "Charles McDowell Award | Computer Science at UBC". February 2013. https://www.cs.ubc.ca/award/2013/02/charles-mcdowell-award. Retrieved 2017-01-05. 
  11. ↑ "Faculty Research Award Recipients | Office of the Vice President Research & International". 2013-07-01. Archived from the original on 2013-07-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20130701204728/http://www.research.ubc.ca/vpri/faculty-research-award-recipients. 
  12. ↑ "NYU Computer Science Department". http://www.cs.nyu.edu/webapps/spring2013/colloquia/150. Retrieved 2017-01-05. 
  13. ↑ "Nando De Freitas : CIFAR". http://www.cifar.ca/nando-de-freitas. Retrieved 2017-01-05. 




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