Nikola Zubić · PhD student in Machine Learning

Email
zubic@ifi.uzh.ch
nzubic@ethz.ch
Current Location

Zürich, Switzerland 🇨🇭
Born In

Banja Luka, Republic of Srpska 🇷🇸, Bosnia and Herzegovina

About me

I am a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the Robotics and Perception Group (RPG), supervised by Professor Davide Scaramuzza, and an Associated Researcher at the ETH AI Center. My primary research interests are in sequence modeling and machine learning fundamentals. This theoretical work directly informs the development of efficient neural network architectures, with practical applications such as neuromorphic (event-based) vision systems. I am also interested in dynamical systems, theoretical computer science, and applied mathematics, particularly where these fields intersect with computational and mathematical challenges. If you would like to discuss my work or explore potential collaborations, please feel free to contact me or check my recent papers in the Publications tab.

Before joining RPG, I obtained my Master's degree in Computer Science from the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad, Serbia. During my master's studies, I completed an internship at the University of Cambridge, supervised by Professor Pietro Liò.

Resume

Experience

Associated Researcher – ETH AI Center
Apr 2023 – Present
Research Intern – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jun 2022 – Jul 2022
Worked on deep reinforcement learning and computer vision, developing policy-guided planning algorithms for real-world robotics applications.
Machine Learning Researcher – Wonder Dynamics
Nov 2021 – May 2022
Developed AI-based computer vision and graphics technology. Advisory board included Steven Spielberg, Robert Schwab, Antonio Torralba, Gregory Trattner, and Angjoo Kanazawa.
Research Intern – University of Cambridge
Oct 2020 – Jun 2021
Conducted research at the Computer Laboratory under Professor Pietro Liò, resulting in a published paper presented at the AIAI 2021 conference and included in Springer's "Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovations."
Software Engineer – Esoter Studio
Aug 2019 – Sep 2019
Integrated machine learning techniques into game development projects.
Student Assistant – RT-RK Institute
Feb 2019 – Jun 2019
Assisted in teaching "Parallel Programming" and "System Programming 1."

Education

University of Zurich & ETH Zurich
Sep 2022 – Present
Ph.D. in Computer Science
Specialization: Machine Learning
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad
Oct 2020 – Jul 2021
Master's in Computer Science
Specialization: Artificial Intelligence & Intelligent Systems
Thesis: "An Effective Loss Function for Generating 3D Models from a Single 2D Image without Rendering" (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Dragan Ivetić)
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad
Sep 2016 – Sep 2020
Bachelor's with Honours in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Specialization: Software Engineering and Information Technologies
Thesis: "Usage of Neural Style Transfer with Color Preservation Optimization for Generating Art Pieces" (Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Jelena Slivka)