Benjamin Hoffman

PhD Researcher, ETH Zurich

bhoffman [AT] ethz.ch

Hi! I am a PhD researcher in the Networked Systems Group (NSG) at ETH Zurich and associated PhD researcher at the ETH AI Center, working on Machine Learning (ML), Control, and Language Models in systems and networking under the supervision of Prof. Laurent Vanbever. I'm primarily interested in using data and ML to figure out how complex systems work and how we can model, interpret, and control them in a safe, robust, and efficient manner. My current research revolves around enabling ML models to generalize efficiently across different contexts, environments and prediction tasks.

Prior to starting my PhD, I obtained a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and a MSc in Robotics, Systems and Control from ETH Zurich. During my master's, I did an academic exchange at Lund University in Sweden. For my master's thesis, I worked on Reinforcement Learning (RL) with the Computational Robotics Lab (CRL) (Prof. Stelian Coros), as well as the Learning & Adaptive Systems Group (LAS) (Prof. Andreas Krause) at the ETH AI Center.

I have also done internships in management consulting at Bain & Company, in data science and ML at eraneos, and in robotics, software engineering and ML at Güdel. Outside of my research, I am involved in local politics and am very interested in diplomacy, international development, policy and economics.

Research

Find my most recent publications on Google Scholar.

Into the Wild: Real-World Testing for ML-Based ABR

Benjamin Hoffman, Alexander Dietmüller, Ayush Mishra, Laurent Vanbever

Under Review

Towards Network Model Generalization using Strategic Data Collection

Benjamin Hoffman, Alexander Dietmüller, Laurent Vanbever

ACM SIGCOMM'25 (Poster)

Learning More With Less: Sample Efficient Model-Based RL for Loco-Manipulation

Benjamin Hoffman, Jin Cheng, Chenhao Li, Stelian Coros

Under Review

Into the Wild: Real-World Testing for ML-Based ABR

Benjamin Hoffman, Alexander Dietmüller, Ayush Mishra, Laurent Vanbever

Under Review

Towards Network Model Generalization using Strategic Data Collection

Benjamin Hoffman, Alexander Dietmüller, Laurent Vanbever

ACM SIGCOMM'25 (Poster)

Learning More With Less: Sample Efficient Model-Based RL for Loco-Manipulation

Benjamin Hoffman, Jin Cheng, Chenhao Li, Stelian Coros

Under Review

Student Projects

I have had the pleasure to supervise and collaborate with students at ETH Zurich for thesis and semester projects. Should you be interested in working with me, don't hesitate to reach out! Some past projects include:

CV

Find my full resume here.

I used Martin Saveski's template to make this website, you can find it here.