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Omar_Portrait


Omar Rivasplata

(no longer at the)
Department of Computing Science
University of Alberta

Former Office: 1-47 Athabasca Hall
Email: try or


Here is my Curriculum Vitae
(Last updated: a long long time ago)


News:   here




Currently
I work with John at UCL and with András at DeepMind. Actually these days I work from home.

Before
In the Fall term of 2016 I joined Csaba's group to work in Statistical Machine Learning. I am finding it fascinating! Also I'm interested in other learning frameworks such as online learning and reinforcement learning, and of course deep learning, which is quite popular these days. It seems that optimization is one pervasive theme in machine learning, though it comes up in a variety of flavours and colours that it isn't boring. Just like the 'least action principle' of that guy Maupertuis saying that "everything happens as if some quantity was to be made as small as possible." But just optimization doesn't quite do it... to really be talking about learning one has to pay attention to generalization.

Much Before
I spent some time with Mauricio's group looking at signal analysis related things. Before that I was working with Sasha and Nicole using geometric functional analysis and probability for estimating the smallest singular value of a sparse random matrix. Even before that I worked with Byron on reversibility of a Brownian motion with drift. As an undergrad, with Loretta I worked on a fun project about repeated games with incomplete information.

Research Interests
Machine Learning.   Statistical Learning.   PAC-Bayes Analysis.   Probability Theory.   Random Processes.   Geometric Functional Analysis.   Random Matrices.  

Publications
  • O. Rivasplata, I. Kuzborskij, Cs. Szepesvári, J. Shawe-Taylor, PAC-Bayes Analysis Beyond the Usual Bounds. NeurIPS 2019 Workshop on Machine Learning with Guarantees. PDF
  • O. Rivasplata, E. Parrado-Hernández, J. Shawe-Taylor, S. Sun, Cs. Szepesvári, PAC-Bayes bounds for stable algorithms with instance-dependent priors. NeurIPS 2018. PDF
  • A.E. Litvak, O. Rivasplata, Smallest singular value of sparse random matrices. Studia Math., 212, 3 (2012), 195-218. PDF
  • O. Rivasplata, Subgaussian random variables: An expository note. Unpublished note. PDF
  • J. Rychtar, O. Rivasplata, B. Schmuland, Reversibility for diffusions via quasi-invariance. Acta Univ. Carolin. Math. Phys., 48, 1 (2007), 3-10. PDF
  • J. Rychtar, O. Rivasplata, C. Sykes, Evolutionary games in finite populations. Pro Mathematica, 20, 39/40 (2006), 147-164. PDF
  • O. Rivasplata, B. Schmuland, Invariant and reversible measures for random walks on Z. Pro Mathematica, 19, 37/38 (2005), 117-124. PDF


Machine Learning Links
Bandit Algorithms
Advice for Machine Learning students

Math Links
The complex number operations neatly visualised.
Math Seminars (beta).

Probability Links (accessible with probability one)
The Probability Web
The Gaussian Processes Website
Research in Probability
Advice for Probability students

Writing aids
How to Write Mathematics, tips from the Mathematics Student Handbook at Trent University.
A Guide to Writing Mathematics by Kevin Lee.
Writing Mathematics by Berry & Lawson.
The Underground Grammarian by Richard Mitchell.

Peruvian Links
Instituto de Matemática y Ciencias Afines
My birth town is Trujillo, the marinera dance town.
Sometimes people ask me about Machu Picchu, it's a great place to see.
They ask me less about Arequipa though it is also a great place to visit.
But sometimes they ask me about Pisco.


Department of Computing Science
University of Alberta
2-21 Athabasca Hall
Edmonton, AB T6G 2E8
Dept. Phone: 780.492.2285
Dept. Fax: 780.492.6393

Last modified 01.01.2017
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