Special Session on Computational Topology at the AMS-UMI Meeting in Palermo, July 2024

It is a pleasure to announce the special session “Computational Topology: Foundations, Algorithms, and Applications” (https://sites.google.com/view/ams-umi-computationaltopology/home-page), which will be held at the University of Palermo (Italy) from the 23rd to the 24th of July 2024 as a part of the “AMS-UMI International Joint Meeting” (https://umi.dm.unibo.it/jm-umi-ams/) taking place from the 23rd to the 26th of July 2024.

On that occasion, we want to valorize three distinct, but tightly intertwined directions within computational topology: the investigation of the mathematical foundations of the subject, the quest for creating higher-performance algorithms, and the paths for new applications that those tools have opened. On the other hand, we intend to bring together well-established researchers and early-career mathematicians, enhancing the exchange of ideas and promoting collaborations between different communities.

The confirmed speakers are:
Clemens Bannwart (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
Ulrich Bauer (Technical University of Munich)
Bruno Benedetti (University of Miami)
Håvard Bakke Bjerkevik (University at Albany)
Thomas Chaplin (University of Oxford)
Patrizio Frosini (University of Bologna)
Barbara Giunti (University at Albany)
Maria Antonietta Pascali (ISTI-CNR)
Matteo Pegoraro (Aalborg University)
Jose Perea (Northeastern University)
Érika Roldán Roa (Max Planck Institute)
Stefania Sardellitti (Sapienza University of Rome)
Nicholas Scoville (Ursinus College)
Francesca Tombari (Max Planck Institute)
Francesco Vaccarino (Polytechnic University of Turin)
Žiga Virk (University of Ljubljana)
Bei Wang (University of Utah)
Lori Ziegelmeier (Macalester College)

Participants are required to register for the main conference at this link: https://umi.dm.unibo.it/jm-umi-ams/registration/.

We hope to see you in Palermo!

The organisers:
Henry Adams (University of Florida)
Claudia Landi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
Nicolò Zava (Institute of Science and Technology Austria, ISTA)

Tenure Track, Computer Science, KTH (Stockholm, Sweden)

Martina Scolamiero writes:
The computer science department at KTH has opened an Assist. Prof  (tenure track position) in mathematical and computational foundations of data analysis. The position is funded by the WASP program (https://wasp-sweden.org/) which, among other things, offers a starting package and the opportunity of being part of a large network of researches within A.I in Sweden.  

https://kth.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:708418/

Contact me and the mentioned people in the announcement if you have questions.

Best wishes,
Martina

CompPer 2024, Graz, Austria, September 24-27 2024

Michael Kerber writes:
ComPer2024: Computational Persistence Workshop in Graz, Austria

The 4th workshop on Computational Persistence will take place from Sep 23 to Sep 27 in hybrid mode at Graz University of Technology, Austria. This workshop provides a forum to exchange ideas on computational aspects of topological persistence that fertilize advances in topological data analysis.

The schedule will be composed of invited and contributed talks on computational aspects of topological data analysis. Contributed talks can be suggested in the form of an abstract of at most two pages. A scientific committee will check the submissions and make a selection.

We encourage on-site participation, but equally welcome submissions of researchers that attend remotely. To facilitate remote participation from America in particular, the workshop sessions will take place in the afternoon.

Dates:
Deadline for abstracts of contributed talks: June 21, 2024
Notification of acceptance: July 15, 2024

Web-page: https://comper2024.tugraz.at

Submission server: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=comper2024

Scientific committee:
Ulrich Bauer (TU Munich)
Tamal Dey (Purdue)
Michael Kerber (Graz University of Technology)
Michael Lesnick (University of Albany)
Elizabeth Munch (Michigan State)

Confirmed invited speakers:
Magnus Botnan (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Heather Harrington (MPI of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden)
Kathryn Hess-Bellwald (EPFL Lausanne)
Tao Hou (DePaul University)
Clement Maria (INRIA Sophia Antipolis)
Marian Mrozek (Jagiellonian University Krakow)
Steve Oudot (INRIA Saclay)
Anastasios Stefanou (University of Bremen)
Yusu Wang (University of California, San Diego)

Local organizers:
Angel Alonso, Andre Hammer, Kristof Huszar, Jan Jendrysiak, Michael Kerber, Michael Muhr, Florian Russold, Matthias Soels, Esther Zuccato

CfP: WinCompTop 3

Claudia Landi writes:

Dear Colleagues,

This is the call for submissions for the Women in Computational Topology  Third Workshop (WinCompTop3) Proceedings, entitled “Research in Computational Topology 3,” which will be published as a volume in the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM)-Springer series. The AWM-Springer series is a relatively new initiative by AWM (http://www.springer.com/series/13764) and the volumes are refereed proceedings at the level of the AMS Contemporary Mathematics standards.
This particular volume in the series is a follow-up to the third WinCompTop workshop, which was held at the Bernoulli Center (EPFL) in July 2023. 

We solicit submissions in the general area of applied and computational topology, broadly interpreted. Submissions should be reports on original work or possibly longer survey papers. While priority will be given to submissions co-authored by participants in the workshop, we expect to have significant room for additional papers, and welcome contributions from any WinCompTop network member or ally, provided that at least one of the authors on the submission identifies as a woman or gender diverse.

Please let us know if you plan to submit an article as soon as possible; you can do so by contacting Erin Chambers (erin.chambers@gmail.com) and Claudia Landi (clandi@unimore.it) via email, including the tentative title and abstract, as well as authors on the work.

Submissions are due by July 12, 2024, and should be submitted via email (to both erin.chambers@gmail.com and clandi@unimore.it) as a pdf file.  Accepted papers will need to be reformatted at a later stage using the Springer template.

Please let us know if you have any questions, and we look forward to seeing your contributions!

Best,
Erin Chambers and Claudia Landi, editors

Second call for applications – AMS MRC 2024 on Climate Science at the Interface between Topological Data Analysis and Dynamical Systems Theory

Dear colleagues,

This is the second and last call for applications for this MRC. Please share the advertisement below with anyone you think might be interested.  

Deadline for applications: 15 February 2024.

Best wishes,

Nina

___________________________________________

AMS MRC 2024 on Climate Science at the Interface between Topological Data Analysis and Dynamical Systems Theory

Are you an early-career scientist/mathematician interested in using topological data analysis and dynamical systems to study climate change? Our AMS Summer Conference might be for you!

https://www.ams.org/programs/research-communities/mrc-24

https://www.ams.org/programs/research-communities/2024MRC-ClimateScience

Our AMS MRC titled “Climate Science at the Interface Between Topological Data Analysis and Dynamical Systems Theory” will take place in July 2024 at the Beaver Hollow Centre, New York (USA). 

The goal is to involve participants in research projects on exciting and novel applications of topological data analysis and dynamical systems theory to climate science. The MRC includes practical projects, like improving algorithms and software, applications to the study of weather regimes, and theoretical considerations in persistent homology and dynamical systems. Interactions between topological data analysis and these fields are still very new, so this is an ideal opportunity for early-career academics to make new contributions. The MRC will also include career guidance sessions, as well as plenty of socialising and enjoyment of the beautiful nature. Tutorials and reading material on topological data analysis and relevant climate/weather analysis will be provided in advance of the MRC.

You can read more about the theme of the MRC in our article published in the February 2024 issue of the AMS Notices: 

https://community.ams.org/journals/notices/202402/rnoti-p267.pdf

Please consider applying! We encourage applications from early-career (advanced undergraduate up to postdoc level) mathematicians with a background in applied algebraic topology and scientists working on climate or meteorology, both from academia and industry.

The organisers,

Kristian, Nina, Davide and Theo

Call for Papers: Computational Geometry: Young Researchers Forum (CG:YRF) 2024

The 40th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2024) is planned to take place in Athens, Greece, June 11–14, 2024. It brings together the global community of researchers who work on a large variety of aspects that combine geometry, algorithms and applications. To allow a broad audience to actively participate in the community’s major scientific event, this year SoCG will again be accompanied by a series of satellite events, which together constitute “CG Week 2024”.

One of these satellite events will be the “Computational Geometry: Young Researchers Forum” (CG:YRF), which is aimed at current and recent students. The active involvement by students and recent graduates in research, discussions, and social events has been longstanding tradition in the CG community. Participation in a top-level event such as SoCG can be educating, motivating, and useful for networking, both with other students and with more senior scientists.

The YRF presents young researchers (defined as not having received a formal doctorate before January 1, 2022) an opportunity to present their work (in progress as well as finished results) to the CG community in a friendly, open setting. Just like in the main event, presentations will be given in the form of talks. A pre-screening (but no formal review process) will ensure appropriate quality control.

CG:YRF 2024 conference web page https://sites.google.com/alumni.stonybrook.edu/cgyrf24/ 

CG:YRF 2024 easychair submission page https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cglyrf2024 

Important Dates, 2024

  • 1 March deadline for submissions
  • 24 March notification of conditional acceptance
  • 7 April deadline for revisions
  • 14 April notification of acceptance
  • June 11–14 CG Week

Submission guidelines

The idea of the event is for young researchers to present new and ongoing work. Therefore, the work should not have appeared in print in a formally reviewed proceedings volume or journal by the time of submission deadline, and at least one author must be a young researcher.

Topics must fit into the general context of SoCG, as described in the call for SoCG submissions

Submissions must be formatted according to the same style file as regular SoCG submissions and not exceed 80 lines, excluding front matter and references. Unlike SoCG, YRF is not employing double-blind reviewing this year. To ensure an accurate line counting, authors must use the LaTeX class file socg-lipics-v2021, which is a wrapper around the standard LIPIcs class, see these guidelines. Authors should refrain from putting excessive amounts of texts in parts in which lines are not counted automatically.

Submissions can contain an appendix of arbitrary length to provide further details for the screening process, but the main body of the text should be understandable without reading the appendix. Appendices will also not be contained in the booklet (see below).

Accepted abstracts will be compiled in a booklet of abstracts that will be distributed among the participants; this should not be considered a formal publication. In particular, participants are encouraged to submit (an extended version of) their presented work to a conference with formal proceedings and/or to a journal. Booklets of abstracts from previous years’ YRF are available on https://www.computational-geometry.org.

The work must be presented at CG:YRF by an author who is a young researcher. Otherwise, it will be removed from the program. 

We will employ a two-phase screening process. After the first review phase, there will be a notification of either rejection (if the result is clearly out of scope or technically incorrect), or conditional acceptance, accompanied with a description of required changes to be made (either with respect to content or format). In the second phase, we will check whether the changes have been implemented satisfactorily, and if not, a paper may still be rejected. The screening process is intended to ensure the technical quality of the presented work. Submissions that are not well-written risk rejection, irrespective of correctness. Authors are strongly encouraged to have their submissions proofread by their advisor or another experienced scientist.

Early submission

Some young researchers need more time to arrange for travel, visas, or funding. Authors are thus welcome to submit before the deadline above, in order for the submission to be reviewed earlier (including earlier notification of acceptance, rejection or conditional acceptance). Please notify the PC chair after you have made such an early submission.

All submissions will be judged according to the same standards of quality regardless of the submission date. It is acceptable to have parallel submission of the same results to SoCG and YRF; however, it will be expected that the YRF submission will be withdrawn if the full paper is accepted to SoCG. The reviewing for YRF is completely independent of the reviewing for SoCG.

Program Committee

Mid-Atlantic Topology Conference 2024

Dear colleagues,

We’re excited to announce the return of the Mid-Atlantic Topology Conference, to be held at Northeastern University the weekend of March 23–24, 2024. In addition to a poster session for graduate students, the conference will feature the following speakers.

Henry Adams (Florida)

Christin Bibby (Louisiana State)

Elden Elmanto (Toronto)

Hana Kong (Harvard)

Piotr Pstragowski (Harvard)

Martina Rovelli (UMass Amherst)

Nick Salter (Notre Dame)

Maru Sarazola (Minnesota)

Lori Ziegelmeier (Macalester)

Registration and further information can be found here:

https://sites.google.com/northeastern.edu/matc2024/home

Please note the funding deadline of January 19. We hope to be able to cover travel and lodging for graduate students and early career researchers. We particularly encourage members of historically underrepresented demographic and gender groups to apply.

Best wishes,

Thomas Brazelton

Iva Halacheva

Ben Knudsen

Jose Perea

CSC PhD Studentship in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London

Project title: The shape of words

The ability of Large Language Models (LLMs) (AKA Pretrained Foundation Models) to capture essential linguistic features, whether it is syntactic, semantic, or others, remains largely mysterious. This is in part because the tools currently used to investigate LLMs are too basic to analyze the intricate geometry of the embeddings produced by the models’ huge number of parameters. We therefore propose to re-think the way we analyze the embedding spaces and to develop tools that are better suited for the task.

Topological Data Analysis (TDA) is a collection of data-driven methods based on algebraic topology. Persistent Homology (PH) is the most popular TDA method, representing structural information related to connected components in the embedding space (holes, bubbles, etc.), and is commonly used to extract topological features underlying point-clouds.

We plan to analyze embedding spaces using PH and other TDA techniques, and to develop new methods and measures to better describe embedding spaces and extract the information they encode.

This endeavour is likely to shed light on the inner-working of LLMs, their training regimes, and the type of information they encode in their topological structures, linguistic or otherwise, and will provide novel topological approach that describes the “shape of words”.

This project will be co-funded by the China Scholarship Council (CSC). CSC is offering a monthly stipend to cover living expenses and QMUL is waving fees and hosting the student. These scholarships are available only for Chinese candidates. 

For more information, please contact us:

Haim Dubossarsky h.dubossarsky@qmul.ac.uk

Omer Bobrowski o.bobrowski@qmul.ac.uk

Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Queen Mary University of London

We invite applications for the position of Postdoctoral Research Assistant (PDRA) in the School of Mathematical Sciences for the project “Universality in Topological Data Analysis”, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The successful applicant will work with Dr. Omer Bobrowski and Dr. Primoz Skraba, on developing the theory required to prove a series of conjectures on the universality properties of topological descriptors. A second goal is a fundamental challenge in Topological Data Analysis (TDA) – assessing the statistical significance of topological structures detected in data. The position comes with opportunities for attending workshops and conferences as well as establishing additional collaborations.

The successful applicant will have, or soon obtain, a PhD degree in mathematics, or equivalent level of professional qualifications and experience, in a field closely related to probability theory and/or applied topology, plus experience in writing high quality research papers.

The positition is up to 3 years. 

The job is listed at https://www.qmul.ac.uk/jobs/vacancies/items/9041.html

For further inquiries please contact o.bobrowski@qmul.ac.uk or p.skraba@qmul.ac.uk

The School of Mathematical Sciences is committed to the equality of opportunities and to advancing women’s careers. As holders of a Bronze Athena SWAN award we offer family friendly benefits and support part-time study.