Ruslan Salakhutdinov (; born 1980) is a Canadian researcher of

Tatar Tatar may refer to: Peoples * Tatars, an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar" * Volga Tatars, a people from the Volga-Ural region of western Russia * Crimean Tatars, a people from the Crimea peninsula by the B ...

origin working in the field of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

. He specializes in

deep learning Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that focuses on utilizing multilayered neural networks to perform tasks such as classification, regression, and representation learning. The field takes inspiration from biological neuroscience a ...

probabilistic graphical model A graphical model or probabilistic graphical model (PGM) or structured probabilistic model is a probabilistic model for which a Graph (discrete mathematics), graph expresses the conditional dependence structure between random variables. Graphica ...

s, and large-scale optimization.

Life

Salakhutdinov's doctoral advisor was

Geoffrey Hinton Geoffrey Everest Hinton (born 1947) is a British-Canadian computer scientist, cognitive scientist, and cognitive psychologist known for his work on artificial neural networks, which earned him the title "the Godfather of AI". Hinton is Univer ...

. Salakhutdinov was considering quitting the field of artificial intelligence when he met Hinton in 2004, but changed his mind after Hinton asked him to take part in a project focused on a new way to train

artificial neural network In machine learning, a neural network (also artificial neural network or neural net, abbreviated ANN or NN) is a computational model inspired by the structure and functions of biological neural networks. A neural network consists of connected ...

s, which he dubbed "deep belief networks." This research made a large impact on the field of

. He received his PhD in 2009. He is well known for having developed Bayesian Program Learning.

Career

Salakhutdinov is a professor of computer science at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

. Since 2009, he has published at least 42 papers on machine learning. Salakhutdinov joined Apple as its director of AI research in 2016 but left in 2020 to return to Carnegie Mellon University. In June 2023, Salakhutdinov joined Felix Smart which is a company that uses AI to take care for plants and animals as Board Director.

Awards

He is a

CIFAR The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) is a Canadian-based global research organization that brings together teams of top researchers from around the world to address important and complex questions. It was founded in 1982 and is su ...

fellow.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Salakhutdinov, Russ 1980s births Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian computer scientists University of Toronto alumni Carnegie Mellon University faculty Russian emigrants to Canada