About me
Research
I'm currently exploring the abstraction of algebraic effects and effect handlers for probabilistic programming language design. At the moment, I'm working out how abstract operations and effect handlers can be used as a type-safe, modular design pattern for programmable inference. In recent work, I used this approach to develop an implementation of probabilistic models as first-class citizens.Other projects include fleshing out a compositional approach of using recursion schemes to implement neural networks; in particular, I show how neural networks can be represented as fixed-points of recursive data structures, and forward and back propagation as folds and unfolds over these structures.
Papers, etc.
Mar, 2023 Effects and Effect Handlers for Programmable Inference
M.Nguyen, R.Perera, M.Wang, S.Ramsay
Jan, 2023 Towards type-driven data-science in Idris
O.Kammar, K.Marek, M.Nguyen, M.Steuwer, J.Walters, R.Wright
LAFI ‘23
Sep, 2022 Folding over Neural Networks (preprint, proceedings)
M.Nguyen, N.Wu
MPC ‘22
Sep, 2022 Modular Probabilistic Models via Algebraic Effects (preprint, proceedings, repository)
M.Nguyen, R.Perera, M.Weng, N.Wu
ICFP ‘22
Jan, 2022 Linked visualisations via Galois dependencies (preprint, proceedings, repository)
R.Perera, M.Nguyen, T.Petricek, M.Weng
POPL ‘22
Sep, 2021 Composable, Modular Probabilistic Models (extended abstract, poster)
M.Nguyen, R.Perera, M.Weng
ICFP ‘21 Student Research Competition
Aug, 2021 Composable, Modular Probabilistic Models (paper)
M.Nguyen, R.Perera, M.Weng
IFL ‘21
Jun, 2019 Modelling Neural Networks with Recursion Schemes (dissertation, poster, repository)
M.Nguyen, N.Wu
Masters Dissertation @ University of Bristol
Talks
Sep, 2022 Folding over Neural Networks (slides)
MPC ‘22
Sep, 2022 Modular Probabilistic Models via Algebraic Effects (video, slides)
ICFP ‘22
May, 2022 Modular Probabilistic Models via Algebraic Effects (slides)
PLInG Seminar @ University of Edinburgh
Sep, 2021 Composable, Modular Probabilistic Models (video, slides)
ICFP ‘21 Student Research Competition
Sep, 2021 Composable, Modular Probabilistic Models (video, slides)
IFL ‘21
Work
Jun '22 - Sep '22Research Intern: Dependently typed probabilistic programming for Idris2 (repositories)
with Ohad Kammar @ University of Edinburgh
Teaching
2019 - 2022I give seminars and guest lectures to the Programming Languages Research Group and CS undergraduates @ University of Bristol.
2020 - 2021
Primary supervisor for a 4th year CS student in their masters dissertation: Deep Learning Architectures As Pure Functions @ University of Bristol.
2017 - 2022
Teaching assistant for the Functional Programming, Language Engineering, and Advanced Topics in Programming Languages units @ University of Bristol.
Awards
2021 ICFP '21 ACM Student Research Competition, 1st Place2019 Bloomberg Award - Best Machine Learning Paper, University of Bristol
2018 Graphcore Award - Best Group Project, University of Bristol
2017 Netcraft Award - Top Ten Achieving CS Students, University of Bristol