I'm a Research Scientist at Meta, and I build Machine Learning models!
I work on the classifiers on Facebook and Instagram that detect violations of Meta's suicide and self-injury policies.
I specialize in computer vision and scientific computing. When I was a Research Engineer at Applied Research in Acoustics, I worked on few-shot learning, transformer pre-training, and active-learning methods for object detection and semantic segmentation.
I finished my PhD in Electrical Engineering in 2022 at the University of Michigan, where I used wavelet transforms to speed up algorithms for simulating electromagnetic wave propagation. My advisor was Professor Eric Michielssen, and my dissertation is available here.
I also have a ton of hobbies! My current interests include:
Photography: I mainly focus on car photography, and I've also done portraits and fashion photoshoots.
Electronic Music Production: I make music heavily inspired by the trance, big-beat, and jungle soundtracks of late 90s/early 00s racing games.
Crafting: I enjoy sewing and knitting; I'm also experimenting with crochet and embroidery.
Car Racing: I frequently attend track days and autocross events.
Street Dancing: My style is a blend of house dance and Detroit jit.
Electronics and Software Projects
These are some of the projects I worked on in my free time when I was a student:
Synthesizer
I designed an analog synthesizer in LTSpice, and I prototyped hardware for a voltage-controlled oscillator and a voltage-controlled filter.
VCO Printed Circuit Board
VCO Prototype
VCF Prototype
Real Time Convolution Plugin
Audio plugin for music production, made with the IPlug extension of the wdl-ol library. The plugin takes two real-time input tracks and convolves the most recent samples from both tracks together. It can be used for an effect similar to what a vocoder would produce.
Originally a simple circuit bending project to add distortion to a Casio SA-2 keyboard. I wired the keyboard to an Arduino, and was able to interpret the electrical signals as MIDI notes that I could use to control software synthesizers.
Controlling a virtual instrument with the MIDI controller
Miscellaneous projects can be found on my GitHub account
Publications and Conference Presentations
J. Christian, M. Bright, J. E. Summers, A. Olson, T. C. Havens, “Generative EO/IR multi-scale vision transformer for improved object detection,” Proc. SPIE 13035, Synthetic Data for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: Tools, Techniques, and Applications II, 130350N
M. Bright, J. Christian, R. Wood, J. E. Summers, “Unsupervised Vision-Transformer Training for Semantic Segmentation of Sparsely Labeled Datasets,” in Naval Applications of Machine Learning, San Diego, CA, 2024.
M. Bright, E. Michielssen, “Gabor Frame-Based Sparsification of 3D Long-Range Propagation over Terrain,” in IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting, Denver, CO, 2022.
M. Bright, E. Michielssen, “Long-Range Propagation in 3D with Gabor Frame-Based Sparsification and Radiation Boundary Conditions,” in IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, 2021.
M. Bright, E. Michielssen, “Time-Frequency Jigsaw Puzzle for Gabor Frame-Based Propagation over Long Ranges,” in IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, 2021.
M. Bright, E. Michielssen, J. Kusuma, ‘Hybrid Split-Step Fourier – Finite Difference Parabolic Equation Solver for Modeling Propagation Over Complex Terrain’ in IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting, Montreal, QC, 2020.
M. Bright, E. Michielssen, J. Kusuma, ‘Gabor Frame-Based Sparsification and Radiation Boundary Conditions for Parabolic Wave Equations’ in IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting, Atlanta, GA, 2019.
M. Bright, A. Ishimaru, Y. Kuga, ‘Scattering from a Distribution of Rough Plates,’ Progress In Electromagnetics Research C, Vol. 95, 1-13, 2019.
M. Bright, A. Ishimaru, Y. Kuga, ‘Scattering from a Distribution of Rough Plates’ in USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting, Boulder, CO, 2018.
B. Walborn, Y. Liu, M. Bright, A. Ishimaru, Y. Kuga, ‘Modeling EM Wave Scattering from Tree Branches and Leaves’ in USNC-URSI National Radio Science Meeting, Boulder, CO, 2018.
