François Schnitzler

Machine learning applications and theory

I am currently senior researcher (machine learning) at InterDigital, in the home and enterprise lab. The company acquired Technicolor research labs in 2019. I had been working there in the user analytics research team since October 2015. Recently I have applied deep learning and reinforcement learning to solve various problems in telecommunications and video analysis and processing.

Previously I was a Senior Researcher at the Technion, working with Prof. Shie Mannor since June 2014. I also worked with him as a postdoc from February 2013 to May 2014. Within the European FP7 project INSIGHT, we exploited heterogenous data streams and crowdsourcing to improve smart cities, in particular through natural or man-made disaster detection and monitoring. We also worked on dynamic systems, reinforcement learning and natural language generation.

Before, I was a PhD student in the Systems and Modeling Research Unit, at the University of Liège (Belgium) from October 2008 to September 2012. With my adviser Prof. Louis Wehenkel, we developed new tools for learning and representing high-dimensional probability densities using probabilistic graphical models. I was supported by a 4-year F.R.I.A. - Fonds de la Recherche pour l’Industrie et l’Agriculture scholarship during my PhD. For a few months after my graduation, I worked as a teaching assistant in the University of Liège.

Research Interest

machine learning, statistics, probabilistic graphical models, reinforcement learning, factorized Markov decision process, Bayesian nonparametrics, ensemble methods, time series modelling, smart cities, smart building, transportation, crowdsourcing, big data, natural language generation.

Biography

I was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1985. I like hiking, biking, science-fiction, heroic-fantasy books, roleplaying/board games, complaining about the lack of cycling infrastructure in France and sharing Belgian food with my colleagues (chocolate!). It appears I also make them laugh by saying '8'. I used to play chess and won a few local competitions in my age category.