Nikolas McNeal

I am currently a first-year Ph.D. student in the Machine Learning PhD @ Georgia Tech. I obtained my undergraduate degree in Computer Science from The Ohio State University in 2023.

Preprints

McNeal N., Huang J., Umoren A., Dai S., Dannenberg R., Randall R., Lee T.S. Relating Human Perception of Musicality to Prediction in a Predictive Coding Model. 2023. [paper] [code]

Conference Publications

Gutiérrez B., McNeal N. Washington C., Chen Y., Li L., Sun H., Su Y. Thinking about GPT-3 In-Context Learning for Biomedical IE? Think Again. EMNLP 2022 (Findings). Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. [paper] [code]

Conference Presentations:

• Shanahan D., Kang J., McNeal N. Understanding the Role of Schematic Knowledge in the Preference for Harmonic Asymmetry with Iterative Learning. International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), 2023. Tokyo, Japan. Oral presentation.


• McNeal N., Kang J., Hay N., Shanahan D. Iterative learning suggests a preference for harmonic asymmetry. Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC), 2022. Portland, Oregon. Oral presentation.


• McNeal N., Shevlin B., Krajbich I. What causes enhanced processing of high-value items? Poster at: 44th Annual Cognitive Science Society (CogSci), 2022. Toronto, Canada. [poster]


• McNeal N., Huang J., Umoren A., Lee T.S. Unsupervised musicality prediction of pitch sequences. Poster at: CMU-Pitt Undergraduate Program in Neural Computation, 2021. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. [poster]


• Umoren A., McNeal N., Lee T.S. Probing PredNet's internal representations. Poster at: CMU-Pitt Undergraduate Program in Neural Computation, 2021. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. [poster]

Teaching

TA @ Georgia Tech
• Fall 2023, Spring 2024
    MATH 2552 Differential Equations [notes]

TA @ Ohio State
• Spring 2023
    MATH 4530 Quantitative Neuroscience

Directed Reading Program
The Directed Reading Program is a program in the Math department that pairs interested undergraduates with graduates students for independent study projects.
I have served as a mentor for the following semesters:
• [Autumn 2023] Topic: Machine Learning for Modeling Dynamical Systems

Honors

• [2023] OSU CSE Undergraduate Research Award
• [2021] OSU Undergraduate Research Scholarship
• [2021] OSU Decision Sciences Collaborative Scholarship
• [2019] Eminence Fellowship (now Stamps Eminence Scholarship)