Curriculum Vitae

Hi. My name is Tim Whitaker and I recently completed my PhD in Computer Science at Colorado State University. I'm an adventurer at heart who is deeply driven by the pursuit of knowledge and understanding.

Model Optimization

I'm passionate about optimizing learning algorithms and model architectures for superior performance.

Data Analysis

I love diving into complex datasets and uncovering meaningful insights that drive successful machine learning projects.

Software Engineering

I have over a decade of experience in designing, developing, and deploying robust and maintainable software.

Education

Colorado State University

Dissertation: Subnetwork Ensembles

Committee: Darrell Whitley, Charles Anderson, Michael Kirby, Nikhil Krishnaswamy

Colorado State University

Thesis: Reinforcement Learning with Sparse Reconfigurable Networks

Committee: Darrell Whitley, Charles Anderson, Michael Kirby

California State University, Chico

Capstone: Real Time Web Performance Analysis

Advisor: Tyson Henry

Relevant Coursework

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Embedded Machine Learning, Image Computation, Natural Language Processing, Quantum Computing, High Performance Computing, Software Engineering, System Architecture, Algorithmic Language Compilers, Computational Theory, Stochastic Processes

Associations and Honors

Recipient of The Artificial Intelligence and Evolutionary Computation Fellowship at Colorado State University
Presenter and Technical Committee Member at international conferences including: AAAI, IJCNN, and GECCO
Session Chair for Neural Network Models at IJCNN 2023
Member of IEEE
Member of ACM
Member of INNS

Experience

Colorado State University

Performed a wide variety of deep learning experiments with sparse reconfigurable artificial neural networks.
Research funded by NSF Grant 1908866.

Kettle LLC. Design and Development Firm

Designed, developed, and maintained web applications and ecommerce sites for Google, Disney, Namecheap, Boosted Boards, LifeBeam, Peleton, MyxFitness, and Show Imaging.

Navigation North Learning Solutions

Contributed features and fixed bugs for web applications at The United States Department of Educational Technology, The California Department of Education, and The Smithsonian Center of Learning and Digital Access.

Market Fleet

Managed the design and development of a Magento ecommerce store and the integration of a custom marketplace widget/plugin.

Publications

Low-Cost Ensemble Learning with Sparse Independent Subnetworks

AAAI 2022

Finding Performant Subnetworks with Quantum Algorithms

GECCO 2022 Quantum Optimization Workshop

Surveying Efficient Methods for Training Multiple Deep Neural Networks

PhD Preliminary Exam

Visualizing Feature Representations in Low-Cost Ensembles

IJCNN 2023

How Pruning Can Bring Dead Neurons Back To Life

IJCNN 2023

Fine Tuning Deep Neural Networks with Subspace Evolution

GECCO 2023

Theoretical Insights and Empirical Investigations

PhD Dissertation

A Regularization Technique for Fine Tuning Pruned Subnetworks

In Review (ICLR 2024)