Michael Horrell
PhD in Statistics from the University of Chicago
Previously:
- Head of Data Science at Uptake
- Technical Staff at SentiLink
Currently:
- AI and Data Consultant at AlixPartners

Sessions
07-09
11:25
30min
GBNet: Gradient Boosting packages integrated into PyTorch
Michael Horrell
GBNet
Gradient Boosting Machines (GBMs) are widely used for their predictive power and interpretability, while Neural Networks offer flexible architectures but can be opaque. GBNet is a Python package that integrates XGBoost and LightGBM with PyTorch. By leveraging PyTorch’s auto-differentiation, GBNet enables novel architectures for GBMs that were previously exclusive to pure Neural Networks. The result is a greatly expanded set of applications for GBMs and an improved ability to interpret expressive architectures due to the use of GBMs.
Machine Learning, Data Science, and Explainable AI
Room 315