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photo credit: Thanh Pham
Siamak Ravanbakhsh
Assistant Professor, School of Computer Science, McGill University
Canada CIFAR AI Chair, Mila

Address:   3480 University Street,
McConnell Engineering Building,
Room 318, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 0E9
McGill Office:  MC 325
Mila Office:  I.9
E-mail: 
Phone:  +1 (514) 398-7076

Research

My research area is machine learning. I’m particularly interested in representation learning, focusing on the principled use of geometry, probabilistic inference, and symmetry. This theme intersects and synergizes with several areas in machine learning, including geometric deep learning, probabilistic and generative models, reinforcement learning, and AI for science.


Select Publications

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Teaching

COMP 451: Fundamentals of Machine Learning (Fall 2024)

COMP 451: Fundamentals of Machine Learning (Fall 2022, 2023)
COMP 588: Probabilistic Graphical Models (Fall 2019, Winter 2021, 2022, 2023)
COMP 551: Applied Machine Learning (Winter 2020, Fall 2020, 2021)
CPSC 532R (at UBC) : Advanced Topics in AI: Graphical Models (Winter 2018)

Group

Prospective students and postdoctoral fellows, please read this.

Ph.D. Students and Postdoctoral Fellow

Mohammad Pedramfar, Postdoctoral Fellow 2024
Daniel Levy, Ph.D. 2022 (M.Sc., 2020-2022)
Mehran Shakerinava, Ph.D. 2021 (M.Sc. 2020-2021)
Seku-Oumar Kaba, Ph.D. 2021 (M.Sc. 2020-2021)
Tara Akhoundsadegh, Ph.D. W2021 (M.Sc. 2020-2021; co-supervised w/ Laurence Perreault Levasseur)
Vineet Jain, Ph.D. 2021
Xiusi Li, Ph.D. 2024 (M.Sc. 2023-2024)

M.Sc. Students

Kusha Sareen, M.Sc. 2024
Khang Ngo, M.Sc. 2024
Mahsa Massoud, M.Sc. W2023

Alumni

Christopher Morris, Postdoctoral Scholar 2021-2022
Arnab Kumar Mondal, Ph.D., 2020-2024 (co-supervised w/ Kaleem Siddiqi)
Victor Livernoche, M.Sc. 2022-2024
Siba Smarak Panigrahi , M.Sc. 2022-2024
Hugo Sonnery , Ph.D. 2021-2023
Jikael Gagnon , B.Sc. Intern, W/S2024
Fabrício Dos Santos , B.Sc. Intern, S/F2023
Mary Letey , M.Sc. Intern, S2023
Marjan Albooyeh , M.Sc., 2018 (UBC)
Devon Graham, M.Sc., 2017-2018 (UBC)
Vaden Masrani, Ph.D., 2018 (UBC)

Bio

Before joining McGill and Mila, I held a similar position at the University of British Columbia. Before that, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Machine Learning Department and the Robotics Institute, at the Carnegie Mellon University. There, I worked with Barnabás Póczos and Jeff Schneider, and I was also affiliated with Auton Lab and McWilliams Center for Cosmology. I received my M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, as a member of Alberta Ingenuity Center for Machine Learning, now amii, working with Russ Greiner. During this time, I also spent a few months at Frey Lab, at the University of Toronto. I received my B.Sc. from Sharif University.

A more formal bio is here.