SIAM Student Chapter Seminar: Difference between revisions

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*'''When:''' Mondays at 4 PM
*'''When:''' Fridays at 1:30 PM unless noted otherwise
*'''Where:''' See list of talks below
*'''Where:''' 9th floor lounge (we will also broadcast the virtual talks on the 9th floor lounge with refreshments)
*'''Organizers:''' [https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/evan-sorensen Evan Sorensen]
*'''Organizers:''' Yahui Qu, Peiyi Chen and Zaidan Wu
*'''Faculty advisers:''' [http://www.math.wisc.edu/~jeanluc/ Jean-Luc Thiffeault], [http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~swright/ Steve Wright]  
*'''Faculty advisers:''' [http://www.math.wisc.edu/~jeanluc/ Jean-Luc Thiffeault], [http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~swright/ Steve Wright]  
*'''To join the SIAM Chapter mailing list:''' email [mailto:siam-chapter+join@g-groups.wisc.edu siam-chapter+join@g-groups.wisc.edu].
*'''To join the SIAM Chapter mailing list:''' email [mailto:siam-chapter+join@g-groups.wisc.edu siam-chapter+join@g-groups.wisc.edu].
*'''Zoom link:''' https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/97976615799?pwd=U2xFSERIcnR6M1Y1czRmTjQ1bTFJQT09
*'''Passcode:  281031'''


<br>
== Spring 2025 ==


== Fall 2021  ==
{| class="wikitable"
 
|+
{| cellpadding="8"
|Date
!align="left" | date and time
|Location
!align="left" | location
|Speaker
!align="left" | speaker
|Title
!align="left" | title
|-
| Sept 20, 4 PM
| Ingraham 214
| [https://sites.google.com/view/julialindberg/home/ Julia Lindberg] (Electrical and Computer Engineering)
|''[[#Sept 20, Julia Lindberg |Polynomial system solving in applications]]''
|-
|-
| Sept 27, 4 PM,
| Zoom (refreshments and conference call in 307)
| Wil Cocke (Developer for [https://www.arcyber.army.mil/ ARCYBER])
| ''[[#Sept 27, Wil Cocke |Job talk-Software Development/Data Science]]''
|
|-
|-
| Oct 4, '''2:45 PM'''
| B119 Van Vleck
| [https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/nair-anjali/home/ Anjali Nair] (Math)
| ''[[#Oct 4, Anjali Nair|Reconstruction of Reflection Coefficients Using the Phonon Transport Equation]]''
|
|-
|-
| Oct 18, 4 PM
| 6104 Social Sciences
| [https://jasonltorchinsky.github.io/ Jason Tochinsky] (Math)
| ''[[#Oct 18, Jason Torchinsky|Improving the Vertical Remapping Algorithm in the Department of Energy’s Energy Exascale Earth Systems Model]]''
|
|-
|-
| Oct 25, 4 PM,
| Zoom (refreshments and conference call in 307)
| [https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricktbardsley/ Patrick Bardsley] (Machine Learning Engineer at [https://www.cirrus.com/ Cirrus Logic])
|-
|-
| Nov 8, 4 PM,
| Zoom (refreshments and conference call in 307)
| [https://www.linkedin.com/in/libanmohamed496/ Liban Mohammed](Machine Learning Engineer at [https://www.mitre.org/ MITRE])
|-
|-
|03/07
|9th floor
|Ang Li
|Applying for postdocs and different industry jobs ... at the
same time
|-
|-
| Nov 15, 4 PM,
|04/04
| Zoom (refreshments and conference call in 307)
|9th floor
| [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurt-ehlert-320b8397/ Kurt Ehlert] (Trading Strategy Developer at [https://auros.global/about/ Auros])
|Borong Zhang
|Stochastic Multigrid Minimization for Ptychographic Phase Retrieval
|-
|-
|04/11
|903
|Ian McPherson
|Convergence Rates for Riemannian Proximal Bundle Methods
|-
|-
| Dec 6, 4 PM
|04/25
| Ingraham 214
|903
| [https://sites.google.com/view/hongxuchen/ Hongxu Chen](Math)
|Weidong Ma
|A topic in kernel based independence testing
|}
|}


== Abstracts ==


=== Sept 20, Julia Lindberg===
==Abstracts==
Polynomial systems arise naturally in many applications in engineering and the sciences. This talk will outline classes of homotopy continuation algorithms used to solve them. I will then describe ways in which structures such as irreducibility, symmetry and sparsity can be used to improve computational speed. The efficacy of these algorithms will be demonstrated on systems in power systems engineering, statistics and optimization


'''March 7th, Ang Li (UW-Madison)''': I will share my experience with postdoc and industry job applications. This talk might be helpful for those who haven’t decided between academia and industry or are considering different paths within industry since I made my own decision quite late.


=== Sept 27, Wil Cocke ===
'''April 4th, Borong Zhang (UW-Madison)''': In this talk, we introduce a novel stochastic multigrid minimization method designed for ptychographic phase retrieval. By reformulating the inverse problem as the iterative minimization of a quadratic surrogate that majorizes the original objective function, our approach unifies a range of iterative algorithms, including first-order methods and the well-known Ptychographic Iterative Engine (PIE). By efficiently solving the surrogate problem using a multigrid method, our method delivers significant improvements in both convergence speed and reconstruction quality compared to conventional PIE techniques.
I mostly work as a software developer with an emphasis on data science projects dealing with various Command specific projects. The data science life-cycle is fairly consistent across industries: collect, clean, explore, model, interpret, and repeat with a goal of providing insight to the organization. During my talk, I will share some lessons learned for mathematicians interested in transitioning to software development/ data science.  


'''April 11th, Ian McPherson (Johns-Hopkins):''' Nonsmooth convex optimization is a classically studied regime with a plethora of different optimization algorithms being developed in order to solve them. Of these methods, proximal bundle methods have been created and used within the Euclidean setting for decades - attempting to mimic the dynamics of the proximal point method. While practitioners have enjoyed very robust convergence results with respect to choice of parameters, it was not until the late 2020s that we have had theoretical results giving non-asymptotic guarantees - recovering optimal convergence rates. Within the past few years, the first Riemannian Proximal Bundle Methods have been proposed, again lacking non-asymptotic guarantees. Within this talk, we discuss how we are able to both generalize proposed methods and lift the non-asymptotic rates to the Riemannian setting. Moreover, we will do so without access to exponential maps or parallel transports. In addition, to our knowledge these are the first theoretical guarantees for non-smooth geodesically convex optimization in the Riemannian setting, without access to either exponential maps and parallel transports. The work presented is joint work with Mateo Diaz and Benjamin Grimmer.


=== Oct 4, Anjali Nair ===
'''April 25th, Weidong Ma (Univeristy of Pennsylvania)''': Testing the independence of random vectors is a fundamental problem across many scientific disciplines. In this talk, I will first introduce several widely used methods for independence testing, including distance covariance (DC), the Hilbert-Schmidt Independence Criterion (HSIC), and their applications. Most of these methods lack tractable asymptotic distributions under the null hypothesis (i.e., independence), making their use rely on computationally intensive procedures such as permutation tests or bootstrap methods.
The phonon transport equation is used to model heat conduction in solid materials. I will talk about how we use it to solve an inverse problem to reconstruct the thermal reflection coefficient at an interface. This takes the framework of a PDE constrained optimization problem, and I will also mention the stochastic methods used to solve it.


=== Oct 18, Jason Torchinsky ===
To address this, I will present our recent work aimed at reducing the computational cost of independence testing. We propose a modified HSIC test, termed HSICskb, which incorporates a bandwidth adjustment where one kernel’s bandwidth shrinks to zero as the sample size grows. We establish a Gaussian approximation result for our test statistic, which allows us to compute the p-value efficiently.
A vertical Lagrangian coordinate has been used in global climate models for nearly two decades and has several advantages over other discretizations, including reducing the dimensionality of the physical problem. As the Lagrangian surfaces deform over time, it is necessary to accurately and conservatively remap the vertical Lagrangian coordinate back to a fixed Eulerian coordinate. A popular choice of remapping algorithm is the piecewise parabolic method, a modified version of which is used in the atmospheric component of the Department of Energy's Energy Exascale Earth System Model. However, this version of the remapping algorithm creates unwanted noise at the model top and planetary surface for several standard test cases. We explore four alternative modifications to the algorithm and show that the most accurate of these eliminates this noise.  


<br>
To assess statistical efficiency, we also conduct a local power analysis of the standard bootstrap-based HSIC test—an independently interesting contribution—and compare it with our HSICskb test. Finally, I will demonstrate the application of our method to real data, exploring the relationship between age and personal traits.


== Past Semesters ==
==Past Semesters==
*[[SIAM Seminar Fall 2024|Fall 2024]]
*[https://wiki.math.wisc.edu/index.php/SIAM_Spring_2024 Spring 2024]
*[[SIAM Fall 2023|Fall 2023]]
*[[SIAM Spring 2023|Spring 2023]]
*[[SIAM Seminar Fall 2022|Fall 2022]]
*[[Spring 2022 SIAM|Spring 2022]]
*[[SIAM Student Chapter Seminar/Fall2021|Fall 2021]]
*[[SIAM_Student_Chapter_Seminar/Fall2020|Fall 2020]]
*[[SIAM_Student_Chapter_Seminar/Fall2020|Fall 2020]]
*[[SIAM_Student_Chapter_Seminar/Spring2020|Spring 2020]]
*[[SIAM_Student_Chapter_Seminar/Spring2020|Spring 2020]]

Latest revision as of 04:41, 21 April 2025


Spring 2025

Date Location Speaker Title
03/07 9th floor Ang Li Applying for postdocs and different industry jobs ... at the

same time

04/04 9th floor Borong Zhang Stochastic Multigrid Minimization for Ptychographic Phase Retrieval
04/11 903 Ian McPherson Convergence Rates for Riemannian Proximal Bundle Methods
04/25 903 Weidong Ma A topic in kernel based independence testing


Abstracts

March 7th, Ang Li (UW-Madison): I will share my experience with postdoc and industry job applications. This talk might be helpful for those who haven’t decided between academia and industry or are considering different paths within industry since I made my own decision quite late.

April 4th, Borong Zhang (UW-Madison): In this talk, we introduce a novel stochastic multigrid minimization method designed for ptychographic phase retrieval. By reformulating the inverse problem as the iterative minimization of a quadratic surrogate that majorizes the original objective function, our approach unifies a range of iterative algorithms, including first-order methods and the well-known Ptychographic Iterative Engine (PIE). By efficiently solving the surrogate problem using a multigrid method, our method delivers significant improvements in both convergence speed and reconstruction quality compared to conventional PIE techniques.

April 11th, Ian McPherson (Johns-Hopkins): Nonsmooth convex optimization is a classically studied regime with a plethora of different optimization algorithms being developed in order to solve them. Of these methods, proximal bundle methods have been created and used within the Euclidean setting for decades - attempting to mimic the dynamics of the proximal point method. While practitioners have enjoyed very robust convergence results with respect to choice of parameters, it was not until the late 2020s that we have had theoretical results giving non-asymptotic guarantees - recovering optimal convergence rates. Within the past few years, the first Riemannian Proximal Bundle Methods have been proposed, again lacking non-asymptotic guarantees. Within this talk, we discuss how we are able to both generalize proposed methods and lift the non-asymptotic rates to the Riemannian setting. Moreover, we will do so without access to exponential maps or parallel transports. In addition, to our knowledge these are the first theoretical guarantees for non-smooth geodesically convex optimization in the Riemannian setting, without access to either exponential maps and parallel transports. The work presented is joint work with Mateo Diaz and Benjamin Grimmer.

April 25th, Weidong Ma (Univeristy of Pennsylvania): Testing the independence of random vectors is a fundamental problem across many scientific disciplines. In this talk, I will first introduce several widely used methods for independence testing, including distance covariance (DC), the Hilbert-Schmidt Independence Criterion (HSIC), and their applications. Most of these methods lack tractable asymptotic distributions under the null hypothesis (i.e., independence), making their use rely on computationally intensive procedures such as permutation tests or bootstrap methods.

To address this, I will present our recent work aimed at reducing the computational cost of independence testing. We propose a modified HSIC test, termed HSICskb, which incorporates a bandwidth adjustment where one kernel’s bandwidth shrinks to zero as the sample size grows. We establish a Gaussian approximation result for our test statistic, which allows us to compute the p-value efficiently.

To assess statistical efficiency, we also conduct a local power analysis of the standard bootstrap-based HSIC test—an independently interesting contribution—and compare it with our HSICskb test. Finally, I will demonstrate the application of our method to real data, exploring the relationship between age and personal traits.

Past Semesters