Applied Topology

A virtual Hot Topics workshop on Topological Insights in Neuroscience will be hosted by MSRI, May 4 – 7 and 10-11, 2021.  The talks in this workshop will present a wide array of current applications of topology in neuroscience, including classification and synthesis of neuron morphologies, analysis of synaptic plasticity, algebraic analysis of the neural code, topological analysis of neural networks and their dynamics, topological decoding of neural activity, diagnosis of traumatic brain injuries, and topological biomarkers for psychiatric disease. Some of the talks will be devoted to promising new directions in algebraic topology that have been inspired by neuroscience.
Speakers include: 
• Ann Blevins (University of Pennsylvania) • Benjamin Dunn (NTNU)
• Daniela Egas Santander ( EPFL)
• Tim Gentner (Univ. California, San Diego) • Vladimir Itskov (Pennsylvania State University)
• Lida Kanari (EPFL)
• Matilde Marcolli (California Institute of Technology)
• Ezra Miller (Duke University)
• Konstantin Mischaikow (Rutgers University)
• Alice Patania (Indiana University)
• Jose Perea (Michigan State University) • Xaq Pitkow (Rice University) • Manish Saggar (Stanford University School of Medicine)
• Martina Scolamiero (Royal Institute of Technology (KTH))
• Tatyana Sharpee (The Salk Institute for Biological Studies)
• Katharine Turner (Australian National University)
• Bei Wang (University of Utah)
• Yusu Wang (Univ. California, San Diego)
(NB: The dates of the workshop have changed somewhat from the first announcement, to enable us to schedule shorter days, in hopes of reducing Zoom fatigue and enabling participants to attend live from across a wider range ot time zones.)
Registration is now open, on the workshop webpage.  This workshop will be held online, in Pacific Standard Time.  The Zoom link is provided to those who register for the workshop. 
If you would like to give a contributed talk, please apply using this form by April 1.

Second Announcement:

Workshop Topological Data Analysis – Theory and Applications

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences
Western University

May 1-3, 2021

The following mathematical scientists have agreed to speak:

Henry Adams (Colorado State)
Gunnar Carlsson (Stanford/Ayasdi)
Mark Daley (Western University)
Maia Fraser (Univ of Ottawa)
Robert Ghrist (Univ of Pennsylvania)
John Healy (Tutte Institute)
Michael Lesnick (SUNY/Albany)
Facundo Memoli (OSU)
Amit Patel (Colorado State)
Jose Perea (Michigan State)
Emilie Purvine (Pacific Northwest National Lab)
Luis Scoccola (Michigan State)

There will be 4 lectures per day, for each of the three days of the meeting. Precise dates, times, titles and abstracts have now been posted on the meeting website:

http://jardine.math.uwo.ca/TDA-2021.html

This meeting will be a zoom event.

There is a registration process for participants: send an email to [email protected] indicating that you want to participate, so that your name can be added to a list of zoom invitees.

For further information, please contact Rick Jardine: [email protected]

This meeting is supported by the Tutte Institute for Mathematics and Computing, and by Western University.

The Institute of Mathematics in Aberdeen is advertising a 12 months postdoctoral position funded by the Scottish Chief Scientist Office. This is an exciting opportunity to join a successful multidisciplinary research group and drive forward a unique and ground-breaking clinical project in Fast-Field Cycling and 3T MRI. An enthusiastic individual is sought for this Chief Scientist Office funded project which aims to characterise and quantify FFC-MRI changes in stroke patients by means of topological data analysis and machine learning.
Applicants should have a PhD in applied and computational topology, with significant skill in computing and data analysis. Experience in TDA assisted image analysis is desirable.

The institute of Mathematics at the University of Aberdeen boasts an active group in applied and computational topology lead by Prof. Ran Levi. Research within the group is geared specifically but not exclusively towards applications of topology to neuroscience. Following on from the first human MRI scanner which was developed on the same site, the University of Aberdeen MR Physics team have constructed two functioning first-ever whole-body Fast Field-Cycling scanners. Fast Field-Cycling MRI is a novel type of scanning which uncovers unique information about tissues which is invisible to traditional MRI scanners. The successful post-holder will work in collaboration with a research team comprising of experts in clinical research, MRI and computer science. The aim will be to maximise data acquisition in a further stroke cohort, and contribute to developing methods of data extraction and analysis by methodology of topological data analysis and machine learning algorithms, which will be relevant to pursuing future clinical application of this exciting new technology. 

The post is funded for 12 months. Start date will be 1st September 2021, or slightly later, subject to agreement with the successful candidate.
The position is intended for a person holding a PhD in applied and computational topology or computer science with a strong interest in studying and applying theoretical and computational tools of algebraic topology to neuroscience, and medical research. Experience in high level computations and/or applied algebraic topology would be an advantage. Knowledge of neuroscience is not required

The position is currently advertised is open for applications now https://www.abdnjobs.co.uk/vacancy/research-fellow-438718.html.
Application deadline is 4 April 2021.
informal inquiries are very welcome. Please email [email protected]. 

We are looking for one postdoc to join the Topological Data Analysis
and Visualization Lab (head by Dr. Bei Wang) at the University of
Utah.

Description:

The Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute at the University
of Utah invites applications for one post-doctoral researcher for
interdisciplinary work spanning scientific data visualization and
topological data analysis. The successful candidate will perform a
systematic study of topology-preserving data sketching techniques to
improve visual exploration and understanding of large scientific data.
The postdoc will work closely with SCI Institute researchers and
external collaborators to integrate research into software
applications and apply this software to compelling problems in
scientific applications. The postdoc will benefit from the
interdisciplinary nature of the research that interfaces data
visualization, topological data analysis, and domain science such as
computational fluid dynamics and material science.

Start Date:

As soon as possible, preferably before September 1, 2021.

Responsibilities:

1) Design, analysis, and application of data sketching techniques.
Focus areas: data sketching (statistical, geometric sketches, graph,
and matrix sketching), data visualization, topological data analysis,
algorithms in machine learning, and data mining.
2) Implementation and evaluation of these methodologies with
open-source software compatible with platforms such as ParaView and
VTK.
3) Scientific interactions between Utah and other collaborators (at
the University of Utah and national labs).
For more information regarding the project, see
http://www.sci.utah.edu/~beiwang/toposketch/.

Qualifications:

The SCI Institute is seeking a highly talented and committed
individual with a demonstrated ability to work well with minimal
supervision in a multi-disciplinary research environment. Backgrounds
in computer science, data science, applied mathematics, physics, and
computational sciences will be considered. Individuals comfortable
with data visualization, algorithms (in particular, data sketching and
compression), topological data analysis, computational topology,
computational geometry, data mining, and machine learning preferred.
The candidate is expected to be self-motivated and has good
organizational, communication, and teamwork skills.

Apply here:
https://utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/112710

Required application documents:
– Resume
– Research statement
– List of two references

Please contact Dr. Bei Wang for further information and send
applications directly to ([email protected]) in addition to
submitting them to the official University of Utah HR site.

The Department of Mathematics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden has now opened a PhD position in Topological Data Analysis.

This position is financed by the Swedish Research Council through the project “Stable and discriminative topological invariants for data analysis”.

More information and a link to the application can be found here: https://www.kth.se/profile/scola

The deadline for the application is April 9.

Please forward this information to possibly interested candidates and contact me for any question at: [email protected]

The algebraic topology group of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) invites applications for two full-time postdoctoral positions in algebraic topology, both pure and applied.

These two-year positions have a starting date of 1 September 2021 and are open to all candidates with a PhD from no earlier than 2017 who have shown promise of research excellence in pure or applied topology.

In addition to research, duties of the future postdoc will include teaching within the framework of the Mathematics Section of the EPFL.

EPFL salaries are highly competitive.  The topology group has considerable travel money available for postdocs, as well as a generous budget for inviting guests throughout the year.

Applications, including curriculum vitae, publication list, research plan, and three reference letters, must be submitted by April 1 via the on-line application form.

Computational Geometry: Young Researchers Forum 2021

Second Call for Submissions

Online, June 7-11, 2021

The 37th Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG) will be held virtually June 7-11, 2021 (originally scheduled in Buffalo, USA). 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 2021”. See https://cse.buffalo.edu/socg21/index.html for details.

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, 2019) 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.

Due to COVID-19, it has been decided that the entire CG Week 2021 (including YRF) will be online-only. Specific details about the format will be announced later.

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 in accordance with the LIPIcs proceedings guidelines (https://submission.dagstuhl.de/documentation/authors#lipics) and not exceed 80 lines, excluding front matter, references.  To ensure an accurate line counting, authors must use the LaTeX class file socg-lipics-v2019, which is a wrapper around the standard class (available at http://www.computational-geometry.org/guidelines/socg-lipics-v2019.cls). 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).

– The EasyChair submission link is https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cgweek2021

– 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 here: http://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. 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.

Important dates (deadlines are 23:59 Anywhere on Earth):

—————————————————-

– March 14, 2021: Deadline for submissions

– April 7, 2021: Notification of conditional acceptance

– April 14, 2021: Deadline for revisions

– April 24, 2021: Notification of acceptance

– June 7-11, 2021: CG-Week 2021

Program Committee

———————

Mikkel Abrahamsen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Paz Carmi, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Isreal

Brittany Terese Fasy, Montana State University, USA

Eunjin Oh, Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea

Marcel Roeloffzen, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands

Don Sheehy, North Carolina State University, USA

Haitao Wang (Chair), Utah State University, USA

Jie Xue, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

A two-year postdoctoral position in Topological Data Analysis /
Computational Topology is available in the newly established Dioscuri
Centre in Topological Data Analysis located within the Institute of
Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
The Centre is led by Pawel Dlotko. To find out more about us, please visit:
https://dioscuri-tda.org/
https://www.facebook.com/Dioscuri.Centre.TDA

The deadline for applications is April 15 2021, or later subject to
place availability. The whole announcement is available here:
https://www.impan.pl/wydarzenia/konkursy/2021/postdok-dioscuri-2021-eng.pdf

We also have multiple PhD positions available within the Centre. If
you are interested, please contact me directly. To get enrolled in the
PhD program, you need to pass the exam to the Doctoral School of Exact
and Natural Sciences:
https://szkolydoktorskie.uw.edu.pl/en/sdnsip-2/
The standard PhD scholarship offered here is greatly extended from the
Centre’s budget.

This summer, NASA Glenn Research Center is hosting several internship opportunities for topology students.  The past several years, we have had interns working on a variety of projects in applied topology.  Past topics have included networking, machine learning, and robotics.

This year, we are hoping to continue several existing research and start some new exciting projects.  We are open to suggestions, and the following list of topics should be considered more for inspiration than as a prescription:

• Applications of sheaves to communications networks in space
  • Continue development of sheaf-based networking approaches
  • Introduce new sheaf-based networking concepts
  • Construct implementations using software (i.e. Pysheaf)
  • Continue work from previous papers such as:
    • https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9172366
    • https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.05974
• Schedule optimization for networks using tropical geometry
  • Develop parallel tools for computing shortest paths (i.e. PyCUDA)
  • Leverage matrices over tropical min-plus semirings
  • Possibly explore the deformation theory of tropical schemes
  • New project for 2021
• Derive the coordinate-free Vlasov equation using differential forms
  • Inspired by topological electromagnetism as in:
    • https://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-th/0311256.pdf
  • Towards a topological theory for plasmas
  • New project for 2021

Please encourage your students to apply at https://nasa.force.com (Note – the opportunities might not be visible without an account).  Applications are due by March 5, 2021.  If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me ([email protected]) or Alan Hylton ([email protected]).