Professor of Machine Learning Systems
Dept. of Computer Science & Tech.
University of Cambridge

Co-Founder and CSO
Flower Labs

ndl32@cam.ac.uk

@niclane7
LinkedIn
Google Scholar

CaMLSys
Flower Labs

I am a full Professor in the department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge, where I lead the Cambridge Machine Learning Systems lab (CaMLSys). Our mission at CaMLSys is to invent the next-generation of breakthrough ML-centric systems. I am also a Fellow of St. John’s College. Alongside my academic roles, I am the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Flower Labs, a venture-backed AI company (YCW23) behind the Flower federated learning framework. Flower Labs seeks to enable an AI future that is collaborative, open and distributed.

Until March 2023, I held the position of Lab Director at Samsung AI in Cambridge. This 50-person AI lab has an agenda of broadly advancing ML, and in addition to leading the lab — I personally directed teams focused on distributed and on-device forms of learning.

In my capacity as a scientist and academic, I study the design, architecture and algorithms of scalable and robust end-to-end ML systems. My research interests drive towards the development of new forms of ML systems that are revolutionary in how they leverage multi-modal data (e.g., speech, vision, location, inertial information) to infer and reason over complex real-world situations — while simultaneously, maintaining extreme levels of systems flexibility (e.g., distributed execution, adaptation) and efficiency (e.g., compute, memory). In the past, I have developed computational models of human behavior and context (i.e., activity recognition), in addition to algorithms and systems software for mobile and embedded platforms ranging from smartphones to sensor networks.

Earlier in my career, I was an Associate Professor in the Computer Science department at the University of Oxford. At Oxford, I was a member of the Cyber-Physical Systems group, taught machine learning on the Professional Masters Program and was a Fellow of Kellogg College. Prior to Oxford, I held dual academic and industrial appointments as a Senior Lecturer in the Computer Science department at University College London (UCL), and as a Principal Scientist at Nokia Bell Labs. At UCL I was part of the Digital Health Institute and UCL Interaction Center, while at the Bell Labs I was part of the Pervasive Systems department based in Cambridge. Before moving to England, I spent four years at Microsoft Research based in Beijing. There I was a Lead Researcher within the Mobile and Sensing Systems group (MASS).

In March 2011, I received a Ph.D. from Dartmouth College. I also hold an M.Eng from Cornell University and a BSc.(Hons) from the University of Waikato.

Biography

 

I am a full Professor in the department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge, where I lead the Cambridge Machine Learning Systems lab (CaMLSys). Our mission at CaMLSys is to invent the next-generation of breakthrough ML-centric systems. I am also a Fellow of St. John’s College. Alongside my academic roles, I am the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Flower Labs, a venture-backed AI company (YCW23) behind the Flower federated learning framework. Flower Labs seeks to enable an AI future that is collaborative, open and distributed.

Until March 2023, I held the position of Lab Director at Samsung AI in Cambridge. This 50-person AI lab has an agenda of broadly advancing ML, and in addition to leading the lab — I personally directed teams focused on distributed and on-device forms of learning.

In my capacity as a scientist and academic, I study the design, architecture and algorithms of scalable and robust end-to-end ML systems. My research interests drive towards the development of new forms of ML systems that are revolutionary in how they leverage multi-modal data (e.g., speech, vision, location, inertial information) to infer and reason over complex real-world situations — while simultaneously, maintaining extreme levels of systems flexibility (e.g., distributed execution, adaptation) and efficiency (e.g., compute, memory). In the past, I have developed computational models of human behavior and context (i.e., activity recognition), in addition to algorithms and systems software for mobile and embedded platforms ranging from smartphones to sensor networks.

Earlier in my career, I was an Associate Professor in the Computer Science department at the University of Oxford. At Oxford, I was a member of the Cyber-Physical Systems group, taught machine learning on the Professional Masters Program and was a Fellow of Kellogg College. Prior to Oxford, I held dual academic and industrial appointments as a Senior Lecturer in the Computer Science department at University College London (UCL), and as a Principal Scientist at Nokia Bell Labs. At UCL I was part of the Digital Health Institute and UCL Interaction Center, while at the Bell Labs I was part of the Pervasive Systems department based in Cambridge. Before moving to England, I spent four years at Microsoft Research based in Beijing. There I was a Lead Researcher within the Mobile and Sensing Systems group (MASS).

In March 2011, I received a Ph.D. from Dartmouth College. I also hold an M.Eng from Cornell University and a BSc.(Hons) from the University of Waikato.