Noah Weninger

About me

I am a Ph.D. student studying combinatorics and optimization at the University of Waterloo under the supervision of Dr. Ricardo Fukasawa. Previously I completed a M.Sc. in computer science at the University of British Columbia, under the supervision of Dr. Bruce Shepherd. On the side, I make open source software for digitally processing audio and generating algorithmic music and visuals under the alias byte.observer. When not in front of a computer or whiteboard I can usually be found rock climbing, foraging for mushrooms, cycling, snowboarding, hiking or cooking.

My profiles: github | bandcamp | soundcloud | youtube | shadertoy | pouet | demozoo | kattis profile | kattis problems | google scholar
[I am not associated with whoever is posting low-effort bytebeats on reddit using my name.]

Research interests

• discrete bilevel optimization
• combinatorial optimization
• discrete math
• algorithmic music and sound synthesis
• computational complexity
• proof theory
• combinatorial game theory

Education

• Ph.D. in Combinatorics and Optimization at University Waterloo. Funded by QEII-GSST. (2022-present)
• M.Sc. in Computer Science at University of British Columbia. Funded by NSERC CGS-M. (2019-2021)
• B.Sc. Honors in Computing Science at University of Alberta (2014-2019)

Papers

• 2023: A Knapsack Intersection Hierarchy.
  publication preprint
  Adam Jozefiak, F. Bruce Shepherd, Noah Weninger.
  
  
• 2022: A Fast Combinatorial Algorithm for the Bilevel Knapsack Problem with Interdiction Constraints.
  Accepted to IPCO 2023
  pdf preprint code
  Noah Weninger and Ricardo Fukasawa.
  
  
• 2021: Approximate Extended Formulations for Multidimensional Knapsack and the Unsplittable Flow Problem on Trees (M.Sc. Thesis).
  publication
  Noah Weninger.
  
  
• 2018: Rendering Impulse Responses for Implicit Surfaces.
  pdf code
  Noah Weninger.
  
  
• 2018: Training Deep Convolutional Networks with Unlimited Synthesis of Musical Examples for Multiple Instrument Recognition.
  pdf
  Rameel Sethi, Noah Weninger, Abram Hindle, Vadim Bulitko, Michael Frishkopf.
  15th Sound and Music Computing Conference.
  
  
• 2017: Exploring Positional Linear Go.
  pdf publication code
  Noah Weninger and Ryan Hayward.
  15th International Conference on Advances in Computer Games.
  
  
• 2016: ScPy: A SuperCollider Extension for Perfoming Numerical Computation via Embedded Python.
  pdf code
  Noah Weninger and Abram Hindle.

Competitive programming problems

After competing for many years I was given the opportunity (thanks Zac!) to create original problems for a programming contest. It turns out that I enjoy making problems even more than just solving them! Most of my problems are available on Open Kattis, where anyone can try them out.

• "LCM Thief" from the 2023 CCPC (Not yet on Open Kattis)
• "Precarious Stacks" from the 2023 UAPC (Not yet on Open Kattis)
• "Long Walk", "Maximum Fix", and "Undead or Alive" from the 2022 ACPC (Not yet on Open Kattis)
• Problems on the 2021 and 2022 Iverson Exam
• "Similar Spacing" and "Travelling Caterpillar" from the 2022 UAPC
• "Zoom," "Successful Zoom," "Solution Pollution," and "Tree Canopy Graphs" from the 2022 CCPC
• "Wonky Pizza," "Beep Code," "Compression," and "Swapping Places" from the 2021 ACPC
• "The Council" and "Which Bits?" from the 2021 CCPC
• "Monochromatic Minesweeper" and "Wrapping Trees" from the 2020 ACPC
• "Product Inspector" and "Lockpick" from the 2019 UAPC