Machine learning for health & science at One Fact & Tartu.
One fact is all it takes to create change. I started this nonprofit foundation and assembled a team of co-founders with superpowers to scale our AI for health and education globally. I gave a keynote at an NIH conference about our first product. One Fact Foundation was originally published by Jaan Altosaar Li at Jaan Altosaar Li on February 19, 2023.
I defended my PhD on Zoom ( YouTube ). It was stressful, but I hope these notes save you time for presenting and enable you to record higher-quality academic presentations. Please let me know if you have any suggestions I missed! General Presentation Many tips from meatspace apply. I recommend Matt Might’s tri-tips: http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-defense-tips/…
Mandarin translation available - 用普通话阅读这篇文章: WeChat I struggled to learn machine learning. I was used to variational tricks, MCMC samplers, and discreet Taylor expansions from years of physics training. Now the concepts were mixed up. The intuitive models of physical systems were replaced by abstract models of ‘data’ and amechanical patterns of cause and effect. I had to fit these fields together.…
TL;DR: Check out the tools demo to explore food analogies and recommendations, or scroll down for an interactive map of a hundred thousand recipes from around the world. I haven’t eaten in five days. I dream of food. I study food. Deep in ketosis, my body has adapted to consume itself: I am food. There is no better time to dig into modeling grub. Machine intelligence has changed your life, from…
### Takeaway: why the neural net perspective limits us I hope you are convinced that reasoning about the variational autoencoder is less ambiguous and less confusing from the perspective of variational inference in probability models. In neural net language, the variational autoencoder refers to an encoder, a decoder, and a loss function. In probability model terms, the variational autoencoder…
Why do deep learning researchers and probabilistic machine learning folks get confused when discussing variational autoencoders? What is a variational autoencoder? Why is there unreasonable confusion surrounding this term? There is a conceptual and language gap. The sciences of neural networks and probability models do not have a shared language. My goal is to bridge this idea gap and allow for…
Why read clickbait over longform journalism? Why use Facebook so much? Screentime is bad, but the attention economy incentivizes our addiction. I’m trying to reduce information overload. Here are some methods I’ve used for a while. Thoughts on benefits, pitfalls, and other ideas? Hit me up at jaan@onefact.org . I’ll keep this updated. The current list: Body & Mind For complete blocking of ambient…
One sentence summaries of science to improve your life (incl. podcast ). Live at usefulscience.org . I helped write an editorial about our mission, and Maryse recently gave an excellent overview keynote presentation at the Pacific Northwest Communicating Science conference. Featured on various news websites; ‘received funding’ on CBC Television’s Dragons’ Den ( link to episode ). Useful Science…
I’ve played more piano since starting grad school than throughout my four years at McGill, thanks to the abundance of pianos on campus. The pianos’ conditions range from excellent to passable, with some sporting Köln -level limitations. However, I couldn’t find a resource listing their locations. Another ‘open-sourced locations’ project could be to document uncommon study spots. For example, if…
I gave an info session at McGill in March 2013 on applying to graduate schools in Canada, the U.S., and Britain. Here are some things I found most useful and what I wish I had known: What is grad school? Matt Might might have the answer. Decide where to apply: talk to professors at your school in the fields you are interested in and ask them what schools have the best research programs and people…
Most PhD programs in the US require the GRE general test. These scores matter, so start studying early and register at ETS to take the tests as early as possible. For the general GRE test, I used and highly recommend The Princeton Review’s Cracking the GRE 2013 edition. It is excellent preparation and includes plenty of practice tests. Don’t get an older version (e.g. the 2012 version), but get…
I was lucky to be the first UI/UX designer for Canada’s national vaccinations app. Currently 140k+ users. Featured on the CBC , won award for “using wireless technology to improve the lives of Canadians”. CANImmunize was originally published by Jaan Altosaar Li at Jaan Altosaar Li on August 15, 2013.
This sandwich is an all-time classic hall-of-famer mainstay in my family. It’s a classy breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and is great for hosting (guests can make their own sandwiches). Just brush your teeth after consumption. Ingredients White bread with sesame seeds, well-toasted Unsalted butter Fresh smoked salmon, sliced [ 1 ] Lemon Capers or thinly sliced caperberries Green onions (shallots or…
I took a bunch of pictures and edited them to be cooler than reality. On hiatus to focus on research, music, and people. Because I release everything uncopyrighted, my photos are featured on extremely random websites (including The Atlantic , SciAm , HuffPo , Matador , Outside Magazine and Gizmodo !). Reality distortion was originally published by Jaan Altosaar Li at Jaan Altosaar Li on January…