Juan Elenter

Bio

> I'm a math and music nerd currently at Spotify as a Research Scientist, working on large-scale generative recommendation systems. I recently earned an MA in Statistics and Data Science from The Wharton School and an MEng in Systems Engineering from SEAS at the University of Pennsylvania.

Before graduate school, I worked on genomic motif discovery through ATAC-seq analysis at Stanford's KundajeLab. I also interned at CERN , contributing to the CMS Open Data initiative alongside Dr. Lassila-Perini.

Originally from the beautiful city of Montevideo, Uruguay , I completed a BSc in EE at Universidad de la República. During this time, I played for Uruguay's national Waterpolo team and worked as a software developer at IBM. If any of this sparks your interest, or if you want share some mate , feel free to reach out.

My work

Broadly, I work on developing reliable learning systems that scale effectively with the amount of data and compute. Specifically, my work focuses on optimization for machine learning, with an emphasis on constrained optimization techniques to ensure models not only excel at their main task, but also meet critical requirements such as robustness, invariance and fairness. I have hands-on experience with generative architectures for sequential recommendation as well as large transformer architectures for genomics, vision and language processing.

Throughout my graduate studies, I adopted a data-centric perspective of ML, focusing on continual model fine-tuning as new, diverse data emerges. This has driven my work in active and continual learning using large pre-trained models. On the theoretical side, my work on duality-based constrained optimization has shown that dual subgradient methods can yield near-optimal and near-feasible solutions, without randomization, despite non-convexity.

I also have a particular interest in problems involving biological signals such as genome sequences, medical images and the gut microbiome.

Vitæ

• Spotify 2024-Present

  Research Scientist
  Personalization - Generative Recommendaton
• Flatiron Institute, Simons Foundation 2022

  Summer Intern
  Center for Computational Mathematics
• University of Pennsylvania 2021-2024

  The Wharton School & SEAS
  MA in Statistics and Data Science
  MEng in Electrical and Systems Engineering
• Stanford University 2021

  Visiting Student at KundajeLab
  ATAC-seq analysis, motif discovery
• CERN 2020

  Intern
  CMS Open Data initiative
• IBM 2019

  Full Stack Developer
  
• Universidad de la República 2016-2021

  Bsc. Electrical Engineering
  Signal Processing

Miscelaneous

• Uruguay
• Water

Some stuff I like about Uruguay.

Mate: 1/2 Moncayo + 1/2 Baldo
My only real conversation is with this green gourd. Julio Cortázar

The uruguayan
We're kind of chill, obsessed with soccer, skeptical of authority and fixated on social welfare.

La Negra Tomasa
The best pizza in Uruguay, provably.

Jorge Drexler
No le hagas caso a tanto misterio
vos ya sabés la verdad
que no hay nada peor para esta seriedad
que tomársela en serio.

Asado
Typical sunday meal at family gatherings.

Murga
Asaltantes Con Patentes 2013

Water is my natural environment.

Involuntarily drinking water in Punta Ballena.

Glassy morning in one of my favourite uruguayan spots.

Involuntarily drinking frozen, cristalyzed water.

West Santa Lucia River by the way.

Me and my uncle Ernesto, with whom I crossed the Atlantic in 2016.

In 2013, while playing for Uruguay's U-17 national team I lost 3-23 to the US.

Projects

ATAC-seq analysis and motif discovery
@ Stanford, KundajeLab

Prediction of complex traits in agriculture.
@ UdelaR, FarielBerry Lab
I find this case very confusing, and have not thoroughly checked the result. R.A.Fisher

CMS Open Data Initiative
@ CERN, CMS