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

## NLS on the Lumpy Torus

Recently, I’ve found a fascinating line of work directed at advancing computational fluid dynamics using machine-learned preconditioners to speed up convergence in linear iterative solvers. In fact, the number of steps until convergence influences the performance bound of many classical optimization algorithms. Machine learning helps us to trade a cheap, data-driven approximation for fewer, costly optimization steps in the endgame of convergence. Given this context, I’ve been revisiting my studies on numerical PDE like the Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation (NLS) and here I’ll share some of the background work I took part in during the Summer of 2012....

· 5 min · Terry Rodriguez

## 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

## Deepfake Detection: Challenge Accepted

Advances in methods to generate photorealistic but synthetic images have prompted concerns about abusing the technology to spread misinformation. In response, major tech companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft partnered to sponsor a contest hosted by Kaggle to mobilize machine learning talent to tackle the challenge. With \$1 million in prizes and nearly half a terabyte of samples to train on, this contest requires the development of models that can be deployed to combat deepfakes....

· 2 min · Terry Rodriguez & Salma Mayorquin

## Everybody Dance Faster

Check out the repo and the video! “Everybody Dance Now” offers a sensational demonstration in combining image-to-image translation with pose estimation to produce photo-realistic ‘do-as-i-do’ motion transfer. Researchers used roughly 20 mins of video shot at 120 fps of a subject moving through a normal range of body motion. It is also important for source and target videos to be taken from similar perspectives. Generally, this is a fixed camera angle at a third person perspective with the subject’s body occupying most of the image....

· 7 min · Terry Rodriguez & Salma Mayorquin