Audrey Durand: the artificial intelligence researcher who listens to algorithms
Audrey Durand is a post-doctoral researcher in machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, at the Reasoning and Learning Lab, McGill University. Her expertise? Developing ever more efficient algorithms.
Her thesis is based on reinforcement learning algorithms. These algorithms attempt actions and observe feedback, which are rewards in the form of numbers. The algorithms seek to learn behavior by maximizing these rewards. The focus of Audrey Durand’s thesis is to understand how this works in different contexts of use. Meet her.
How did you get interested in this field, when there are so few women in machine learning?
Audrey Durand: I think the key lies in the fact that my parents never gendered my upbringing. Those around me never gave me the impression that there was any inconsistency in directing me towards this traditionally male sector.
However, I can think of plenty of reasons why a woman wouldn’t want to be in this field. Even today, there are plenty of men who think that women aren’t as good at computer science and mathematics and wouldn’t want to team up with them on a course, for example.
