- Professor, HDSI @ UCSD
- Director, NSF National AI Institute TILOS
Research interests
Main research areas:
- Geometric algorithms and topological data analysis, graph analysis and learning, geometric deep learning
Key application areas:
- Chip design, neuroscience, material science and molecular biology
High level description: I work in geometric and topological data analysis. I am particularly interested in:
- Developing effective and theoretically justified algorithms to analyze complex data using geometric and topological ideas and methods, and
- Integrating algorithmic, geometric, and topological methods with modern machine learning frameworks, especially in graph learning and in geometric deep learning.
- An important theme of my work is to apply theoretical insights obtained to develop effective machine learning methods for practical domains, including chip design, material science, neuroscience, and computational biology.
Textbook: - Computational Topology for Data Analysis. T. K. Dey and Y. Wang. Cambridge University Press, 452 pages, May 2022. [A free PDF version can be downloaded here.]
Recent Major Grants
- NSF AF:Small, 2023, UCSD PI.
- NSF HDR TRIPODS Institute EnCORE, 2022, co-PI.
- NSF AI Institute TILOS, 2021, PI.
- Qualcomm Gift Fund, 2022.
- NIH 1RF1MH125317-01, 2020, MPI at UCSD.
- NSF HDR-I-DIRSE grant I-AIM, 2019, site PI.
Honors and Awards
- ACM Distinguished Member (2021)
- Best Paper Award, ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS, 2015
- Best Student Paper Award, Conf. Learning Theory (COLT), 2015
- Lumley Research Award, College of Engineering, OSU, 2011
- A Best Paper Award, EuroVis 2010
- U. S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award, 2008
- Top Reviewer for journal Computational Geometry: Theory and Applciations , 2008
- U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career Principal Investigator (ECPI) Award, 2006
- Best PhD Dissertation Award, CS Dept, Duke, 2004
- Department Service Award, Duke University (2002-2003)
Recent and Selected Invited Talks
- AI Seminar, Georgia Tech, 2024.
- SIAM International Meshing Round Table (IMR), Plenary speaker, 2024.
- Math Seminar, Cal Tech, 2024.
- IPAM Workshop on Mathematical Approaches for Connectome Analysis, 2024.
- GEOTOP-A International Conference on Applications of Geometry and Topology, Keynote speaker, 2024.
- ICML Workshop on TAG-ML (Topology, Algebra and Geometry -- Machine Learning), Keynote speaker, 2023.
- MSRI-UCSD Summer School on ML: Organizer and lectures, 2023
- Workshop on Discrete and Compuational Geometry, Shape Analysis and applications at Rutgers, 2023
- Dagstuhl Workshop on Topological Data Analysis and Applications, 2023
- IMSI Workshop on Randomness in Topology, 2023
- AMS Southeastern Sectional Meeting, Plenary speaker, 2023
- ML-EDA research group at Samsung, 2023
- Oxford University Mathematical Brain Modeling Seminar, 2023
- Mini-course on Some Theoretical Aspects of Graph Neural Networks (and Higher Order Variants) at Institute Henri Poincare (IHP), 2022.
- IHP (Institute Henri Poincare) Workshop on Geometry, Topology and Statistics in Data Sciences, 2022.
- Joint Joint AATRN/STMS Seminar Series, 2022
- Summer Geometry Initiative (SGI) at MIT, 2022.
- Union College Mathematics Conferences, Plenary speaker, 2022.
- AWM Research Symposium Special Session on Women in Computational Topology, 2022.
- Women in Data Science (WiDS) Ames Regional Event, 2022.
- MADDD (Mathematics of Data and Decisions at Davis) Seminar, UC Davis, 2022.
- IMSI Workshop on The Mathematics of Soft Matter, 2022.
- OT-SDM (Optimal Transport and Structured Data Modeling) Workshop, 2022.
- Centre for Topological Data Analysis Seminar, Oxford University, 2021.
- Center for Computer Graphics and Geometric Computing Seminar, Technion University, 2021.
- Asia-Pacific Applied Topology and Geometry Seminar, 2021.
- Topological Insights in Neuroscience Workshop at MSRI (Mathematical Sciences Research Institute), 2021.
- Topological Data Analysis Workshop at ISMI (Institute for Statistical and Mathematical Innovation), 2021.
- Bioengineering Seminar, George Mason University, 2021.
- Thematic Mini-Conference on Computational Topology and Machine Learning, 2021.
- Vietories-Rips Seminar, AATRN, 2021.
- Waseda Cherry Blossom Workshop on Topological Data Science, 2021.
- Computational Persistence workshop, Purdue University, 2021.
- Topological Data Analysis and Beyond workshop at NeurIPS, 2020.
- CMSE Colloquium, Michigan State University, 2020.
- Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry (CCCG), 2020. Plenary speaker, delivered the Godfried Toussaint Memorial Lecture.
- Computational aspects of learning and processing metrical data Workshop at CG-Week, 2020.
- Statistical Topological Data Analysis Workshop, KAUST, 2020.
- 34th Summer Conf. Topology and its Applications, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2019. Semi-plenary speaker.
- Workshop on Algebraic Methods in Discrete and Computational Geometry , dedicated to Richard Pollack, in Memoriam. CG-Week, Portland, Oregon, 2019.
- 8th Mini-sym. Comput. Topology, CG-Week, Portland, Oregon, 2019.
- IPAM Workshop on Geometry of Big Data, 2019.
- TRIPODS Center Seminar, U. Arizona, 2019.
- AMS special session on Topological Data Analysis, Joint Math Meetings, 2019.
- 6th Mini-Symposium on Computational Topology, CG-Week, Australia, 2017. Keynote speaker.
- International Workshop on Topological Data Analysis in Biomedicine (TDA-Bio), part of ACM BCB, 2016. Keynote speaker.
- 48th Spring Topology and Dynamics Conference, Richmond, VA, 2014. Plenary speaker.
- Workshop SIGMA at CIRM, Marseille, France, 2012. Plenary speaker.