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Jesse Bettencourt

Graduate Student in Machine Learning

University of Toronto

Biography

I am a graduate student in Machine Learning at the University of Toronto and the Vector Institute. I am currently pursuing follow-up research to my work on Neural Ordinary Differential Equations, and am generally interested in approximate inference for latent variable models. I have recently completed an M.Sc. supervised by Drs. David Duvenaud and Roger Grosse, and am continuing as a Ph.D. student under David Duvenaud. In Winters 2018 and 2019 I was the instructor for CSC412/2506: Probabilistic Learning and Reasoning.

Winter 2020 I will be co-instructing, with David Duvenaud, the course STA414: Statistical Methods in Machine Learning II.

Interests

  • Neural ODEs
  • Approximate Inference
  • Automatic Differentiation

Education

  • PhD in Computer Science

    University of Toronto, 2019 - Present

  • MSc in Computer Science

    University of Toronto, 2017 - 2019

  • MSc in Mathematics

    University of Toronto, 2015 - 2016

  • BSc in Integrated Science and Mathematics

    McMaster Unviersity, 2011 - 2015

Publications

FFJORD: Free-form Continuous Dynamics for Scalable Reversible Generative Models

Scaling up continuous normalizing flows by estimating the trace.

Neural Ordinary Differential Equations

A kind of continuous-depth Neural Network.

Teaching

I am currently teaching the following course at University of Toronto:

In the past I have taught the following courses at University of Toronto:

In the past I have been a teaching assistant for the following courses:

  • CSC411/2515: Introduction to Machine Learning (Fall 2018)
  • CSC411/2515: Introduction to Machine Learning (Fall 2017)
  • MAT136: Single Variable Calculus I for Science (Winter 2016)
  • MAT186: Single Variable Calculus I for Engineering (Fall 2016)
  • MAT235: Mutlivariable and Vector Calculus II for Science (Summer 2016)
  • MAT235: Mutlivariable and Vector Calculus II for Science (Year 2016)
  • ISCI2A18: Mutlivariable and Vector Calculus II for Integrated Science (Year 2014)

Projects

Torus Knot Fibration

Master’s summer project.

Radial Basis Functions

NSERC funded summer undergraduate research project on Radial Basis Functions

Ancient Egyptian Astronomy Database

Repository of information about astronomical documents from the pharaonic period of ancient Egypt.

Recent & Upcoming Talks

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