Kristen Fortney

I'm doing my PhD in computational neuroscience at the University of Toronto (my undergraduate degree is in mathematics). Broadly, I'm interested in figuring out how our brains are able to learn so flexibly and so well (i.e. what kinds of learning algorithms the brain is running), so that this knowledge can be applied to create human-level artificial intelligence. My thesis work currently involves integrating ideas from machine learning and control theory to build models of general sensorimotor learning in the brain.

My other academic interests include mathematical biology and bioinformatics (in particular, evolutionary dynamics and modeling cell aging and death), and information theory and its applications.