Scott Farrar

Professional Bio

I am a research engineer at Yahoo! Search in the Applied Sciences group working on machine learned ranking systems. My background is in Cognitive Science (PhD, MS UCSD) and Computer Science (BS Stanford University). I have over 15 years experience applying machine learning techniques (neural networks, hidden Markov models, gradient boosted decision trees, etc.) to a wide variety of problem domains, including search engine ranking, part-of-speech text tagging, and cognitive modeling.

My PhD dissertation coupled analytical techniques from theoretical robotics with neural network modeling to investigate possible brain mechanisms underlying the coordination of bilateral movements. I have also done a literature review investigating auditory scene formation in echolocating bats; and research investigating the usefulness of part-of-speech text taggers based on Hidden Markov Models.

Here is a tool that displays search results from Yahoo and Google side-by-side.

Personal Notes

On July 30, 2005 my partner Cameron passed away after an 18-year battle with cancer. Cameron was a handsome, intelligent, and gentle man, with a strong inner spirit and a fundamentally optimistic outlook on life. He is my personal angel, and his spirit is still a big part of my life. I love you Cameron, I always will. Cameron was a Program Manager for Sun Microsystems. We met originally in Southern California, and got to know one another through gay square dancing. When we moved to Northern California, we danced regularly at El Camino Reelers, a gay and lesbian square dance club located in Palo Alto, CA. Cameron was on the convention committee for the 2005 IAGSDC Convention Star Thru the Silicon Galaxy, where he received his Ten Year Medallion and a standing ovation from the entire convention.

Some things I do for fun: country & western dancing: two-stepping, waltzing, and line dances; board games (Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico, Tigris and Euphrates). I love to give and receive massage. Touch has a wonderful power to soothe and heal. My small yard accommodates a four small citrus trees (2 washington navel orange trees, one valencia orange tree, and a lemon tree), a smattering of flowers (Nasturtiums, Cyclamens, African Daisies, Azaleas), and lots of pink jasmine. If only my garden were larger... When I need more space to just be, I like to go camping, to places like Yosemite, Big Basin Redwoods, or the Anza-Borrego Desert. I also make frequent weekend getaways to the Russian River area.

Some of my quirks: I am a very slow eater. Some friends in college once timed me as taking 45 minutes to eat a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Among foods, chocolate and garlic are among my favorites. I also have a tendency to overanalyze Star Trek episodes. Some of it is excellent science fiction, some of it is garbage. Either way, I love to talk about it. And I am a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. I also sleep a lot. Here's me dreaming about bears...

Here are lists of ...

News and Information Sources

Maps and Images

Other Interesting Links

Copyright (c) 1995-2010 David Scott Farrar