
Common Lisp + Machine Learning Internship at Google (Mountain View, CA) - moshe
I am seeking an intern to work on the open-source probabilistic
learning of programs project over Summer 2009 at Google in Mountain
View, CA. Probabilistic learning of programs (plop) is a Common Lisp
framework for experimenting with meta-optimizing semantic evolutionary
search (MOSES) and related approaches to learning with probability
distributions over program spaces. Possible research topics to focus
on include:<p>* Learning procedural abstractions<p>* Adapting estimation-of-distribution algorithms to program evolution<p>* Applying plop to various interesting data sets<p>* Adapting plop to do natural language processing or image processing<p>* Better mechanisms for exploiting background knowledge in program evolution<p>This position is open to all students currently pursuing a BS, MS or
PhD in computer science or a related technical field. It is probably
better-suited to a grad student, but I'm open to considering an
advanced undergrad as well. The only hard and fast requirements for
consideration are a strong programming background (any language(s))
and some experience in AI and/or machine learning. Some pluses:<p>* Functional programming experience (esp. Lisp, but ML, Haskell, or
even the functional style of C++ count too)<p>* Experience with evolutionary computation or stochastic local search
(esp. estimation-of-distribution algorithms and/or genetic programming)<p>* Open-source contributor (esp. Maxima)<p>* Interest in artificial general intelligence (i.e. building a thinking
   machine)<p>More info on plop at http://code.google.com/p/plop/, more info on the
Google internship program at: http://www.google.com/jobs/students<p>Please contact me directly (email: madscience at google) with your info, so I
can watch for your resume.<p>Thanks!
Moshe Looks<p>P.S. Disclaimer: I can't promise anyone an internship, you have to go
through the standard Google application &#38; interview process for
interns, yada yada ...<p>P.P.S. Any Googlers reading this and looking for a cool 20% project should contact
me as well ;-&#62;
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rw
I am qualified, but I happen to be majoring in Economics. Why do you care
about the degree?

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moshe
"Currently pursuing a BS, MS or PhD in computer science or a related technical
field." is verbatim from the intern job listing
([http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/answer.py?answer=1262...](http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/answer.py?answer=126265)),
and I suppose it is there because the target audience for Google Engineering
internships is students who are aiming to work some place like Google
Engineering after graduating - not exactly the same category as "technically
qualified students". So if you'd consider working at some place Google
Engineering post graduation, then you should definitely apply.

For the record, _I_ would consider economics to be a related technical field
(cf. John von Neumann, cf. "Evolution of Cooperative Problem-Solving in an
Artificial Economy" - <http://www.whatisthought.com/hayek32000.pdf>)...

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mstoehr
The clearest description of what CS researchers talk about when they talk
about "intelligence" (see <http://www.vetta.org/definitions-of-intelligence/>)
is probably a production function from economics.

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dangrover
Damn. I wish I went to a university that Google takes seriously.

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scott_s
If you think you're qualified, apply.

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paraschopra
I don't think it is open to international students, is it?

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moshe
It is, actually.

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clevercode
Neat stuff! One thing you might want to look into (if you haven't already) is
Probabilistic Incremental Program Evolution (PIPE) by Schmidhuber.

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clevercode
Nevermind, you cited it in your paper... :P

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peregrine
I'm thinking of applying(what can I loose) but I've just started self teaching
myself Functional Programming so maybe next year. :)

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moshe
I have gotten plenty of great applicants - thanks guys! Please stop sending me
your application info at this point...

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presty
Whoa, sounds interesting.

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sown
:(

