Belén Martín-Urcelay

Ph.D. student in Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech.

burcelay3 [AT] gatech.edu

Bio

I am a Ph.D. candidate at Georgia Tech, advised by Matthieu Bloch and Christopher Rozell. My research focuses on efficiently teaching machine learning algorithms. Namely, we leverage knowledgeable teachers — whether human experts or powerful machine learning networks — to enhance learning algorithm performance. I am set to complete my Ph.D. in May 2026, with the goal of continuing my journey in academia.

I began my academic career at Universidad de Navarra, where I obtained both my B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Telecommunications Engineering. I later moved to Georgia Tech for my Ph.D. and since I have had the opportunity to collaborate internationally, including a research visit to ETH Zurich with Andreas Krause. My research interests include active learning, human feedback and reinforcement learning. Outside of research, I am passionate about teaching, mentoring students, and promoting women in STEM fields.

Research

Most recent publications on Google Scholar.
‡ indicates equal contribution.

Online Machine Teaching under Learner's Uncertainty: Gradient Descent Learners of a Quadratic Loss

Belen Martin-Urcelay, Christopher J. Rozell, Mattieu R. Bloch

Under Review at SIAM Journal

Paper Code

Enhancing Human-in-the-Loop Learning for Binary Sentiment Word Classification

Belen Martin-Urcelay, Christopher J. Rozell, Mattieu R. Bloch

CDC '24: Conference on Decision and Control. Dec. 2024.

Paper Slides Code

Reinforcement Learning from Human Text Feedback: Learning a Reward Model from Human Text Input.

Belen Martin-Urcelay, Andreas Krause, Giorgia Ramponi

ICML '24 Workshop on Models of Human Feedback for AI Alignment

Paper Poster

Online Machine Teaching under Learner's Uncertainty: Gradient Descent Learners of a Quadratic Loss

Belen Martin-Urcelay, Christopher J. Rozell, Mattieu R. Bloch

Under Review at SIAM Journal

Paper Code

MANGO: Disentangled Image Transformation Manifolds with Grouped Operators

Brighton Ancelin‡, Yenho Chen‡, Alex Saad-Falcon‡, Peimeng Guan‡, Chiraag Kaushik‡, Nakul Singh‡, Belen Martin-Urcelay‡

Under Review at SampTA 2025

Paper

Enhancing Human-in-the-Loop Learning for Binary Sentiment Word Classification

Belen Martin-Urcelay, Christopher J. Rozell, Mattieu R. Bloch

CDC '24: Conference on Decision and Control. Dec. 2024.

Paper Slides Code

Reinforcement Learning from Human Text Feedback: Learning a Reward Model from Human Text Input.

Belen Martin-Urcelay, Andreas Krause, Giorgia Ramponi

ICML '24 Workshop on Models of Human Feedback for AI Alignment

Paper Poster

Temperature-Dependent I/Q Imbalance Compensation in Ultra-Wideband Millimeter-Wave Multi-Gigabit Transmitters

Ainhoa Rezola, Juan F. Sevillan, David del Río, Belen Martin-Urcelay, Iñaki Gurutzeaga, Igone Vélez, Roc Berenguer

IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 2020

Paper

Teaching Experience

Introduction to Probability and Statistics for ECE (ECE 3077)
  • Introduction to probability, random variables, distributions, estimation, confidence intervals, linear regression and other tools for describing and managing uncertainty in electrical and computer engineering.
  • Lecture and develop course materials for 60 third year undergraduate engineering students.

Instructor of Record | Georgia Tech. | January 2025 - May 2025

Leadership

Mentoring
I have been fortunate to supervise and collaborate with students at Georgia Tech on semester-long projects
  • Yoonsan Lee – Focused on active learning techniques.
  • Zhihao Qin – Focused on experiment design.
  • Vien Tran – Focused on experimental infrastructure and data collection.
  • John Burchfield – Focused on data analysis.
Graduate Chair, Women in Electrical and Computer Engineering (WECE)
Since founding the Graduate Chair role in 2021, I have been leading initiatives to encourage a strong community among female graduate students in ECE at Georgia Tech. Our primary focus is on mentoring and networking, fostering professional and personal growth.

Vitæ

Full Resume in PDF.

  • Georgia Tech. 2022 - 2026
    Ph.D. Student
    Advisors: Christopher Rozell and Matthieu Bloch
  • ETH Zurich Fall 2023
    Guest Graduate Researcher
    Advisor: Andreas Krause
  • Georgia Tech. 2020 - 2022
    M.Sc. Student
    Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • University of Sheffield Spring 2020
    Master Thesis
    Advisor: Iñaki Esnaola
  • Universidad de Navarra 2019 - 2020
    M.Sc. Student
    Telecommunications Engineering
  • Developair Jul 2019 - Jan 2020
    Software Developer
    Worked on automatic simulation parameter adjustment tools
  • Fraunhofer IIS Sep-Dec 2018
    Research Assistant
    Audio Department
  • Ceit-IK4 Jan-Jul 2018
    Bachelor Thesis
    Telecommunication Department
I made this webpage using Martin Saveski's template, available here.
Belén Martín-Urcelay
burcelay3 [AT] gatech.edu