As others have discussed, we’ve noticed a recent uptick in research implemented using Jax. You could chalk it up as yet another ML platform, but Jax is emerging as the tool of choice for faster research iteration at DeepMind. After exploring for ourselves, we’re excited to find Jax is principally designed for fast differentiation. Excited because differentiation is foundational to gradient-based learning strategies supported in many ML algorithms. Moreover, the derivative is also ubiquitous in scientific computing, making Jax one powerful hammer!...

· 4 min · Terry Rodriguez

## Bitrate Optimization using Spark and FFmpeg

Check out this part 1 notebook and this part 2 notebook that accompany this post! Streaming video is a major part of how users consume information across a variety of applications. As more users turn to mobile devices, the screen sizes are also increasing. At the same time, consumers expect high quality video without lag or distortion. This frames an engineering challenge to optimize the way video is streamed for consumers using a wide variety of hardware....

· 3 min · Terry Rodriguez & Salma Mayorquin

## Population Health Modeling

In a matter of months, the COVID-19 pandemic has besieged humanity and now the world wrestles to manage the population health challenges of a novel coronavirus with remarkable infectivity. Organizing an effective response to blunt the impact of such a large, complex challenge demands a principled and scientific approach. Better Planning by Forecasting Infections Reliable forecasting is crucial for planning and allocating limited resources efficiently and minimizing casualties. A most important characteristic of an infective virus is its average rate of reproduction or $R_0$....

· 6 min · Terry Rodriguez & Salma Mayorquin