Casual Causality
I am a final-year Ph.D. student in the Robust Machine Learning group at the Max Planck Institute of Intelligent Systems in Tübingen, supervised by Wieland Brendel, Ferenc Huszár, Matthias Bethge, and Bernhard Schölkopf. I am part of the ELLIS and IMPRS-IS programs. I have also spent time at the Vector Institute and at the University of Cambridge.
I am actively looking for postdoctoral and junior group leader positions, starting in early 2026.
The main motivation for my research is to advance our understanding of how and why deep learning models work. My research toolkit currently focuses around identifiable causal and self-supervised representation learning and out-of-distribution (OOD) generalization, with a focus on compositionality in language models. During my Ph.D., I realized that current machine learning theory is insufficient to explain especially the interesting and useful properties of deep neural networks. I aim to help close this gap, by focusing on:
- extending machine learning theory to understand the role of inductive biases (e.g., model architecture or optimization algorithm)
- grounding machine learning in the physical world via (causal) principles and humanity’s prior knowledge
- extending our understanding of out-of-distribution and compositional generalization
- uncovering overarching patterns across different fields in machine learning
I have done both my M.Sc. and B.Sc. at the Budapest University of Technology in electrical engineering and specialized in control engineering and intelligent systems. In my free time, I enjoy being outdoors and often bring my camera with me.
Rotating Features For Object Discovery
Published:
Structure is a useful but underleveraged inductive bias for representation learning.
The Machine Learning Interview Checklist
Published:
Cover your bases.
Higgins et al. - Towards a Definition of Disentangled Representations
Published:
Disentanglement is a concept rooted in geometric deep learning.
Where is the nature of the relationship expressed in causal models?
Published:
Graphs don’t tell about the nature of dependence, only about its (non-)existence.
AMMI 3 Notes: Geometric priors I
Published:
In the previous post, we dived deep into abstract algebra to motivate why Geometric Deep Learning is an interesting topic. Now we begin the journey to show that it is also useful in practice. In summary, we know that symmetries constrain our hypothesis class, making learning simpler—indeed, they can make learning a tractable problem. How does this happen?
Mathematical foundations for Geometric Deep Learning
Published:
Yes, abstract algebra is actually useful for machine learning.
LaTeX tricks
Published:
Improve typesetting and save space in your submissions, who does not want that?
Bayesian Statistics - Techniques and Models flashcards
Published:
It’s again a statistics deck.
Pearls of Causality #11: Front- and Back-Door Adjustment
Published:
Two ways to shut the door before confounding enters the scene.
Pearls of Causality #10: Interventions and Identifiability
Published:
Interventions in disguise.
Pearls of Causality #9: Potential, Genuine, Temporal Causes and Spurious Association
Published:
Hitting the nail on its arrowhead, a.k.a. when does $X$ cause $Y$?
Pearls of Causality #8: Inferred Causation, $IC$, and ${IC}^*$
Published:
We will talk about IC, $IC$, and ${IC}^*$ in this post. You get the difference.
Pearls of Causality #7: Latent Structures and Stability
Published:
DAGs like to play hide-and-seek. But we are more clever.
Pearls of Causality #6: Markov Conditions
Published:
The model zoo of Markovian conditions is fascinating confusing. Let there be light!
Pearls of Causality #5: Statistical vs Causal Inference
Published:
What you won’t be able to find in this post are unconditional claims of superiority of causal inference.
Bayesian Statistics - From Concept to Data Analysis flashcards
Published:
This blog discusses causal inference. What is this post about Bayesian Statistics then?
Pearls of Causality #4: Causal Queries
Published:
Asking a causal question is not casual.
Pearls of Causality: The Causal Dictionary
Published:
No one told me that I need a dictionary for learning causal inference. Indeed, there was none before. Now there is.
Probabilistic Graphical Models 3 flashcards
Published:
Not just parameter learning, but learning about parameter learning got easier today.
Pearls of Causality #3: The properties of d-separation
Published:
A top-secret guide to d-separation. We will go deep, ready?
Pearls of Causality #2: Markov Factorization, Compatibility, and Equivalence
Published:
This post deliberately (wink) tries to confuse you about the grand scheme of DAG equivalence. What a good deal, isn’t it?
Probabilistic Graphical Models 2 flashcards
Published:
If your goal is to be able to recall Sum-Product Belief Propagation even at 3a.m., this is the post you are looking for.
Pearls of Causality #1: DAGs, d-separation, conditional independence
Published:
d-separation is the bread and butter for deciding about conditional independence in DAGs. What is a DAG, anyway?
A post series on Pearl: Causality
Published:
A causality blog cannot exist without discussing Judea Pearl’s Causality book. Thus, I am paying my debt.
Probabilistic Graphical Models 1 flashcards
Published:
To make learning probabilistic graphical models frictionless and more fun.
Causality resources
Published:
Good resources matter, a lot.
Welcome to my journey!
Published:
A PhD student’s casual journey with causal inference.