Dr. Frank Wood

Biography

Frank Wood is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia, where he also holds the Canada CIFAR AI Chair. He leads the Pacific Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence (PLAI), which focuses on advanced simulation technology in the autonomous vehicle industry. As a founder of Inverted AI, a PLAI spin-out, he is engaged in cutting-edge research in embodied AI and related domains. Wood's major research areas encompass deep generative modeling, amortized inference, probabilistic programming, and reinforcement learning, with a focus on applied probabilistic machine learning. His work significantly contributes to the development of new probabilistic models and inference algorithms with real-world applications, including autonomous driving, computational neuroscience, computer vision, natural language processing, and robotics. He actively supervises PhD students and seeks candidates with strong programming, statistics, and applied machine learning skills. Frank's expertise is widely recognized in the field, and he has numerous publications that showcase his contributions to probabilistic programming and AI research.

Research Interests