Alibek Zhakubayev
Research Scientist at Meta ยท PhD in Computer Science
Research Scientist at Meta ยท PhD in Computer Science
I am a Research Scientist on the FAISS Core Team at Meta, where I work on FAISS, one of the most widely used open-source libraries for vector similarity search.
I earned my PhD in Computer Science from Baylor University in 2025, advised by Dr. Greg Hamerly. My dissertation focused on accelerating the k-means clustering algorithm through probabilistic filtering, geometric heuristics, and dimensionality reduction. I was also part of Dr. Benton's bioinformatics lab, applying machine learning to study the effects of alcohol on skeletal health.
I hold my undergraduate and master's degrees from Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan, where my master's thesis with Dr. Adnan Yazici focused on real-time activity recognition.
Outside of work, I love playing chess (1900+ rated in blitz and rapid on Lichess) and am a big football and basketball fan, supporting Liverpool FC, the New York Knicks, and Baylor Bears. I'm also a dedicated Fantasy Premier League manager with 4 top 50k finishes.
Baylor University · Waco, TX
Nazarbayev University · Astana, Kazakhstan
Nazarbayev University · Astana, Kazakhstan
Meta · Menlo Park, CA
Maintainer of FAISS, one of the most widely used open-source libraries for vector similarity search. Implementing and optimizing search algorithms and maintaining core library functionality.
Baylor University · Waco, TX
Taught Database Design and Applications for Data Science, and designed and taught Data Visualization, emphasizing data storytelling using Python.
Baylor University · Waco, TX
Doctoral research on accelerating k-means clustering (advised by Dr. Greg Hamerly) and bioinformatics research applying machine learning to study effects of alcohol on bone health.
Nazarbayev University · Astana, Kazakhstan
Master's thesis on real-time activity recognition using deep learning and transfer learning, classifying 14 daily activities from 80,000+ multimedia records with 88.6% accuracy.
Study on ethanol consumption effects on cancellous bone architecture in non-human primates published in Bone.
Started as a Research Scientist on the FAISS Core Team, working on vector similarity search.
Defended my doctoral dissertation "Accelerating k-means: Novel Strategies for Algorithm Improvement" at Baylor University.
Presented "Beta k-means" and "Using Annealing to Accelerate Triangle Inequality k-means" at the IEEE International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics.
Study on ethanol consumption effects on bone turnover markers in non-human primates published in Scientific Reports.
10 scholarly works · 82 citations · h-index: 4 · Google Scholar
Doctoral Dissertation, Baylor University, 2025
Bone, 2025
The 11th IEEE International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics (DSAA), 2024
The 11th IEEE International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics (DSAA), 2024
Scientific Reports, 2024
IEEE Access, 2023
The 7th International Conference on Information System and Data Mining (ICISDM), 2023
The 6th International Conference on Information System and Data Mining (ICISDM), 2022
International Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI), 2021
The 13th International Conference on Application of Information and Communication Technologies (AICT), 2019