Le Bras, Ronan

Ronan Le Bras is a research scientist at the Allen Institute for AI. His research interests include commonsense reasoning through natural language understanding, as well as computational methods for large-scale combinatorial optimization, reasoning, machine learning and human computation. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University in 2016. Prior to his Ph.D., he received his M.S. and B.S. from Ecole Polytechnique Montreal in Computer Engineering and in Software Engineering.

Positions

  • Now 2020

    Senior Research Scientist

    Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence

  • 2020 2016

    Research Scientist

    Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Education

  • Ph.D. 2016

    Ph.D. in Computer Science, Cornell University

    Thesis: Leveraging Human Insights into Problem Structure for Scientific Discovery

  • M.S. 2009

    M.S. in Computer Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Montreal

    Thesis: Applying Probabilistic Message-Passing Algorithms to Search Heuristics for Solving Constraint Satisfaction Problems. *Nominated for the best 2010 University Master’s Thesis*

  • B.Eng. 2008

    B.Eng. in Software Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Montreal

    *Degree with highest honors*

  • C.P.G.E. 2004

    C.P.G.E. in Mathematics and Physics, Lycee Montaigne, Bordeaux

    MPSI (Mathematics, Physics, and Engineering Science), MP* (Mathematics and Physics)

Professional Service

  • PC Member

    AAAI 2011/2017-2021

    CPAIOR 2013

    IJCAI 2013/2015

  • Reviewer

    AAAI 2010/2011/2013-2015/2017-2022

    Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence

    CP 2010/2011/2016

    CPAIOR 2012-2014

    EMNLP 2020/2022

    IJCAI 2013/2015/2020

    INFORMS Journal of Computing

    ITCAI 2010

    Journal of Combinatorial Designs

    Journal of Machine Learning Research

    NAACL/NeuralGen 2019

    NAACL/SemEval 2019

    Nature

    SAT 2013

    SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics (SIDMA)

    SoCS 2013/2014

Honors and Awards

  • 2022
    NAACL Best Paper Award
    Best Paper Award at NAACL'22 for our paper entitled NeuroLogic A*esque Decoding: Constrained Text Generation with Lookahead Heuristics
  • 2020
    AAAI Outstanding Paper Award
    Outstanding Paper Award at AAAI'20 for our paper entitled WinoGrande: An Adversarial Winograd Schema Challenge at Scale
  • 2017
    IAAI Innovative Application Paper Award
    Innovative Application Paper Award at IAAI'17 for our paper entitled Phase-mapper: An AI platform to accelerate high throughput materials discovery
  • 2013
    Special Issue on Best Papers of VLDB
    VLDBJ Invitation for the Special Issue on Best Papers of VLDB 2013 for our paper entitled Cloudia: a deployment advisor for public clouds
  • 2010
    TA Award of Excellence
    Teaching Assistant in Artificial Intelligence, Cornell University
  • 2009-10
    Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship
    Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
  • 2010
    Nominated for the best 2010 University Master’s Thesis
    Master of Science in Computer Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Montreal
  • 2009-10
    Masters Research Scholarship
    Fonds Quebecois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies (FQRNT)
  • 2009
    J.A. Deseve Funds Scholarship
    Fonds J.A. Deseve
  • 2008-09
    Scholarship for excellence in Master’s program
    Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation (CIRRELT)
  • 2008
    Bachelor Degree with Highest Honors
    Bachelor of Engineering in Software Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Montreal
  • 2004
    Scholarship for excellence
    Rotary International, The Rotary Foundation

Teaching Experience

  • Spring 2016

    Teaching Assistant, Cornell University

    Head TA for the course Introduction to Analysis of Algorithms

  • Spring 2013

    Guest Lecturer, Cornell University

    Graduate course, Topics in Computational Sustainability

  • Fall 2010

    Teaching Assistant, Cornell University

    Artificial Intelligence, *TA Award of Excellence*

  • Jan-Dec 2007

    Teaching Assistant, HEC Montreal

    Probability and Statistics

  • Jan-Dec 2007

    Teaching Assistant, Ecole Polytechnique Montreal,

    Computer Architecture and Programming Language