Marco Pichler

PhD candidate at the Institute for Machine Learning, JKU Linz, and PhD Research Scientist Intern at NXAI. I like time series, and the question of what comes next.

NeurIPS 2026 Oral · TiRex-2 · one of 112 orals out of 30k+ submissions (top 0.4%)
Portrait of Marco Pichler
observed forecast median 80% interval

I'm a PhD candidate in Artificial Intelligence at Johannes Kepler University Linz, advised by Sepp Hochreiter. Since July 2026, I've also been a PhD Research Scientist Intern at NXAI. I work on time series foundation models: pretrained models that forecast series they have never seen before, zero-shot. My research focuses on model architectures and training data for forecasting across domains.

Most recently, I was joint first author of TiRex-2, which was selected for an oral presentation at NeurIPS 2026, one of 112 orals among more than 30,000 submissions. TiRex-2 extends TiRex to multivariate forecasting with past and future covariates and streams at constant cost per patch. It combines an architecture that reads future-known covariates in both directions while keeping the target strictly causal with a synthetic data pipeline that composes multivariate training data on the fly from univariate series.

My path here wasn't a straight line. I started as an apprentice electronics technician and earned my university entrance qualification (Matura) alongside the apprenticeship. I then completed a BSc in Technical Physics in five instead of six semesters, with a bachelor's thesis on entangled photons from GaAs quantum dots, and then earned an MSc in Artificial Intelligence at JKU. My master's thesis with Günter Klambauer studied parameter- and memory-efficient fine-tuning.

  • Time series foundation models
  • Synthetic data generation
  • Multivariate forecasting & covariates
  • Recurrent architectures
  • Streaming inference

news

  1. New blog post on TiRex-2's synthetic coupling pipeline: how we turn univariate series into multivariate training data.

  2. TiRex-2 was accepted as an oral at NeurIPS 2026, one of 112 orals among 30,709 submissions (top 0.4%)!

  3. New blog post: an interactive tour of the TiRex-2 architecture.

  4. Our preprint TiRex-2: Generalizing TiRex to Multivariate Data and Streaming is now on arXiv.

  5. I started a 7-month internship as PhD Research Scientist Intern at NXAI.

  6. I started my PhD at the Institute for Machine Learning at JKU Linz with Sepp Hochreiter.

  7. I completed my MSc in Artificial Intelligence at JKU Linz.

publications

TiRex-238M / 82MTiRex35MChronos-2120M
Multivariateyesnoyes
Constant memoryyesyesno
Past covariatesyesnoyes
Future covariatesyesnoyes
Streamingyesnono
TiRex-238M / 82M parameters
  • Multivariateyes
  • Constant memoryyes
  • Past covariatesyes
  • Future covariatesyes
  • Streamingyes
TiRex35M parameters
  • Multivariateno
  • Constant memoryyes
  • Past covariatesno
  • Future covariatesno
  • Streamingno
Chronos-2120M parameters
  • Multivariateyes
  • Constant memoryno
  • Past covariatesyes
  • Future covariatesyes
  • Streamingno
NeurIPS 2026Oral · top 0.4%

TiRex-2: Generalizing TiRex to Multivariate Data and Streaming

Patrick Podest*, Marco Pichler*, Elias Bürger, Levente Zólyomi, Bernhard Voggenberger, Wilhelm Berghammer, Daniel Klotz, Sebastian Böck, Günter Klambauer, Sepp Hochreiter

A recurrent, xLSTM-based time series foundation model for multivariate forecasting with past and future covariates. It keeps target variables strictly causal and streams at constant cost per patch.

arXiv PDF
  • Time Series
  • Foundation Models
  • Streaming

* equal contribution. Full list on Google Scholar.

experience

  1. Jul 2026 – present

    PhD Research Scientist Intern

    NXAI GmbH · Linz, Austria

    Seven-month internship.

    • Research
    • Industry
  2. Oct 2025 – present

    Research Associate

    Institute for Machine Learning, Johannes Kepler University · Linz, Austria

    On leave since Jul 2026 for the NXAI internship. Joint first author of TiRex-2, as part of my PhD with Sepp Hochreiter. TiRex-2 is a recurrent xLSTM-based time series foundation model that reads future-known covariates in both directions while keeping the target strictly causal, trained on multivariate data composed on the fly by a synthetic coupling pipeline.

    • Research
    • Time Series
    • Foundation Models
  3. Oct 2024 – Jul 2025

    Master's Thesis

    Institute for Machine Learning, Johannes Kepler University · Linz, Austria

    Parameter-Efficient & Memory-Efficient Fine-Tuning of Convolutional Neural Networks for Image Classification, supervised by Günter Klambauer. A theoretical and empirical analysis of the accuracy and memory cost of LoRA, VeRA, GaLore and normalization-based fine-tuning.

    • Research
    • Fine-Tuning
  4. Sep 2024 – Aug 2025

    Curricula Examination Committee

    Student Union, Johannes Kepler University · Linz, Austria

    Student member reviewing curricula for legal compliance, academic feasibility and structural consistency.

    • Service
  5. Dec 2022 – Feb 2023

    Bachelor's Thesis

    Institute of Semiconductor and Solid State Physics, Johannes Kepler University · Linz, Austria

    Tuning of Purcell enhancement of GaAs quantum dots in circular Bragg gratings by wet chemical etching, supervised by Armando Rastelli. Optics lab measurements and analysis of entangled photons emitted from GaAs quantum dots.

    • Physics
    • Experimental
  6. Aug 2021

    Intern, Infrastructure & Service

    LIWEST Kabelmedien GmbH · Linz, Austria

    Fault analysis and network integration for HFC, FTTH and 5G FWA customer connections.

    • Industry
  7. Jul 2020 – Sep 2020

    Electronics Technician, Handover Automation

    KEBA Group AG · Linz, Austria

    Assembly, soldering and cabling of automation components for logistics systems.

    • Industry
  8. Oct 2019 – Jun 2020

    Civil Service

    Kindergarten & senior citizens' home · Upper Austria

  9. Sep 2015 – Sep 2019

    Apprenticeship as Electronics Technician

    KEBA Group AG · Linz, Austria

    Applied electronics and network engineering. Final apprenticeship examination passed with honors.

    • Industry
    • Electronics

education

  1. Oct 2025 – present

    PhD in Artificial Intelligence

    Johannes Kepler University · Linz, Austria

    Advisor: Sepp Hochreiter

  2. Mar 2023 – Aug 2025

    MSc Artificial Intelligence

    Johannes Kepler University · Linz, Austria

  3. Mar 2023 – present

    MSc Legal and Business Aspects in Technics

    Johannes Kepler University · Linz, Austria

  4. Oct 2020 – Mar 2023

    BSc Technical Physics

    Johannes Kepler University · Linz, Austria

  5. Feb 2017 – Sep 2019

    Apprenticeship with university entrance qualification (Matura)

    HTL Leonding, BFI OÖ, Volkshochschule Linz

contact

Always happy to talk about time series, recurrent models, or possible collaborations. The easiest way to reach me is by email.

mail@marcopichler.com