Matthew Quenneville: from Canada to CERN

I am Matthew Quenneville and I am an undergraduate studying Mathematical Physics at Simon Fraser University, near Vancouver, Canada.

I heard about the programme, through a student who worked here last summer, and I decided to apply! My time at CERN has been an experience that I will never forget. I applied for this programme because it is an opportunity to work with physicists and students from all around the world.

My project focused on using Machine Learning techniques (Boosted Regression Trees), to improve the current Higgs to tau tau mass reconstruction in ATLAS. Since the neutrinos from the tau decays are not detected, the Higgs mass is very difficult to determine, the current algorithm is very slow. Machine learning based techniques could speed this up significantly, while mainaining the same, or better performance.

Looking back in the past few months I could say that my experience at CERN has been amazing. I've learned a lot, met some great people, and had an awesome time!