Willie Neiswanger

Machine learning at USC ⊃ Viterbi ⊃ Computer Science

I am an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC), in the Viterbi School and School of Advanced Computing.

Research: I work at the intersection of machine learning, decision making, generative AI, and AI-for-science. One focus of my research is on AI-driven decision making in costly, data-limited settings, using model-based optimization, experimental design, and uncertainty quantification. I also work on generative models, LLMs, and multimodal models, with applications in the physical sciences, biology, and engineering.

Additionally, I've worked on distributed algorithms for scalable training, and developed open-source libraries for multilevel optimization, uncertainty quantification, AutoML, and Bayesian optimization.

Background: Previously, I was a postdoc in CS at Stanford University, working with Stefano Ermon. Prior to that, I received my PhD in Machine Learning at Carnegie Mellon University, where I was advised by Eric Xing and also worked with Jeff Schneider and Barnabás Póczos.

News

Oct 28, 2025 New paper on scalable methods for LLM data valuation with influence functions, in NeurIPS 2025.
Oct 11, 2025 New paper on active learning in self-driving labs for materials discovery in Digital Discovery.
July 7, 2025 New paper on sample-efficient alignment in LLMs with active exploration, in COLM 2025.
May 5, 2025 New paper on inverse design of ultra-high-performance concrete, in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.
Feb 11, 2025 New paper on LiveBench, a challenging, contamination-free LLM eval, in ICLR 2025 (spotlight).
Feb 11, 2025 New paper on decision making under uncertainty with LLMs (DeLLMa) in ICLR 2025 (spotlight).
Jan 6, 2025 Released METAGENE-1 a metagenomic foundation model designed for pandemic monitoring.
Jul 18, 2024 New paper on materials discovery with Bayesian algorithm execution in npj Comp. Materials.
Jul 10, 2024 New paper on isomorphic representations in multimodal foundation models in COLM 2024.
Mar 25, 2024 New paper on uncertainty quantification for deep learning PDE surrogates in AAAI 2024.
Feb 23, 2024 New paper on experimental design for determining safe tokamak rampdowns in Nuclear Fusion.
Oct 20, 2023 New paper (+ code) on algorithms and systems for scalable meta learning in NeurIPS 2023.
Oct 20, 2023 New paper on offline model-based optimization through co-teaching in NeurIPS 2023.
July 28, 2023 Co-organized the Differentiable Almost Everything Workshop at ICML 2023.
Jan 20, 2023 New paper on automatic differentiation for multilevel optimization in ICLR 2023 (notable-top-5%).
Jan 20, 2023 New paper on policy identification for active reinforcement learning in ICLR 2023 (notable-top-5%).
Jan 20, 2023 New paper on a framework to combine weak supervision and generative modeling in ICLR 2023.
Jan 1, 2023 New paper on offline imitation learning with suboptimal demonstrations in AAAI 2023.
Dec 7, 2022 New paper on uncertainty quantification with pre-trained language models in EMNLP 2022.
Dec 2, 2022 Invited talk at the Workshop on Gaussian Processes and Decision-making Systems at NeurIPS 2022.
Oct 10, 2022 New paper (+ code) on trajectory information planning for exploration in RL in NeurIPS 2022.
Oct 10, 2022 New paper on decision-theoretic entropies for generalizing Bayesian optimization in NeurIPS 2022.
July 22, 2022 Co-organized the Real World Experiment Design and Active Learning Workshop at ICML 2022.
May 15, 2022 New paper (+ website) on likelihood-free Bayesian optimization in ICML 2022 (long talk).
May 15, 2022 New paper on a modular conformal calibration framework for UQ in ICML 2022.
Jan 28, 2022 New paper (+ blog post) on experimental design and reinforcement learning in ICLR 2022.
Jan 1, 2022 New paper (+ website) on large-scale object counting in satellite images, in AAAI 2022 (oral).
Oct 15, 2021 New paper (+ code) on quantile methods for calibrated uncertainty quantification in NeurIPS 2021.
Oct 15, 2021 Two papers on explainable machine learning and personalized benchmarking in NeurIPS 2021.
July 14, 2021 Our paper on Pollux was awarded the Jay Lepreau Best Paper Award at OSDI'21.
June 10, 2021 New paper (+ website) on Bayesian Algorithm Execution (BAX) and InfoBAX, in ICML 2021.
June 1, 2021 I co-organized the Machine Learning for Data (Creation, Privacy, Bias) Workshop at ICML 2021.
Apr 1, 2021 New paper (+ AdaptDL) on Pollux, a deep learning cluster scheduler/tuner, in OSDI 2021.
Mar 16, 2021 New paper (+ code) on uncertainty quantification with martingales for GPs in ALT 2021.
Mar 9, 2021 New paper on active classification for catalyst discovery in the Journal of Chemical Physics.
Jan 12, 2021 New paper (+ code) on a framework for interactive weak supervision in ICLR 2021.
Dec 22, 2020 Released Uncertainty Toolbox, for predictive UQ, calibration, metrics, and visualization.
Dec 2, 2020 New paper (+ code) on BANANAS, a method for neural architecture search, in AAAI 2021.

Projects

METAGENE-1 Metagenomic foundation model designed for pathogen detection and pandemic monitoring.
LiveBench A challenging, contamination-free LLM benchmark.
LLM360 Fully-transparent open-source large language model research and development.
Betty An automatic differentiation library for multilevel optimization and meta-learning.
Bayesian Algorithm Execution (BAX) Extending Bayesian optimization to computable function properties defined by algorithms.
Uncertainty Toolbox A toolbox for predictive uncertainty quantification, calibration, metrics, and visualization.
Modern EXD/AL Modern experimental design & active learning workshop series (ICML/NeurIPS).
Naszilla A python library for neural architecture search.
AdaptDL A resource-adaptive cluster scheduler for deep learning training.
CASL Project An open toolkit for composable, automatic, and scalable learning.
ProBO A framework for using probabilistic programming in Bayesian optimization.
Bayesian Optimization and DOE NASBOT for neural architecture search, MPS for design of experiments, and Dragonfly.
Prior Swapping Efficient algorithms for incorporating prior information, post-inference.
Embarrassingly Parallel VI Communication-free distributed variational inference in nonconjugate models.
Embarrassingly Parallel MCMC Asymptotically exact, communication-free distributed posterior sampling.
Fast Function-based Regression Fast distribution-to-real and function-to-function nonparametric regression.
GPU for Time-varying PYPs Generalized Polya urn for time-varying Pitman-Yor processes.
Parallel Frank-Wolfe Optimization Asynchronous parallel block-coordinate Frank-Wolfe optimization algorithm.
LRO Models for Link Prediction Latent random offset model for interpretable citation prediction and exploration.
DDP Object Tracking and Modeling Dependent Dirichlet process mixtures for unsupervised object detection and tracking.
Cell Motility Analysis TIAM: the tool for integrative analysis of cell motility.

Publications

A full list of my publications can be found here.