Dawn Finzi

Dawn Finzi

Machine Learning Engineer

Zoox

Biography

I am currently a Machine Learning engineer on the Perception team at Zoox, working on computer vision and sensor fusion for autonomous driving. Prior to this, I was a PhD student at Stanford University studying computational neuroscience. I studied the functional organization of the human visual system, focusing on both the structural underpinnings and the overarching computational goals. Over the last few years, I have been working on using deep neural network models to understand why the visual system is organized the way it is and what we need to build into our models in order to provide a better match to the brain.

Interests
  • Computational Neuroscience
  • Vision & Perception
  • Machine Learning
Education
  • PhD in Psychology, Neuroscience area, 2023

    Stanford University

  • PhD minor in Computer Science, 2023

    Stanford University

  • MSc in Psychological Research, 2015

    Oxford University

  • BA in Psychological & Brain Sciences, 2014

    Dartmouth College

Publications

(2023). A single computational objective drives specialization of streams in visual cortex. On bioRxiv.

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(2023). A Unifying Principle for the Functional Organization of Visual Cortex. On bioRxiv.

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(2022). Topographic DCNNs trained on a single self-supervised task capture the functional organization of cortex into visual processing streams. In SVRHM 2022 Workshop @ NeurIPS.

Cite Source Document

(2022). Do deep convolutional neural networks accurately model representations beyond the ventral stream?. In 2022 Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience.

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(2022). White matter connections of high-level visual areas predict cytoarchitecture better than category-selectivity. In Cerebral Cortex.

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(2021). Holistic face recognition is an emergent phenomenon of spatial processing in face-selective regions. In Nature Communications.

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(2021). Cortical recycling in high-level visual cortex during childhood development. In Nature Human Behavior.

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(2021). Differential spatial computations in ventral and lateral face-selective regions are scaffolded by structural connections. In Nature Communications.

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(2017). Distinct motivational effects of contingent and noncontingent rewards. In Psychological Science.

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(2016). The role of holistic face processing in acquired prosopagnosia: evidence from the composite face effect. In Visual Cognition.

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Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Machine Learning Engineer
Zoox
Nov 2023 – Present
 
 
 
 
 
AI Resident
May 2021 – Sep 2021
 
 
 
 
 
PhD Student
Stanford University
Sep 2017 – Nov 2023
 
 
 
 
 
Staff Research Associate
UCSD, Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory
Sep 2015 – Aug 2017

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