Website for Alex Anderson, Deep Learning Research Scientist.
Two times three equals six or at least that’s what I naively expected. It is well-known that floating point matrix multiplication can result in a variety of surprises . But did you know that quantized neural networks are not deterministic as well? A quantized neural network uses integers to multiply weights and activations in a neural network. Thus, the naive logic goes, two and three represented…
Pushing the state of the art in deep learning is inherently difficult. Many problems have been well-studied, and other researchers are working quickly to explore new ideas. Regardless, you can get an edge by being systematic in how you approach your research. In previous posts, I discussed how to develop long-term goals and choose intermediate milestones . In this post, we will discuss how to get…
A successful career is composed of a series of milestones that move towards a specific direction with increasing scope over time. For example, if you wanted to study how animals robustly navigate an environment, you could start doing understanding how an agent can learn the relationship between its observations and actions. This milestone could be further broken down into simpler milestones by…
One of the most important things that you can do to have an impactful career is to develop a clear vision of your long term goals. This is difficult in machine learning because your work needs to strike a balance between being achievable and novel. Furthermore, it needs to be motivating to you personally, and impactful to others. Choosing who to work with One of the most important steps in your…
Congratulations! You have a job as a machine learning engineer. Maybe you just got out of school or you recently made a career switch. Or maybe you are interested in getting into the field and want to know what it takes to excel. Machine learning has been generating a lot of hype lately due to impressive research results and some valuable industry applications. However, machine learning is more…
Overview As automation and outsourcing shape the modern workplace, what skills do we need to succeed? Cal Newport argues that the ability to do deep work, or the ability to perform professional activities in a state of distraction free concentration that pushes one’s cognitive capabilities to the limit is the key to success. Deep work creates value, improves your skill, and is hard to replicate.…
[EDIT: April Fools! The post is intended to start out serious but then get gradually weirder - still probably useful.] Hey everybody, as I am nearing the end of my Ph.D., I thought that it would be good to share some of my thoughts about how to have a good time in graduate school. I know that there many paths to success and this is just what has worked for me. I am fully aware that there are other…
Overview TL;DR: Broad introduction to data science techniques: data collection, machine learning, and validating conclusions. Read it with a concrete problem in mind and really learn from the references. Look at notebooks for code examples. Big Data and Social Science: A Practical Guide to Methods and Tools is a book that seeks to give practical advice for applying data science techniques to…
Overview TL;DR: Inspiring personal stories and informative general characteristics of people and organizations who led efforts to create wide-spread social change. David Bornstein is a journalist who specializes in writing about social innovation. In ‘How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas’, he chronicles an organization called Ashoka. Ashoka seeks to identify and…
Note: This post contains historical information related to racism and sexism that may be upsetting to the reader. Context and Motivation There are many reasons why it is important for people in general, and for me in particular, to learn more about the civil rights movement in America. Two major ones are as follows: First, the events that happened in recent history, whether we like it or not,…