Applied Topology

• Subhrajit Bhattacharya
• Pablo Cámara
• Ben Cassidy
• Chao Chen
• Carina Curto
• Justin Curry
• Michael Erdmann
• Ellen Gasparovic
• Robert Ghrist
• Vladimir Itskov
• Alex Kunin
• Konstantin Mischaikow
• Anthea Monod
• Michael Robinson
• Radmila Sazdanovic
• Simon Segert
• Don Sheehy
• Robert Short
• Kelly Spendlove
• Min-Chun Wu
• Iris Yoon

We are pleased to announce the first workshop on topology and neuroscience, which will be held from Wednesday, November 28, to Friday, November 30, 2018 at the EPFL campus in Lausanne, Switzerland.

This workshop aims at bringing together people working in the intersection of topology and neuroscience and welcomes anyone who has an interest in these subjects.

There will be two lecture series by:

• Carina Curto, Pennsylvania State University
• Olaf Sporns, Indiana University

There will be contributed talks given by:

• Paul Expert, Imperial College London
• Eyal Gal, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Chad Giusti, University of Delaware
• Jürgen Jost, Max-Planck-Institut für Mathematik in den Naturwissenschaften in Leipzig
• Tom Leinster, University of Edinburgh
• Ran Levi, University of Aberdeen
• Sofia Olhede, University College London
• Jose Perea, Michigan State University
• Erik Rybakken, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
• Bernadette Stolz, University of Oxford
• Katharine Turner, Australian National University
• Hubert Wagner, Institute of Science and Technology Austria

Additionally, there will be a poster session during the workshop.

Registration is open on the conference website, https://neurotop2018.org, and will close September 1, 2018 or when we reach capacity.

We have limited funding for students to cover local expenses. Applications for such funding is open on the conference website and will close on July 18, 2018.

All additional relevant information regarding the conference will continuously be updated on the conference website. In particular, travel information on how to get to EPFL as well as suggested accommodation options are already detailed there.

You can contact the organizers at [email protected].

With best regards, the organizing committee

• Stefania Ebli
• Daniela Egas Santander
• Nicolas Ninin
• Gard Spreemann

We invite you to apply to attend the TRIPODS Summer Bootcamp on Topology and Machine Learning. The bootcamp will be hosted at ICERM during the week of August 6-10, 2018. Applications are currently being accepted, and will be accepted until July 5. For more information, please see the webpage at
https://icerm.brown.edu/tripods/tri18-2-tml/

Best,
Henry Adams, Colorado State University
Jeffrey Brock, Brown University
Melissa McGuirl, Brown University
Bjorn Sandstede, Brown University
Isaac Solomon, Brown University

The subject of confusion for years already in the TDA community, a recent preprint [ http://elizabethmunch.com/pdf/LizAndKateAreTheSame.pdf ] has appeared, written by Kate Munch and Liz Turner, dealing once and for all with the source of confusion between Kate Turner and Liz Munch.

Postdoctoral positions are available for large-scale brain image and network analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The postdoctoral fellow will work with professor Moo K. Chung (www.stat.wisc.edu/~mchung) on developing new innovative statistical and machine learning methods for large scale brain images and networks.

Candidates should have received or expected to receive PhD degree or equivalent in mathematics, CS, EE, statistics, physics, biomedical engineering, psychology, neuroscience or related areas. Previous neuroimaging research experience is a plus but not necessary. Expertise in the following areas may be useful: matrix computation, time series analysis, manifold learning, topological data analysis, functional analysis, graph & network analysis.

Interested candidates should email CV (with the name of references) and two representative papers to Moo K. Chung ([email protected]).

Hello all,

On behalf of the organizing committee, we would like to invite you to *save the date* for the second Women in Computational Topology Workshop!  WinCompTop 2 will take place from 1-5 July, 2019 at Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia. Further details are still pending, but we are reaching out now to inform the community of this exciting event next year. We will be applying for funding to hopefully provide some support for participants’ travel. 

The idea behind this workshop, similar to its predecessor, is to bring women at various stages of their career together to begin work on a project in computational topology as posed by a senior group leader.  The week at ANU will provide the foundation for this collaboration which will hopefully extend past the workshop as happened after WinCompTop1 (https://www.ima.umn.edu/2015-2016/SW8.15-19.16).  This model has also worked very well for a number of other groups, including Women in Numbers (WiN), Women in Topology (WiT), and Women in Shape Analysis (WiSH), among many others.  

Applications will open sometime in the 2018-19 academic year. In the meantime, please save the date!

All the best,

Ellen Gasparovic, Vanessa Robins, and Kate Turner

The recently announced NSF-Simons Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology will be hiring up to seven 3-year postdoctoral positions for recent PhD’s to begin either August 2018 or Jan 2019. One is to work with Peter Bubenik at the University of Florida on Topological Data Analysis and another to work with Natasha Jonoska at the University of South Florida on topological models for dna-rna interactions. See www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/12021 for more details.

The Queen’s University of Belfast (UK) is advertising multiple positions in applied mathematics and data science. We are particularly interested to receive applications from applied (algebraic) topology and related areas . They would be an excellent fit with our existing algebraic topologists and potentially with our statistics department, who are heavily involved in medical-data applications.

The positions are two lectureships (which means starting-level tenured position) in applied mathematics https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BJU108/lectureships-in-applied-mathematics/

and a lectureship/readership in data science. This position is joint with the Institute of Electronics, Communication and Information Technology, it is intended that more senior academics will also apply for this role https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BJU104/lecturer-reader-in-data-science/.

Applications should be made online at http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/QUBJobVacancies/AcademicOpportunities/ if anyone would like to get in touch, please contact our Head of Research Professor Ivan Todorov [email protected]

The deadline is July 27, 2018.

“Homological Tools for Data” (Wednesday)

Abstract: The past fifteen years has witnessed a dramatic burst of applications of topological thinking and theorems in the applied sciences, ranging from statistics to sensor networks, neuroscience, and more, to be surveyed here. Several challenges remain, including: (1) how to compute topological quantities efficiently; (2) how to extend the set of current applications and methods; and, perhaps most importantly, (3) how to educate end-users in the meaning and proper use of homological tools.
This talk will demonstrate why homology is one of the most exciting new tools in applied mathematics.

________________________________________

“New Uses for Sheaf Theory” (Thursday)

Abstract: As ideas from algebraic topology diffuse over into applied domains, we see a recapitulation of the subject’s genesis. First, the use of Betti numbers; next, functoriality (cf. persistent homology); then, categorification (current work on stability and interleaving in topological data analysis).
What next?  This talk will argue that sheaves and sheaf theory are a good candidate for the next toolbox for applied data science. The talk will give a gentle overview of this (intimidating) subject and provide details of a new class of sheaves useful in inference problems associated with sensor networks.

Final Ghrist poster

Topological Data Analysis and Persistent Homology – Second Announcement

A school devoted to Topological Data Analysis and Persistent Homology

will take place from Monday, June 11 to Friday June 15, 2018,

at the Hotel Bellavista in Levico Terme (Trento, Italy),

in the framework of the scientific activity of CIRM-FBK (cirm.fbk.eu/).

Topological Data Analysis (TDA) is a new research area that has recently attracted

the attention of various scientific communities, both from pure and applied mathematics.

The aim of this school is to provide a gentle introduction to TDA, starting from scratch,

providing concrete applications and getting to the state of the art. Lectures are given

by some of the most recognized specialists in this field and are addressed to a broad audience,

mixing PhD students and young Post-Docs with more experienced researchers from

different disciplines, among which Algebraic Topology and Algebraic Geometry.

The final program consists of three mini-courses delivered by John Harer

(Duke University), Steve Oudot (INRIA Saclay) and Christopher J. Tralie

(Duke University).

For details we refer to the updated official webpage of the school, published at the link

http://www.science.unitn.it/cirm/TDAPH2018.html

Some funds to cover living expenses for young participants are available.

The deadline for registration and application for financial support is April 30, 2018.

Looking forward to seeing you in Levico,

The organizers

Gilberto Bini and Claudio Fontanari