About Me

I am Valentio Iverson, an incoming graduate student in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where I plan to work on theoretical foundations of machine learning. I am currently completing my undergraduate studies at the University of Waterloo in Computer Science, Pure Mathematics, and Combinatorics & Optimization, with a minor in Computational Mathematics.

My main research interests are in machine learning theory, especially learning dynamics in games and deep learning theory.

I am also active in the mathematical problem-solving community. I wrote Problem 2 at IMO 2024, the first IMO problem from Indonesia, and received an Honorable Mention in the 2024 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition.

For contest handouts, problem proposals, coursework notes, and related materials, see my Math page. For expository writing on mathematics and machine learning, visit my Blog Posts page.

Research Interests

My research is in machine learning theory. I am currently most interested in learning in adaptive environments and deep learning theory. Within these areas, I am drawn to questions with an extremal or optimization flavor, especially those involving learning dynamics, model expressivity, optimality guarantees, and the capabilities or limitations of modern machine learning systems.

I am also interested in sampling, statistical estimation, and classical learning theory, areas in which I have worked on previously.

You can learn more on my Research & Publications page.

Selected Publications & Manuscripts

• Optimal Differentially Private Sampling of Unbounded Gaussians
  Valentio Iverson, Gautam Kamath, Argyris Mouzakis.
  Conference on Learning Theory (COLT) 2025 and Theory and Practice of Differential Privacy (TPDP) 2025.

• Mean and Variance Estimation Complexity in Arbitrary Distributions via Wasserstein Minimization
  Valentio Iverson, Stephen Vavasis.
  Submitted for review.

News

• February 2026: Ranked among the Top 200 scorers in the 2025 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition and was a member of the University of Waterloo’s official Putnam team (top three Putnam scorers).
• January 2026: Received an Honorable Mention in the 2026 CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards.
• October 2025: Paper A Pathological Property of Nonlocal Discrete Operators accepted to Proceedings of the AMS.
• May 2025: Awarded the 2025 Germain-Erdős Undergraduate Award in Mathematics Research for outstanding mathematics research at the University of Waterloo.
• May 2025: Paper Optimal Differentially Private Sampling of Unbounded Gaussians accepted to COLT 2025 and TPDP 2025.
• March 2025: Featured in Waterloo News for University of Waterloo’s 6th-place ranking in the 2024 Putnam Competition as a team member.
• February 2025: Earned Honorable Mention in the 2024 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition.

Selected Honors & Awards

• Alan V. Oppenheim Fellowship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2026.
• CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award (Honorable Mention), Computing Research Association, 2026.
• Germain-Erdős Undergraduate Research Award, University of Waterloo, 2025.
• Nathan Mendelsohn Prize, University of Manitoba, 2025.
• Honorable Mention and member of the University of Waterloo Putnam Team, William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, 2024.
• Problem Author (Problem 2), International Mathematical Olympiad, 2024.
• Bronze Medal, Asia Pacific Mathematics Olympiad, 2020.
• Absolute Winner, Indonesia National Mathematical Olympiad, 2019.

Contact

Feel free to reach out for collaborations or inquiries: 📧 viverson@uwaterloo.ca