Benjamin Hoffman

Hi! I am a second-year PhD student in the Networked Systems Group (NSG) at ETH Zurich, a Graduate Research Fellow at Netflix, and an associated PhD researcher at the ETH AI Center, working on control, Machine Learning (ML), and language models in systems and networking under the supervision of Prof. Laurent Vanbever (ETH Zurich) and Prof. Gioele Zardini (MIT). I’m interested in using algorithms, ML, and control theory to understand how complex systems and networks work and how we can model, interpret, and control them in a robust and efficient manner. My current research revolves around developing robust and efficient (learning-based) control methods for crucial applications such as video streaming and congestion control. Beyond that, I am also interested in using Large Language Models (LLMs) for network operations and improving the networking stack for ML applications and workloads.

Prior to starting my PhD, I obtained a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and a MSc in Robotics, Systems and Control from ETH Zurich. During my master’s, I did an academic exchange at Lund University in Sweden. For my master’s thesis, I worked on Reinforcement Learning (RL) with the Computational Robotics Lab (CRL) (Prof. Stelian Coros), as well as the Learning & Adaptive Systems Group (LAS) (Prof. Andreas Krause) at the ETH AI Center.

I have also done internships in management consulting at Bain & Company, in data science and ML at eraneos, in robotics, software engineering, and ML at Güdel, as well as in learning-based control at Netflix.

Talks

Into the Wild: Real-World Testing for ML-Based ABR

Slides Publication

Publications

Available Theses

Running Theses

Supervised Theses