Vaisakh Shaj

Welcome to my personal website. I am a Postdoctoral Researcher in AI and Machine Learning at the University Of Edinburgh working with Prof Amos Storkey. I am affiliated with the Institute Of Adaptive and Neural Computation, School Of Informatics.

I did my PhD in Machine Learning and Robotics under Prof Gerhard Neumann at the ALR Lab, Karlsruhe Institute Of Technology. Before that I was a Data Scientist at the cybersecurity firm McAfee (Intel Security). Previously I worked with Intel for 2 years. I hold a post graduate degree in Machine Learning and Computing from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology.

My doctoral thesis focussed on building “World models With Hierarchical Temporal Abstractions” based on probabilistic and Bayesian principles. My primary interests lie in both understanding human intelligence and replicating its capabilities within AI agents, using mathematical and computational tools. In this regard I am primarily intersted in sub-areas on Machine Learning like Meta/Continual Leanring (Learning Under Non-Stationarity), Hierarchical Modelling, Model Based Reinforcement Learning and Planning. I employ neural network architectures grounded in probabilistic principles to develop these models.

🌈Diversity and Inclusion Statement: I care deeply about making work places more diverse and the inclusion of women, LGBTQ+ and under-represented minorities in AI research.