Omar Rivasplata
@omarrivasplata.bsky.social
Manchester Centre for AI FUNdamentals | UoM | Alumn UCL, DeepMind, U Alberta, PUCP | Deep Thinker | Posts/reposts might be non-deep | Carpe espresso ☕
Pinned
Is this starter pack comprehensive?
bsky.app/starter-pack...
bsky.app/starter-pack...
✨ Looking forward to visiting Finland 🇫🇮 this month for the AI Summit (17 Nov) and the scientific seminar and launch (18 Nov) of the ELLIS Institute Finland
The institute's opening is part of the AI Summit, with distinguished speakers from across European business and government, as well as top researchers and leadership from the @ellis.eu network. An exciting two-day program that marks a milestone for AI & ML research. More info at aisummit.fi
Grand opening of @ellisinstitute.fi will be Nov 17-18: The first day will be a broad-audience AI Summit co-organized with AI Finland and Foundation PS in Turku, and the second day will be an @ellis.eu scientific seminar in Espoo for the invited AI and machine learning community. aisummit.fi
November 1, 2025 at 2:15 PM
✨ Looking forward to visiting Finland 🇫🇮 this month for the AI Summit (17 Nov) and the scientific seminar and launch (18 Nov) of the ELLIS Institute Finland
Booked my trip to Cambridge for this one
October 31, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Booked my trip to Cambridge for this one
Intriguing results of a PhD student experience survey across a number of countries. Brazil and Australia scored high on "satisfaction" and UK didn't fall too far behind. Quality of mentoring reported as very important feature, and so was quality of human connections
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Are these the happiest PhD students in the world?
Brazil, Australia and Italy have the highest satisfaction scores in Nature’s global 2025 PhD survey — but are these nations really the best places to do a doctorate?
www.nature.com
October 26, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Intriguing results of a PhD student experience survey across a number of countries. Brazil and Australia scored high on "satisfaction" and UK didn't fall too far behind. Quality of mentoring reported as very important feature, and so was quality of human connections
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reminder of the preferred approach when sharing arXiv preprint links
October 18, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reminder of the preferred approach when sharing arXiv preprint links
📢 New preprint alert - This work with collaborators is on Reinforcement Learning + PAC-Bayes for Markov Chain data. Had been in the oven for some months and received feedback from NeurIPS'25. We uploaded the preprint in arXiv for visibility and comments would be welcome!
arxiv.org/abs/2510.10544
arxiv.org/abs/2510.10544
PAC-Bayesian Reinforcement Learning Trains Generalizable Policies
We derive a novel PAC-Bayesian generalization bound for reinforcement learning that explicitly accounts for Markov dependencies in the data, through the chain's mixing time. This contributes to overco...
arxiv.org
October 14, 2025 at 12:40 PM
📢 New preprint alert - This work with collaborators is on Reinforcement Learning + PAC-Bayes for Markov Chain data. Had been in the oven for some months and received feedback from NeurIPS'25. We uploaded the preprint in arXiv for visibility and comments would be welcome!
arxiv.org/abs/2510.10544
arxiv.org/abs/2510.10544
Reposted by Omar Rivasplata
If you haven't already, there's still time for members to vote in our Council elections and have your say in our future! 🗣️
Meet this year's candidates 👉 rss.org.uk/news-publica...
✉️ Check your email for your personalised voting link.
Voting closes midnight on Sunday 12 October.
Meet this year's candidates 👉 rss.org.uk/news-publica...
✉️ Check your email for your personalised voting link.
Voting closes midnight on Sunday 12 October.
Meet the candidates for the 2025 RSS Council elections
rss.org.uk
September 30, 2025 at 9:19 AM
If you haven't already, there's still time for members to vote in our Council elections and have your say in our future! 🗣️
Meet this year's candidates 👉 rss.org.uk/news-publica...
✉️ Check your email for your personalised voting link.
Voting closes midnight on Sunday 12 October.
Meet this year's candidates 👉 rss.org.uk/news-publica...
✉️ Check your email for your personalised voting link.
Voting closes midnight on Sunday 12 October.
Mathematics Today dropped through the letterbox this morning. Contains a cute piece on quantum computing illustrated with maths topics taught in A-levels (UK school system). Recommendable for those who teach maths to connect with the trendy topic!
ima.org.uk
ima.org.uk
IMA
The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications is the UK's chartered professional body for mathematicians and one of the UK's learned societies for mathematics.
ima.org.uk
October 4, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Mathematics Today dropped through the letterbox this morning. Contains a cute piece on quantum computing illustrated with maths topics taught in A-levels (UK school system). Recommendable for those who teach maths to connect with the trendy topic!
ima.org.uk
ima.org.uk
TIL The reference for Donsker-Varadhan variational formula is Donsker and Varadhan's "Asymptotic evaluation of certain Markov process expectations for large time-IV" (1983), not the previous parts I, II, III from years 1975 and 1976 that are commonly cited
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Asymptotic evaluation of certain markov process expectations for large time. IV
Click on the article title to read more.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
September 28, 2025 at 3:52 PM
TIL The reference for Donsker-Varadhan variational formula is Donsker and Varadhan's "Asymptotic evaluation of certain Markov process expectations for large time-IV" (1983), not the previous parts I, II, III from years 1975 and 1976 that are commonly cited
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Reposted by Omar Rivasplata
In 1950, Alan Turing - while at @manchester.ac.uk - proposed a simple but profound experiment: can a machine convincingly imitate human thought?
We now call it the Turing Test. 🧠💻
We now call it the Turing Test. 🧠💻
a man wearing suspenders and a watch looks down in front of a machine
Alt: Alarn Turing looks down in front of a machine
media.tenor.com
September 16, 2025 at 12:33 PM
In 1950, Alan Turing - while at @manchester.ac.uk - proposed a simple but profound experiment: can a machine convincingly imitate human thought?
We now call it the Turing Test. 🧠💻
We now call it the Turing Test. 🧠💻
Greetings from Stockport
September 21, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Greetings from Stockport
I have experience with Entropy MDPI
I'm convinced this is a predatory publisher
I'm convinced this is a predatory publisher
September 20, 2025 at 6:09 PM
I have experience with Entropy MDPI
I'm convinced this is a predatory publisher
I'm convinced this is a predatory publisher
In case everybody didn't notice, the Royal Statistical Society's Computational Statistics and Machine Learning (CSML) section now has a bluesky account: @rss-csml.bsky.social
September 15, 2025 at 5:54 PM
In case everybody didn't notice, the Royal Statistical Society's Computational Statistics and Machine Learning (CSML) section now has a bluesky account: @rss-csml.bsky.social
Earlier this week attended the Non-Reversible Sampling workshop at Newcastle University. A very nice event!
Thanks to the organisers Sam Power (Bristol), Giorgos Vasdekis (Newcastle) and Andi Wang (Warwick)
sites.google.com/view/probai-...
Thanks to the organisers Sam Power (Bristol), Giorgos Vasdekis (Newcastle) and Andi Wang (Warwick)
sites.google.com/view/probai-...
Newcastle Non-Reversible Sampling Workshop
Topic: This workshop will bring together researchers at the forefront of modern sampling techniques and related disciplines, to discuss recent advances in the field.
This event is funded by the ProbA...
sites.google.com
September 11, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Earlier this week attended the Non-Reversible Sampling workshop at Newcastle University. A very nice event!
Thanks to the organisers Sam Power (Bristol), Giorgos Vasdekis (Newcastle) and Andi Wang (Warwick)
sites.google.com/view/probai-...
Thanks to the organisers Sam Power (Bristol), Giorgos Vasdekis (Newcastle) and Andi Wang (Warwick)
sites.google.com/view/probai-...
✨ We kicked off a new season of talks, the AI FUN with ELLIS Invited Speaker Lecture series, brought to you by the Centre for AI FUNdamentals and the #ELLIS Unit at Manchester 🐝
The 1️⃣st talk was given by our guest speaker Rafael Izbicki (@rafael-izbicki.bsky.social) from UFSCar in Brazil 🇧🇷
The 1️⃣st talk was given by our guest speaker Rafael Izbicki (@rafael-izbicki.bsky.social) from UFSCar in Brazil 🇧🇷
September 4, 2025 at 9:45 AM
✨ We kicked off a new season of talks, the AI FUN with ELLIS Invited Speaker Lecture series, brought to you by the Centre for AI FUNdamentals and the #ELLIS Unit at Manchester 🐝
The 1️⃣st talk was given by our guest speaker Rafael Izbicki (@rafael-izbicki.bsky.social) from UFSCar in Brazil 🇧🇷
The 1️⃣st talk was given by our guest speaker Rafael Izbicki (@rafael-izbicki.bsky.social) from UFSCar in Brazil 🇧🇷
Reposted by Omar Rivasplata
Our 2025 Council Elections are now open!
Fellows can vote until 12 Oct to help shape the future of the Society.
🔗 Check your email for your voting link
📄 Meet the candidates: rss.org.uk/news-publica...
Fellows can vote until 12 Oct to help shape the future of the Society.
🔗 Check your email for your voting link
📄 Meet the candidates: rss.org.uk/news-publica...
September 2, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Our 2025 Council Elections are now open!
Fellows can vote until 12 Oct to help shape the future of the Society.
🔗 Check your email for your voting link
📄 Meet the candidates: rss.org.uk/news-publica...
Fellows can vote until 12 Oct to help shape the future of the Society.
🔗 Check your email for your voting link
📄 Meet the candidates: rss.org.uk/news-publica...
Reposted by Omar Rivasplata
Just finished delivering a course on 'Robust and scalable simulation-based inference (SBI)' at Greek Stochastics. This covered an introduction to SBI, open challenges, and some recent contributions from my own group.
The slides are now available here: fxbriol.github.io/pdfs/slides-....
The slides are now available here: fxbriol.github.io/pdfs/slides-....
August 28, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Just finished delivering a course on 'Robust and scalable simulation-based inference (SBI)' at Greek Stochastics. This covered an introduction to SBI, open challenges, and some recent contributions from my own group.
The slides are now available here: fxbriol.github.io/pdfs/slides-....
The slides are now available here: fxbriol.github.io/pdfs/slides-....
Reposted by Omar Rivasplata
The institute's opening is part of the AI Summit, with distinguished speakers from across European business and government, as well as top researchers and leadership from the @ellis.eu network. An exciting two-day program that marks a milestone for AI & ML research. More info at aisummit.fi
Grand opening of @ellisinstitute.fi will be Nov 17-18: The first day will be a broad-audience AI Summit co-organized with AI Finland and Foundation PS in Turku, and the second day will be an @ellis.eu scientific seminar in Espoo for the invited AI and machine learning community. aisummit.fi
August 25, 2025 at 7:12 AM
The institute's opening is part of the AI Summit, with distinguished speakers from across European business and government, as well as top researchers and leadership from the @ellis.eu network. An exciting two-day program that marks a milestone for AI & ML research. More info at aisummit.fi
Reposted by Omar Rivasplata
Are you curious about what makes some Markov chain Monte Carlo samplers run fast? Then perhaps you will consider joining us in Toronto, Sept 25-27 for the "Fast and Curious 2: MCMC in action" conference. Registration information is available at:
raducraiu.com/the-fast-and...
raducraiu.com/the-fast-and...
The Fast and Curious 2: MCMC in Action
September 25-27, Toronto, Canada Aims: Recent strides in Bayesian inference applied to intricate complex-structured datasets offer a unique opportunity to bring together disparate research communit…
raducraiu.com
July 21, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Are you curious about what makes some Markov chain Monte Carlo samplers run fast? Then perhaps you will consider joining us in Toronto, Sept 25-27 for the "Fast and Curious 2: MCMC in action" conference. Registration information is available at:
raducraiu.com/the-fast-and...
raducraiu.com/the-fast-and...
Reposted by Omar Rivasplata
I want to advertise some relatively recent work which I really like, and have been fortunate to play a small role in.
The paper is titled "A New Proof of Sub-Gaussian Norm Concentration Inequality" (arxiv.org/abs/2503.14347), led by Zishun Liu and Yongxin Chen at Georgia Tech.
The paper is titled "A New Proof of Sub-Gaussian Norm Concentration Inequality" (arxiv.org/abs/2503.14347), led by Zishun Liu and Yongxin Chen at Georgia Tech.
August 19, 2025 at 8:28 AM
I want to advertise some relatively recent work which I really like, and have been fortunate to play a small role in.
The paper is titled "A New Proof of Sub-Gaussian Norm Concentration Inequality" (arxiv.org/abs/2503.14347), led by Zishun Liu and Yongxin Chen at Georgia Tech.
The paper is titled "A New Proof of Sub-Gaussian Norm Concentration Inequality" (arxiv.org/abs/2503.14347), led by Zishun Liu and Yongxin Chen at Georgia Tech.
ICYMI The University of Manchester's 2025 Magazine is out. There is plenty of interesting content in there. Don't miss taking a look at the opinion piece article on the past, present, and future of computer intelligence
👉 www.manchester.ac.uk/about/magazi...
👉 www.manchester.ac.uk/about/magazi...
The past, present, and future of computer intelligence | The University of Manchester
Research. Teaching and learning. Social responsibility. Discover more about The University of Manchester here.
www.manchester.ac.uk
August 21, 2025 at 8:14 AM
ICYMI The University of Manchester's 2025 Magazine is out. There is plenty of interesting content in there. Don't miss taking a look at the opinion piece article on the past, present, and future of computer intelligence
👉 www.manchester.ac.uk/about/magazi...
👉 www.manchester.ac.uk/about/magazi...
Reposted by Omar Rivasplata
The 2025 Magazine is out now!
Featuring:
- @duncanivison.bsky.social on Manchester’s bold future
- Simon Johnson on the journey to his Nobel Prize
- Dr Leo Geyer revives music composed more than 80 years ago in Auschwitz
Read it now! 👇
www.manchester.ac.uk/about/magazi...
Featuring:
- @duncanivison.bsky.social on Manchester’s bold future
- Simon Johnson on the journey to his Nobel Prize
- Dr Leo Geyer revives music composed more than 80 years ago in Auschwitz
Read it now! 👇
www.manchester.ac.uk/about/magazi...
August 20, 2025 at 2:44 PM
The 2025 Magazine is out now!
Featuring:
- @duncanivison.bsky.social on Manchester’s bold future
- Simon Johnson on the journey to his Nobel Prize
- Dr Leo Geyer revives music composed more than 80 years ago in Auschwitz
Read it now! 👇
www.manchester.ac.uk/about/magazi...
Featuring:
- @duncanivison.bsky.social on Manchester’s bold future
- Simon Johnson on the journey to his Nobel Prize
- Dr Leo Geyer revives music composed more than 80 years ago in Auschwitz
Read it now! 👇
www.manchester.ac.uk/about/magazi...
ICYDK what clouds are made of
July 25, 2025 at 10:50 AM
ICYDK what clouds are made of
Reposted by Omar Rivasplata
I am pleased to announce that together with some friends, we are organising a workshop on Non-Reversible MCMC Sampling, taking place at Newcastle University from 8–10 September 2025.
Details on the programme and registration can be found at the workshop website (sites.google.com/view/probai-...).
Details on the programme and registration can be found at the workshop website (sites.google.com/view/probai-...).
July 24, 2025 at 11:28 AM
I am pleased to announce that together with some friends, we are organising a workshop on Non-Reversible MCMC Sampling, taking place at Newcastle University from 8–10 September 2025.
Details on the programme and registration can be found at the workshop website (sites.google.com/view/probai-...).
Details on the programme and registration can be found at the workshop website (sites.google.com/view/probai-...).
Reposted by Omar Rivasplata
If anyone is, or knows anyone who is, looking for a postdoc position to work on the foundations of scalable inference and such... applications for a postdoctoral position at Warwick as a part of the OCEAN project (oceanerc.com) are open until 20th August at warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/appcentre....
OCEAN
OCEAN is an ERC Synergy grant gathering researchers to lay the fundations of the next-generation machine learning algorithms, involving decentralized inference and predictive tasks in the presence …
oceanerc.com
July 23, 2025 at 10:27 AM
If anyone is, or knows anyone who is, looking for a postdoc position to work on the foundations of scalable inference and such... applications for a postdoctoral position at Warwick as a part of the OCEAN project (oceanerc.com) are open until 20th August at warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/appcentre....