Publications

Nowadays, I write primarily to learn. There's something about the act of explaining a concept that exposes gaps in my own understanding: the vague intuitions that felt solid in my head often fall apart when I try to put them into words.

This process regularly humbles me. I'll think I understand something, start writing about it, and realize I need to go back to the basics. Some topics have taken me years and multiple attempts before they finally clicked.

My hope is to create the kind of resources I wished I had when I was learning: clear explanations with context, working code examples, helpful visualizations, and most importantly, the steps and reasoning behind decisions, not just the final results.

Research Background

Research Areas

Machine Learning (ML)
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Distributed Systems & Databases

Academic Affiliations

IBM Research
UC Berkeley EECS
Collaborations with researchers from MIT, Stanford, and CMU

Current Interests

While not actively performing academic research, I'm interested in the intersection of AI/ML with finance, private equity, software engineering, and the overall impact on the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Books

Machine Learning from Scratch Cover
Released

Machine Learning from Scratch: A Complete Guide to Machine Learning, Optimization and AI: Mathematical Foundations and Practical Implementations

Michael Brenndoerfer

Released 2025

A comprehensive guide covering the mathematical foundations and practical implementations of machine learning, optimization, and artificial intelligence. From fundamental concepts to advanced techniques, this handbook provides both theoretical depth and real-world applications.

Read online
55 Chapters
Language AI Handbook Cover
In Progress

Language AI Handbook: A Complete Guide to Natural Language Processing and Large Language Models: From Classical NLP and Transformer Architecture to Pre-training, Fine-tuning, and Production Deployment

Michael Brenndoerfer

In Progress 2025

A comprehensive guide from the fundamentals of natural language processing to cutting-edge large language models and the latest research breakthroughs. Learn about NLP, transformers, GPT, BERT, and modern language AI.

Read online
168 Chapters
AI Agent Handbook Cover
Released

AI Agent Handbook: A Complete Guide to Building Autonomous AI Systems: From Language Models and Memory Architecture to Tool Integration, Multi-Agent Coordination, and Production Deployment

Michael Brenndoerfer

Released 2025

A comprehensive guide to building and deploying intelligent autonomous agents that can reason, act, and learn. Covers the full stack from foundational models to advanced reasoning techniques, memory systems, tool integration, evaluation methods, and operational best practices.

Read online
44 Chapters
History of Language AI Book Cover
Released

History of Language AI: How We Taught Machines to Read, Write, and Reason Through a Hundred Years of Discovery

Michael Brenndoerfer

Released November 2025

A journey through the history of language AI, from the early days of information theory to modern large language models. Discover the key breakthroughs, influential figures, and technological advances that shaped how machines understand and generate human language.

Read online
109 Chapters
Structured Outputs: Reliable Schema-Validated Data Extraction from Language Models

A comprehensive guide covering structured outputs introduced in language models during 2024. Learn how structured outputs enable reliable data extraction, eliminate brittle text parsing, and make language models production-ready. Understand schema specification, format constraints, validation guarantees, practical applications, limitations, and the transformative impact on AI application development.

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Multimodal Integration: Unified Architectures for Cross-Modal AI Understanding

A comprehensive guide to multimodal integration in 2024, the breakthrough that enabled AI systems to seamlessly process and understand text, images, audio, and video within unified model architectures. Learn how unified representations and cross-modal attention mechanisms transformed multimodal AI and enabled true multimodal fluency.

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PEFT Beyond LoRA: Advanced Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning Techniques

A comprehensive guide covering advanced parameter-efficient fine-tuning methods introduced in 2024, including AdaLoRA, DoRA, VeRA, and other innovations. Learn how these techniques addressed LoRA's limitations through adaptive rank allocation, magnitude-direction decomposition, parameter sharing, and their impact on research and industry deployments.

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Quantitative Finance Book Cover
In Progress

Quantitative Finance: Pricing, Portfolios, and Execution End to End: Academic Foundations, Design, Calibration, Backtesting and Deployment

Michael Brenndoerfer

In Progress 2025

A comprehensive guide to quantitative finance covering the complete workflow from academic foundations to practical deployment. Learn about pricing models, portfolio construction, execution strategies, model calibration, backtesting methodologies, and production deployment of quantitative trading systems.

Read online
14 Chapters

Conference Papers

Articles & Other Publications

Recent Blog Content

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What are AI Agents, Really?

A comprehensive guide to understanding AI agents, their building blocks, and how they differ from agentic workflows and agent swarms.

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Simulating stock market returns using Monte Carlo

Learn how to use Monte Carlo simulation to model and analyze stock market returns, estimate future performance, and understand the impact of randomness in financial forecasting. This tutorial covers the fundamentals, practical implementation, and interpretation of simulation results.

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Hobbes' Leviathan: The Monster That Keeps Us Safe

A guide to Hobbes' revolutionary theory of political authority, exploring why we need an absolute sovereign to escape the war of all against all, and what this dark vision reveals about human nature and modern governance.

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