Noah Weninger

About me

I am an M.Sc. student studying theoretical computer science at UBC in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where I am fortunate to be supervised by Dr. Bruce Shepherd. I also 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 | keybase | shadertoy | kattis profile | kattis problems | google scholar

Research interests

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

Education

• M.Sc. in Computer Science at University of British Columbia. Funded by NSERC CGS-M. (2019-present)
• B.Sc. Honors in Computing Science at University of Alberta (2014-2019)

Papers

• 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.
  15th Sound and Music Computing Conference.
  
  
• 2017: Exploring Positional Linear Go.
  pdf pub 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.

Presentations

• 03/2019: Festival for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (FURCA). Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
  Topic: Training Deep Convolutional Networks with Unlimited Synthesis of Musical Examples for Multiple Instrument Recognition.
  
  
• 10/2018: Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) General Meeting. Albuquerque, New Mexico.
  Topic: Training Deep Convolutional Networks with Unlimited Synthesis of Musical Examples for Multiple Instrument Recognition.
  
  
• 10/2017: Centre for Advanced Studies Conference (CASCON). Markham, Ontario, Canada.
  Topic: work done on OpenJ9 JIT-as-a-Service while interning at IBM.
  
  
• 06/2017: Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI), WALA Hackathon. Barcelona, Spain.
  Topic: static analysis of Swift programs.
  
  
• 07/2017: Advances in Computer Games (ACG). Leiden, The Netherlands.
  Topic: Exploring Positional Linear Go.

Participation

• 01/2021: attended the 2021 ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA21)
• 11/2020: attended the Fundamentals of Computer Science (FOCS) online symposium.
• 10/2019: attended the CRM/DIMACS Workshop on Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
• 09/2019: attended the West Coast Optimization Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.
• 08/2019: attended WADS, the Algorithms and Data Structures Symposium in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada as a student volunteer.
• 03/2019: competed in the University of Alberta Programming Contest in Edmonton, Alberta. Got 1st place! (or was it 6th place? ;)
• 10/2018: attended the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) General Meeting in Albequerque, New Mexico, USA.
• 10/2018: competed in the Alberta Collegiate Programming Contest in Edmonton, Alberta. Got 2nd place!
• 11/2017: competed in the Rocky Mountain Regional ACM Programming Contest in Edmonton, Alberta. Got 3rd place!
• 10/2017: attended the Centre for Advanced Studies Conference (CASCON) in Markham, Ontario, Canada.
• 07/2017: attended Advances in Computer Games (ACG) in Leiden, The Netherlands.
• 06/2017: attended Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI) in Barcelona, Spain as a student volunteer.
• 05/2017: competed in the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) World Finals in Rapid City, USA. Got honorable mention!
• 03/2017: competed in the University of Alberta Programming Contest in Edmonton, Alberta. Got 1st place!
• 11/2016: competed in the Rocky Mountain Regional ACM Programming Contest in Edmonton, Alberta. Got 1st place!
• 10/2016: competed in the Alberta Collegiate Programming Contest in Edmonton, Alberta. Got 3rd place!
• 07/2016: attended Advances in Computer Games (ACG) in Leiden, The Netherlands.
• 05/2014: competed in the Iverson Computing Science Exam in Edmonton, Alberta. Got 1st place!

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! So you can certainly expect this list to grow over time. Most of my problems are available or will eventually be available on Open Kattis.

• Problems "The Council" and "Which Bits?" from the 2021 CCPC
• Problems "Monochromatic Minesweeper" and "Wrapping Trees" from the 2020 ACPC
• Problems "Product Inspector" and "Lockpick" from the 2019 UAPC

Books I've read/am reading

• Knapsack Problems (Kellerer, Pferschy, Pisinger)
• Disjunctive Programming (Balas)
• Theory of Linear and Integer Programming (Schrijver)
• Introduction to Algorithms (Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, Stein)
• Introduction to the Theory of Computation (Sipser)
• Computational Complexity (Arora and Barak)
• Competitive Programming 3 (Steven and Felix Halim)
• Combinatorial Problems and Exercises (Lovász)
• Combinatorial Optimization: Polyhedra and efficiency (Schrijver)
• A Course in Convexity (Barvinok)
• An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers (Niven)
• The Design of Approximation Algorithms (Williamson and Shmoys)
• Iterative Methods in Combinatorial Optimization (Lau, Ravi, Singh)
• Extremal Combnatorics (Jukna)
• generatingfunctionology (Wilf)
• A=B (Petkovsek, Wilf and Zeilberger)
• Hex: The Full Story (Hayward)
• Introduction to Ramsey theory: fast functions, infinity, and metamathematics (Katz and Reimann)
• Gödel, Escher, Bach (Hofstadter)
• Language, Proof and Logic (Barker-Plummer, Barwise, Etchemendy)
• Modal Logic: An Introduction (Chellas)
• Proof Theory: Sequent Calculi and Related Formalisms (Bimbo)
• Real sound synthesis for interactive applications (Cook)
• Designing sound (Farnell)
• More programming language manuals than I can count

If you know of a book you think I'd like, please let me know!