Léon Bottou
Encyclopedia
Léon Bottou is a researcher best known for his work in machine learning
and data compression
. His work presents stochastic gradient descent
as a fundamental learning algorithm. He is also one of the main creators of the DjVu
image compression technology (together with Yann LeCun
and Patrick Haffner), and the maintainer of DjVuLibre, the open source implementation of DjVu. He is the original developer of the Lush programming language.
in 1987, and a PhD from Université Paris-Sud in 1991. He then joined the Adaptive Systems Research Department at AT&T
Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, NJ where he collaborated with Vladimir Vapnik
on local learning algorithms. in 1992, he returned to France and founded Neuristique S.A., a company that produced machine learning and one of the first data mining software. in 1995, he returned to Bell Laboratories, where he developed a number of new machine learning methods, such as Graph Transformer Networks (similar to conditional random field
), and applied them to handwriting recognition and OCR. The bank check recognition system that he helped develop was widely deployed by NCR and other companies, reading over 10% of all the checks in the US in the late 90s and early 00s.
In 1996, he joined AT&T Labs
and worked primarily on the DjVu
image compression technology, used by many websites, notably the Internet Archive
, to distribute scanned documents. Since 2002, he has been a research scientist at NEC Laboratories in Princeton, NJ, where he has focused on the theory and practice of machine learning with very large-scale datasets, on-line learning, and stochastic optimization methods. He developed the open source software LaSVM for fast large-scale support vector machine
, and stochastic gradient descent
software for training linear SVM and Conditional Random Fields.
He is associate editor of the Journal of Machine Learning Research, the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, and Pattern Recognition Letters. He is a scientific advisor of KXEN Inc.
Machine learning
Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, is a scientific discipline concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to evolve behaviors based on empirical data, such as from sensor data or databases...
and data compression
Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
. His work presents stochastic gradient descent
Stochastic gradient descent
Stochastic gradient descent is an optimization method for minimizing an objective function that is written as a sum of differentiable functions.- Background :...
as a fundamental learning algorithm. He is also one of the main creators of the DjVu
DjVu
DjVu is a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, and photographs. It uses technologies such as image layer separation of text and background/images, progressive loading, arithmetic coding, and lossy...
image compression technology (together with Yann LeCun
Yann LeCun
Yann LeCun is a computer science researcherwith contributions in machine learning, computer vision, mobile robotics and computational neuroscience. He is well known for his work on optical character recognition and computer vision using convolutional neural networks...
and Patrick Haffner), and the maintainer of DjVuLibre, the open source implementation of DjVu. He is the original developer of the Lush programming language.
Life
Léon Bottou was born in France in 1965. He obtained the Diplôme d'Ingénieur from École PolytechniqueÉcole Polytechnique
The École Polytechnique is a state-run institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, Essonne, France, near Paris. Polytechnique is renowned for its four year undergraduate/graduate Master's program...
in 1987, and a PhD from Université Paris-Sud in 1991. He then joined the Adaptive Systems Research Department at AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, NJ where he collaborated with Vladimir Vapnik
Vladimir Vapnik
Vladimir Naumovich Vapnik is one of the main developers of Vapnik–Chervonenkis theory. He was born in the Soviet Union. He received his master's degree in mathematics at the Uzbek State University, Samarkand, Uzbek SSR in 1958 and Ph.D in statistics at the Institute of Control Sciences, Moscow in...
on local learning algorithms. in 1992, he returned to France and founded Neuristique S.A., a company that produced machine learning and one of the first data mining software. in 1995, he returned to Bell Laboratories, where he developed a number of new machine learning methods, such as Graph Transformer Networks (similar to conditional random field
Conditional random field
A conditional random field is a statistical modelling method often applied in pattern recognition.More specifically it is a type of discriminative undirected probabilistic graphical model. It is used to encode known relationships between observations and construct consistent interpretations...
), and applied them to handwriting recognition and OCR. The bank check recognition system that he helped develop was widely deployed by NCR and other companies, reading over 10% of all the checks in the US in the late 90s and early 00s.
In 1996, he joined AT&T Labs
AT&T Labs
AT&T Labs, Inc. is the research & development division of AT&T, where scientists and engineers work to understand and advance innovative technologies relevant to networking, communications, and information. Over 1800 employees work in six locations: Florham Park, NJ; Middletown, NJ; Austin, TX;...
and worked primarily on the DjVu
DjVu
DjVu is a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, and photographs. It uses technologies such as image layer separation of text and background/images, progressive loading, arithmetic coding, and lossy...
image compression technology, used by many websites, notably the Internet Archive
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
, to distribute scanned documents. Since 2002, he has been a research scientist at NEC Laboratories in Princeton, NJ, where he has focused on the theory and practice of machine learning with very large-scale datasets, on-line learning, and stochastic optimization methods. He developed the open source software LaSVM for fast large-scale support vector machine
Support vector machine
A support vector machine is a concept in statistics and computer science for a set of related supervised learning methods that analyze data and recognize patterns, used for classification and regression analysis...
, and stochastic gradient descent
Stochastic gradient descent
Stochastic gradient descent is an optimization method for minimizing an objective function that is written as a sum of differentiable functions.- Background :...
software for training linear SVM and Conditional Random Fields.
He is associate editor of the Journal of Machine Learning Research, the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, and Pattern Recognition Letters. He is a scientific advisor of KXEN Inc.
KXEN Inc.
' is revolutionizing the way companies use to make better decisions. Based on patented innovations, the company's flagship product, ', delivers orders of magnitude improvements in speed and agility to optimize every step in the ' – including acquisition, cross-sell, up-sell, retention and next...