Old Members’ Trust Graduate Conference and Academic Travel Fund report – Juliusz Ziomek (2023, DPhil Engineering)

Thanks to the generous support from the Old Members’ Trust, I had the privilege of attending the 28th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS 2025) held in Thailand from 3 to 5 May. The conference brought together leading researchers in machine learning and statistics, offering a rich environment for academic exchange and collaboration.

At AISTATS, I presented my paper titled “Time-varying Gaussian Process Bandits with Unknown Prior”, which was part of my ongoing PhD research at the University of Oxford. My poster presentation was well-received, generating valuable feedback from researchers in both academia and industry. Several attendees expressed interest in potential collaborations, and I had productive discussions with peers working on related problems in Bayesian methods and meta-learning.

This trip was also invaluable for networking. I met important researchers in my field such as Masashi Sugiyama or Jonathan Scarlett and discussed ongoing work, challenges, and future collaborations. These connections are likely to be beneficial in the long term, both for my academic career and for disseminating our research more widely.

Outside the conference, I had the opportunity to explore a bit of the local culture in Thailand. The hospitality was exceptional, and the setting provided a calm and inspiring backdrop to an intellectually intense week.

I am deeply grateful to the Trustees of the Old Member’s Trust for making this trip possible. Your support enabled me to share my work with a global audience, receive valuable feedback, and build lasting academic relationships. This experience has significantly contributed to my development as a researcher.

Thank you once again for your generous support.

Published: 11 July 2025

Explore Univ on social media