Neil Traft
Research Assistant at University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolNeil Traft is a robotics and machine learning specialist with 14 years of software engineering experience and advanced research training, currently pursuing a PhD in Complex Systems and Data Science at the University of Vermont. He moved from industry roles at Uber/Aurora—where he led prediction analytics, unified evaluation for autonomy, and researched robustness and uncertainty—to academic work focused on meta-learning, transfer learning, evolutionary computation, and neural architecture search. His expertise spans the full robotics stack from vision to planning, with particular strength in planning under uncertainty and benchmarking long-tail real-world events. Neil combines a practitioner’s engineering chops (real-time perception and simulation work dating back to DARPA Challenge–era projects) with deep interests in computational intelligence, causal inference, and computational cognitive neuroscience. Colleagues know him for bringing rigorous evaluation frameworks to messy real-world ML systems and for a rare breadth of curiosity that ranges from software architecture to the origins of life.
14 years of coding experience
14 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy - PhD Complex Systems and Data Science, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD Complex Systems and Data Science at University of VermontMaster of Science (MSc) Computer Science, Master of Science (MSc) Computer Science at The University of British ColumbiaBachelor of Science (B.S.) Majors: Computer Science and English / Minor: Mathematics, Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Majors: Computer Science and English / Minor: Mathematics at Tulane University
Spanish
Stackoverflow
19,007reputation
1.7mreached
55answers
51questions
homebrew
top-5%
user-interface
top-1%
glob
top-5%
macos
top-5%
python
top-5%
android
top-1%
Github Skills (41)
meta10
meta-learning10
image-viewer10
neuroevolution10
user-interface10
android10
neat10
pytorch9
python9
glob9
homebrew9
macos9
deep-learning8
unit-testing7
espresso7
Programming languages (4)
Github contributions (5)
ntraft/crowd-nav
Feb 2014 - Dec 2014
Contributions:181 commits in 10 months
uvm-neurobotics-lab/higherANML
Oct 2021 - Jan 2023
ANML: A Neuromodulated Meta-Learning algorithm (using the `higher` framework)
Contributions:227 commits, 2 PRs, 214 pushes in 1 year 3 months
pytorchmeta-learningdeep-learningmetacontinual-learning
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