Russell Dinnage

Broadly my lab is focused on the intersection between EEB (ecology and evolutionary biology) and computer science (in the form of Artificial Intelligence, e.g. A.I. research) A.I. → EBB - How deep learning techniques can be brought into EEB in a deeper way (no pun intended) than simply as a (powerful) function approximator. Instead, can we use A.I. techniques as an aid in understanding complex high dimensional biological data, by the application of deep generative models. EEB → A.I. - I'm also interested in the opposite flow of ideas, from EEB to computer science. In particular, developing ways to incorporate prior knowledge of biological structure (or inductive biases in machine learning lingo) into A.I. models (starting with phylogeny). EEB ↔ A.I. - Lastly I am currently interested in studying certain computational algorithms as examples of 'artificial' eco-evolutionary systems, and applying EEB research methods to them. I am hoping this will form an #ArtificialLife component to my research, a new research area for me.