Firas Darwish

I am doing my PhD in Statistics and Machine Learning at the University of Oxford as a UAE Rhodes Scholar. Through the StatML program, I am also a visiting student at Imperial. My current research interests are centered around 3 areas:

1. Perception, or the study of how intelligent systems can interpret and understand raw sensory inputs–such as images, audio, or spatal data–to form coherent, actionable representations of the world–particularly when we infuse inductive biases about the physical world.
2. Interpretability, or exploring how neural networks represent, process, and reason about information to uncover embedded biases as well as compare neural world models to human cognition or reality.
3. Uncertainty, or measuring how confident a model is in its predictions to identify out-of-distribution inputs, improve robustness, and guide active learning.

I received an undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering (BSc) from New York University Abu Dhabi (Summa Cum Laude). Previously, I worked as an undergraduate research assistant at NYU’s Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics with Professor Farah Shamout and Professor Farokh Atashzar. I have also worked on AI Governance with e&’s AI and Data team. I also consult and teach on several executive education AI programs, such as the Artificial Intelligence Program sponsored by the UAE’s Ministry of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications and the Korean Government Artificial Intelligence Program sponsored by the South Korean government.

For further details, please see my CV.