Research
Interests
Circuit and computational complexity, formal logic, automata theory, with
applications in games & machine learning, algebraic geometry, and formal verification
Education Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
Ph.D., Computer Science and Operations Research, March 2013
• Topic: Automata with a semilinear constraint
• Advisors: Prof. Pierre McKenzie, Prof. Alain Finkel (@ ENS Cachan)
Université Paris Diderot, Paris, France
M.Sc., Mathematical Logic and Theoretical Computer Science, July 2007
• Topic: Uniform guided random walks for conformance testing
• Advisor: Asst. Prof. Fatiha Zaidi (@ LRI)
École pour l’Informatique et les Techniques Avancées, Paris, France
Engineer’s degree, Scientific Computing and Image Processing, July 2007
• Main project: Vaucanson, a C++ library for weighted automata
• Supervisors: Prof. Jacques Sakarovitch (@ Télécom ParisTech), Dr. Akim Demaille
B.S., July 2005
• Topic: Comparative study of thread usage in fault-tolerant message passing
• Advisor: Asst. Prof. Thomas Hérault (@ LRI)
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Professional
Experience
University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Postdoctoral researcher & research associate at University College, since March 2017
• Topics: algebraic theory of transducers, counting in descriptive complexity, cost register
automata, verification of linear dynamical systems, learning transducers, regret in games
and reinforcement learning
Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Postdoctoral researcher, February 2014–February 2017
• Topics: circuit complexity of transducers, language-theoretic views of descriptive
complexity, cost register automata, extreme uniformity in circuit complexity
Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
Research assistant, March–December 2008
• Task: Mathematica programming to test conjectures on Steiner systems
• Supervisor: Prof. Pierre McKenzie
2008
.
.
.
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Teaching
Experience
University College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Summer 2019 — Lecturer for Digital Systems
→ Also in Winter 2019
Topics: Gates, array circuits, CMOS, registers, assembly, caching, OS, IP
Pembroke College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Autumn 2018 — Lecturer for Models of Computation
Topics: Automata, regular languages, Turing machine, computability
St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Summer 2019 — Lecturer for Introduction to formal proofs
Topics: Propositional & predicate logic, natural deduction
Winter 2019 — Lecturer for Algorithms
Topics: Data structures, amortised analysis, linear programming, FPT
Autumn 2017 — Lecturer for Computability Theory
Topics: Recursive functions, Turing machines, incompleteness theorems, randomness
University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Winter 2018 — T.A. for Computer Architecture
→ Also in Summer 2017
Topics: Low-level C programming, assembly, processor design
Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Winter 2016 — Organizer for Seminar on advanced automata theory
Topics: Recent research topics in automata theory
Summer 2015 — Lecturer for Second course in formal language theory
Topics: Logics on words, abstract families, bounded languages, rational sets
Winter 2014 — Lecturer for Special chapters in theoretical computer science
Topic: From power series to linear recurrence sequences: advances on Skolem’s problem
Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
Summer 2011 — T.A. for Introduction to theoretical computer science
→ Also in Winter 2011, Summer 2010, Summer 2009
Topics: Finite automata, grammars, Turing machines, decidability, NP-completeness
École pour l’Informatique et les Techniques Avancées, Paris, France
Autumn 2006 — T.A. for C/Unix programming classes
Winter 2005 — T.A. for M6800 assembly classes
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Academic
Supervision
University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Corentin Barloy (ENS Paris-Saclay), Master’s Degree Internship, February-July 2019
• Topic: Linear recurrence sequences, cost register automata
• Co-supervised with Shaull Almagor (@ Univ. Oxford)
Bartosz Bednarczyk (ENS Paris-Saclay), Master’s Degree Internship, June-August 2018
• Topic: Algebraic theory of regular tree languages
• Co-supervised with Charles Paperman (@ Univ. Lille)
Research Visits
Santiago, Chile, Nov. 2017
With Cristian Riveros
Topic: Weighted logics
Paris, France, multiple visits
With Charles Paperman, Georg Zetzsche, Arnaud Durand
Topics: Descriptive complexity, transducers
Bordeaux, France, Jun. 2018
With Filip Mazowiecki
Topics: Cost register automata
Warsaw, Poland, multiple visits
With Filip Murlak and Charles Paperman
Topic: Streaming circuits
Oxford & London, UK, multiple visits
With Nathanaël Fijalkow
Topic: Stochastic languages
Brussels & Antwerp, Belgium, multiple visits
With Luc Dartois and Guillermo A. Pérez
Topics: Codes, register automata
Mumbai, India, Nov.-Dec. 2015
With Nutan Limaye
Topics: Register au tomata
Chennai, India, Nov. 2015
With Meena Mahajan
Topic: Descriptive complexity
Tübingen, Germany, multiple visits
With Andreas Krebs
Topics: Algebraic language theory
Academic
Service
Review service
• Conferences: CPM’10, STACS’10, CSR’11, IWOCA’11, DLT’13, AFL’14, DLT’15,
FSTTCS’15, FoSSaCS’15, MFCS’15, CSL’16, STACS’16, MFCS’17, STACS’17, DCFS’18,
FoSSaCS’18, LICS’18, MFCS’18, STACS’19, LATA’19
• Journals: IJAC, IJFCS, LMCS, JCSS, JACM, Fundamenta Informaticae, IPL
Workshop organization
• Autobóz 2019—yearly invitational workshop on automata theory; main organizer
Para-Academic
Duties
University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
2017 – 2019 — Coorganizer of the weekly Verification Seminar
2017 – 2019 — Representative for the CS Dept. at the Research Staff Society
2017 – 2019 — Social events committee member at the Research Staff Society
Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
2011 – 2013 — PhD students representative at the CS Student Council
2009 – 2011 — Graduate social events organizer at the CS Student Council
Nonacademic
duties
Beer homebrewing
2017 – 2018 — Organizer of termly competitions for the Oxford Brewers Group
2014 – 2017 — Cofounder of the Hobbybrauer Club Tübingen
Barbershop singing
2018 – 2019 — Section leader for baritones at Oxford Harmony
