News: page 18
Meet Minwoo Bae!
June 21, 2017
Meet one of our graduate students and summer research interns,
Minwoo Bae!
This
Summer I am going to continue the work on developing algorithms to
solve computational problems in the field of Mathematical
Neuroscience under the supervision of Professor Amarasingham. His
laboratory is currently engaged in the development and application
of tools for inferring neuronal connectivity maps from
extracellular spike data obtained from electrophysiological brain
recordings in in vivo conditions. This is in
collaboration with G. Buzsaki’s experimental lab at NYU. There are
many mathematical challenges, ranging from the development of
biophysical models to the development of nonparametric spike train
analysis tools. Regarding the latter, some of the major obstacles
are computational. A theory is in place for performing connectivity
inference, drawing from previous tools developed in the laboratory,
but at current data scales the computational costs are prohibitive.
My summer research aims for developing algorithms to accelerate
these computations. There are two principal approaches I will
pursue. The first will involve accelerating the computation of
distributions of sums of random variables, in the style of
the fast Fourier transform (FFT), and related tools. The challenge
is accommodating nontrivial dependency structures (expressed as
graphs; so-called “graphical models”) among these random variables.
I will research approaches to handling these elaborations. A second
approach is to use asymptotic approximations. I will research the
literature to see what bounds are available, adapting them as
necessary, to justify and combine asymptotic approximations. I will
apply the ideas developed in these investigations to in
vivo neurophysiology data, in the context of the laboratory’s
other work.
Since 2011, I had been working as a software developer in
Manhattan. Since I designed and developed several web applications
for a HIV research team, I naturally gained interest in how a
disease is transmitted though a network. In 2014, I had the honor
of being selected as Young Talent in the Field of Software by the
South Korean government, which provided me with a fund for advanced
study of mathematics and computer science. I used the fund for some
graduate-level coursework in computer science to study random
processes on a network. During this part-time student experience, I
realized that without the advanced mathematical foundation, it
would be very difficult to proceed much further in this kind of
studies. This led to my decision to fully return to school to
pursue studying Mathematics since 2015. Now in 2017, I am very
excited by the fact that it is possible to tackle many technical
challenges ranging from biology to artificial intelligence by using
Mathematical concepts and techniques. This why I am passionate
about Mathematics.
Haris Nadeem placed 8th in CUNY Math Challenge!
June 16, 2017
Haris Nadeem placed 8th in this year's CUNY Math Challenge. He will be receiving an award from CUNY central for placing in the top ten. He is a dual pure math and computer science major.
Meet Pavel Javornik!
June 14, 2017
Meet one of our undergraduates and summer research interns,
Pavel Javornik!
This summer I will be
continuing my work under the mentorship of Dr. Patrick Hooper. Our
current project is to describe the dynamical properties of geodesic
flows on non-compact surfaces composed entirely of boundary unions
of various polyhedrons. Certain characteristics of these infinite
surfaces, such as the symmetries of the canonical forms of their
quotient spaces, determine the behavior of geodesic flows given
properties of said flow (such as their initial trajectories). The
goal this summer is to adapt various methods used in studying
infinite surfaces constructed from compact translation surfaces to
better understand surfaces that might admit transformations of
geodesic flows in the form of rotations. Much of the study of Veech
surfaces is applicable to certain rational billiards problems on
infinite surfaces like the Ehrenfest-Wind Tree Model, but these
transformations often admit reflections off of boundaries in the
form of perfectly elastic collisions. The translation surfaces and
(consequently) Veech groups of these infinite surfaces have
symmetrical properties unlike those of surfaces constructed of
polyhedrons. Understanding how these boundaries might affect
geodesic flow on flattened structures is key to understanding their
dynamical properties.
What drives my work is my love for mathematics. Studying the
underlying structures of objects such as manifolds fascinates me.
With low-dimensional topology there is a geometric intuition when
trying to characterize these kinds of surfaces. Describing the
homology classes of non-compact, infinite (possibly infinite genus)
surfaces in the form of their compact covering/translation spaces
is a somewhat novel undertaking. There's an extraordinary number of
possibilities in this realm of mathematics and they all begin with
asking simple questions that begin to unravel the mysteries of the
objects we study.
Two undergraduate students excel on the Putnam exam
May 15, 2017
The Putnam examination is a nationwide mathematics examination requiring exceptional ability and creativity to achieve a non-zero score. Two CCNY seniors, Allen Kim and Gautam Ramasubramanian, did exceptionally well, placing 408th and 813th nationwide. Congratulations to both, who will graduate in Spring 2017!
11 CCNY Mathematics students to begin doctoral programs with support
May 15, 2017
Eleven students finishing their MS degrees in Spring 2017 will begin doctoral programs in Fall 2017 with institutional financial support at a number of excellent institutions, including the University of Minnesota, the University of Waterloo, the University of Illinois, Arizona State University, Syracuse University, the CUNY Graduate Center, the University of Pennsylvania, and Stevens Institute of Technology.
The mathematics department congratulates all graduates!