My name is Ivan Villa-Renteria and I am a Computer Science Coterm Masters student at Stanford University, pursuing the Artificial Intelligence track. I also finished my undergraduate CS degree at Stanford, specializing in the Theory track. Currently, I’m conducting research in the Pilanci lab on deep generative models for audio generation in music applications. I previously used to serve as a course assistant for CS265: Randomized Algorithms and Probabilistic Analysis, CS161: Design and Analysis of Algorithms, and CS224U: Natural Language Understanding. I also conducted research at the Stanford Vision and Learning Lab under SAIL and briefly worked as a Data Scientist and Software Engineer for a social media startup right after completing my undergrad.

I am fascinated by deep generative models how we can make them more steerable, controllable, and aligned with human preferences and intentions. Currently, I’m working on this in the context of music and art generation. I also have additonal interests in theorecial computer science and mechanistic interpretability.

Here is a pretty non-exhaustive list of things that I like and/or am interested in:

  1. Learning new languages! I’ve spoken English and Spanish since childhood, and I took 2 years of Japanese in college and lived abroad in Japan for half a year. I’m currently self-studying Korean and Mandarin Chinese; I hope to get started on Portuguese, Italian, and French in the future.
  2. Playing guitar!

3. Reading!

4. Playing videogames and boardgames with my friends!

5. Watching movies!

6. Anime and Manga!

  1. Social Dance! Currently learning Bachata and Salsa, but I also hope to learn Zouk, Merengue, and Reggaeton as well!

  2. I’m a really big fan of great composers in the video game industry: Nobuo Uematsu, Yoko Shimomura, and Masayoshi Soken (I grew up on Square Enix games :D )

  3. Partying and clubbing with my friends!

  4. Overthinking very disparate topics, some of which you might see on this blog 😅

  5. Cooking and baking!

  6. Self-teaching myself about different academic subjects:

    Right now: Self-teaching Real Analysis

  1. Making memes: If you attended Stanford during my freshman year, you might recognize me as the creator of the Stanford Anime OP.