A chronicle of Blake Mason’s research

Hi! I’m Blake Mason, a postdoctoral research fellow at Rice University studying machine learning.

I am currently a postdoctoral fellow within the DSP Group under the guidance of Richard Baraniuk. Before moving to Houston, I did my doctorate in electrical and computer engineering in Robert Nowak’s lab the University of Wisconin–Madison. Before coming to Madison, I did my Bachelors in Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California. Outside of my studies, I publish poetry, sing in the choir, and love to swim!

Research Focus:

My research is focused on developing new machine learning algorithms and theory in settings where data is scarce, noisy, and/or hard to collect. I leverage statistical and algorithmic tools to study active learning methods that make optimal use of these limited data to study problems that are otherwise infeasible with passive learning techniques. Additionally, I am passionate about leveraging machine learning to improve education. I have collaborated with educational psychologists to develop new tools to understand students’ comprehension and am currently collaborating with researchers to use active learning techniques to develop intellingent, adaptive textbooks. My work has been applied to a variety of applications such as efficeintly performing multiple testing, studying chemistry education in large classrooms, and developing new alagorithms for nearest neighbor search.