The NeurIPS (Neural Information Processing Systems) conference was founded in 1987 and is now a multi-track interdisciplinary annual meeting that includes invited talks, demonstrations, symposia, and oral and poster presentations of refereed papers. Along with the conference is a professional exposition focusing on machine learning in practice, a series of tutorials, and topical workshops that provide a less formal setting for the exchange of ideas.
Tom McDonald and Magnus Ross will both have the opportunity to present their research at the conference as part of the poster presentation. This has in part been made possible with funding from the Department. Tom is being funded by an EPSRC DTP studentship and Magnus is being funded by a studentship supporting Dr Mauricio Álvarez EPSRC New Investigator Award on Learning to move has a human: one-shot learning of human motion.
NeurIPS is one of the top conferences in machine learning and AI (ML/AI). For many in our community, it is considered as the flagship conference of ML/AI methods. Several papers published there have had a high impact on the specific area of ML/AI, and more broadly in areas outside pure ML/AI, given the huge interest on such topics these days across different fields in our society. Papers are accepted under four criteria: originality, clarity, quality, and significance. It is really fantastic to have Magnus and Tom’s work recognised by the program committee of the conference for ticking all these boxes. And all of this out of their work during their first-year as PhD students.The conference is happening during December, and it will be a great opportunity for both students to further discuss their work with many experts in the field.
Dr Mauricio Álvarez
Both students are starting the second year of their PhD. Their research, under the supervision of Dr Mauricio Álvarez and Dr Mike Smith, is looking at Automatic Learning of Latent Force Models. Tom also studied MSc Data Analytics with us and his PhD is a continuation of the research he did as part of his dissertation.
“I am delighted that my paper was accepted at the conference, and am excited to present my work to other researchers. My first year in Sheffield has gone really well, despite the difficulty of an extended period working from home, and my supervisors have offered brilliant support throughout, which I am very grateful for. I am looking forward to continuing my research this year, and in particular working on a collaborative project with Tom, which we believe is an exciting new extension of the work published in our papers.”
Magnus Ross
“It has been a pleasure working with Mauricio and Mike on this project and I am thrilled that our hard work has culminated in a paper acceptance at such a prestigious conference. It is six years since I first arrived in Sheffield as a 1st year physics undergraduate, which is a reflection on how much I enjoy being a part of the university, and my experience working in the ML group over the past year in particular has been fantastic. I am looking forward to continuing my work and collaborating with fellow researchers, including with Magnus on an upcoming project which leverages ideas from both of our papers.”
Tom McDonald