About

How it started…

The MLab was founded in 2019, with a grant from the Student Technology Fee Advisory Committee that allowed us to purchase our first computer. The MLab was initially staffed with an intern and started working on computer vision, and object classification problems. It was not long before a realization settled in that there are not enough images to train a computer to identify objects with enough accuracy to warrant the time and effort of looking for, and labeling images. The solution to this ‘not enough data’ problem seemed to require us to make our own images featuring the subject in each, from every conceivable angle. We started working on tools and methods to generate synthetic imagery.

John and Erin, students from the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) applicants joined the lab in the fall of 2019. The next and most important event was in the spring of 2021 when the School of Information generously provided our current lab space. Dr. Adams donated his budget for a personal FSU computer to the MLab, which provided a second machine learning computer with an NVIDIA 3090 GPU. Shortly after, we named the space the MLab.

John joined the lab, and it was clear to me that he was unlike many students, in that his interest for programming started when he was 14. When we met, he had already passed his 5th year as a programmer. After seeing his work, it was clear to me that he had already developed an idiomatic knowledge of computer programming with Python. We hit it off, and between the research agenda I had set, John’s hard work and insightful abilities, the MLab was well on the way to establishing a productive research agenda. Over the 3 years John worked in the lab, he developed a key component of the MLab’s synthetic media pipeline; Leopardi.

Read more about the lab’s start here.

Faculty