Nando de Freitas

Present: I am a tenured Associate Professor in Computer Science and Cognitive Systems at UBC. I'm am also an associate member of the Statistics Department. I work with an internet discovery engine called Zite. I consult regularly for companies in the energy sector, environmental monitoring, information technology and the web.

1999-2001: Visiting post-doctoral scholar with Stuart Russell at UC Berkeley. I worked on multimedia, information retrieval, probabilistic models in artificial intelligence, variational inference, particle filtering and MCMC simulation.

1996-1999: Ph.D. on Bayesian methods for neural networks (Trinity college, Cambridge University).

1994-1996: M.Sc. degree (cum laude) in electrical engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Thesis title: ``Neural network based nonparametric regression for system identification and fault detection''.

1991-1994: B.Sc. degree (cum laude) in electrical engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Before: I was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in Mocambique, Portugal, Venezuela and South Africa. For more detailed information, request my CV. You can also glimpse at my photos Flickr

Fellowships and Awards

[2010] MITACS Young Researcher Award.

[2009] UBC incredible instructor award.

[2009] CIFAR Fellowship.

[2008] Killam Faculty Research Fellowship.

[2007] My students won the SRC competition at SIGGRAPH for their work on Preference Galleries.

[2004] Elected member of the Golden Key Honour Society.

[2004] Best Paper prize on Cognitive Computer Vision at ECCV, with Kenji Okuma, Ali Taleghani, Jim Little and David Lowe.

[2004] UBC incredible instructor award.

[2003] UBC incredible instructor award.

[2002] Best Paper prize on Cognitive Computer Vision at ECCV, with Pinar Duygulu, Kobus Barnard and David Forsyth.

[2002] Mencion Especial - Romulo Garza Award for work with Ruben Morales on Real-Time Control and Monitoring of Complex Industrial Processes with Particle Filters

[2002] UBC incredible instructor award.

[1997] Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Fellowship.

[1996] Trinity College External Research Studentship, Honorary Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholarship, South African Foundation for Research Development Overseas PhD Scholarship, WITS University Council Overseas Postgraduate Scholarship, WITS Appeal Fund Scholarship, WITS Postgraduate Merit Scholarship, Foundation for Research Development Masters Scholarship, Anne Harris Scholarship and Adolph Wagner Scholarship.

[1995] Portuguese Government Medal for being the Portuguese student of highest academic merit in Southern Africa. WITS Postgraduate Merit Scholarship, Foundation for Research Development Masters Scholarship and Standard Bank Research Scholarship.

[1994] Bernard Price Prize for being the best final year student in Electrical Engineering, Deist-Sefor Prize for outstanding academic ability in undergraduate career, Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) Prize for outstanding performance in the final year of study, Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) Merit Medal and Certificate in honour of special merit on the part of a BSc (Engineering) graduate, Trevor Williams Scholarship, Foundation for Research Development Scholarship and merit certificates for High Frequency Techniques, High Voltage Engineering, Engineering Design II and Signal Processing (top of the class).

[1993] SAIEE Prize to the best 3rd year student in Electrical Engineering, University Council Merit Scholarship, Foundation for Research Development Scholarship and merit certificates for Mathematical Methods, Electric Power II and Control I.

[1992] Jackson Prize to the best second year student in the Faculty of Engineering, University Council Merit Scholarship, and merit certificate for Mathematics II.

[1991] Merit certificates for Mathematics I and Engineering Graphics