Simon Ouellette

Biography

With a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, I began my professional journey as a software developer in 2004. After a decade of software engineering, I pursued my longstanding fascination with the nature of intelligence by transitioning into machine learning. This led me to complete a Master's degree in Computer Science with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence (with a 4.24/4.3 GPA).

My thesis research focused on sample-efficient spatial planning using learned transition models in the context of model-based reinforcement learning. Since 2022, I have been deeply engaged with ARC-AGI, which I consider to be one of the most important challenges to AGI. My primary research interests lie in reasoning and generalization; fundamental challenges that continue to push the boundaries of current machine learning capabilities.

Currently, I serve as Senior Machine Learning Specialist at Trabotyx, an innovative AgriTech startup developing autonomous precision weeding robots to revolutionize sustainable agriculture.

Career highlights and progression:

Software Developer Era:
• [2004-2009] Lead developer for non-destructive testing systems, specializing in signal processing and visualization for ultrasonic, laser triangulation, and eddy current sensors.
• [2010] Three-month contract: Software optimization specialist at Bombardier, streamlining military aircraft design processes.
• [2010-2012] Senior software developer at Bloomberg LP, New York, developing critical financial infrastructure systems.
• [2013] Nine-month contract: Technical architect for Quebec government, designing enterprise-scale transactional web infrastructure.
• [2013-2015] Backend architect at a SaaS startup, developing enterprise collaboration platform infrastructure.

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Machine Learning Era:
• [2015-2016] Founder of Nabla Analytics, developing a Big Data symbolic regression platform for quantitative finance. This venture catalyzed my transition into machine learning.
• [2017-2023] Machine learning applied researcher at a proprietary trading firm in Montreal, developing algorithmic trading systems. Concurrently completed a Master's degree and served as AI advisor at Trabotyx.
• [2022-current] Research focus on solving the ARC-AGI challenge, exploring fundamental aspects of machine intelligence and generalization.
• [2023-current] Transitioned from part-time AI Advistor to full-time Senior Machine Learning Specialist at Trabotyx, developing autonomous weeding robots to make organic farming more accessible.

Publications & Essays

Open Source Projects

GridCoder (2024)

Companion code to my paper "Towards Efficient Neurally-Guided Program Induction for ARC-AGI"

ARC gym

A data generation framework to experiment on program induction for ARC-AGI, and some visualization/grid manipulation utilities.

Counting with Transformers

These scripts are the companion code to my paper "Counting and Algorithmic Generalization with Transformers".

Microstructure

A capital markets microstructure data simulation/generation framework (Python)

Stochastic volatility models

Source code related to a talk I've given about Bayesian generative modelling of stock returns. Implements some of the classical stochastic volatility models.