Eleventh Annual Fall Term PRIMES Conference, October 16-17, 2021

Saturday, October 16

Mathematics

9:00 am: Welcoming Remarks

• Prof. Michel Goemans, Head of the MIT Mathematics Department
• Prof. Pavel Etingof, PRIMES Chief Research Advisor
• Dr. Slava Gerovitch, PRIMES Program Director

9:15-10:15 am: Session 1: Applied Mathematics

• Yi (Alex) Liang, “Predicting pandemics with stock market indicators” (mentor Prof. James Unwin, University of Illinois at Chicago) ( slides )
• Linda He, “A topological centrality measure for directed networks” (mentor Lucy Yang, Harvard University) ( slides )
• Jeremy Yu, “Gradient-enhanced physics-informed neural networks for forward and inverse PDE problems” (mentor Dr. Lu Lu) ( slides )
• Garrett Heller, “Strichartz estimates and well-posedness for the one-dimensional periodic Dysthe equation” (mentor Chengyang Shao) ( slides )

10:25-11:15 am: Session 2: Algebra

• Andrew Gu, “Counting LU matrices with fixed eigenvalues” (mentor Dr. Jonathan Wang) ( slides )
• Zifan Wang, “Representation stability and orthogonal groups” (mentor Arun Kannan) ( slides )
• Karthik Seetharaman, William Yue, and Isaac Zhu, “Regularities in the lattice homology of Seifert homology spheres” ( slides )(mentor Dr. Irving Dai)

11:25 am - 12:25 pm: Session 3: Algebra

• Ilaria Seidel, “Bounds on symmetric numerical semigroups” (mentor Jeffery Yu) ( slides )
• Yanan (Nancy) Jiang, Benjamin Li, and Sophie Zhu, “Factorization invariants of algebraic valuations of positive cyclic semirings” (mentor Dr. Felix Gotti) ( slides )
• Sophie Zhu, “Factorizations in evaluation monoids of Laurent semirings” (mentor Dr. Felix Gotti) ( slides )
• Benjamin Li, “A new class of atomic monoid algebras without the ascending chain condition on principal ideals” (mentor Dr. Felix Gotti) ( slides )

12:30-1:00 pm: Virtual Chat with PRIMES Chief Research Advisor Prof. Pavel Etingof and Head Mentor Dr. Tanya Khovanova (for students and parents)

1:30-2:35 pm: Session 4: Applied Mathematics

• Sheryl Hsu, “The Power of Many: A Physarum Swarm Steiner Tree Algorithm” (mentor Prof. Laura Schaposnik, University of Illinois at Chicago) ( slides )
• Alex Hu, “Improved graph formalism for quantum circuit simulation” (mentor Andrey Khesin) ( slides )
• Yash Agarwal, “Convolutional encoder decoder network for the removal of coherent seismic noise” (mentor Sarah Greer) ( slides )
• Raymond Feng, Andrew Lee, and Espen Slettnes, “Results on various models of mistake-bounded online learning” (mentor Dr. Jesse Geneson, San Jose State University) ( slides )

2:45-3:40 pm: Session 5: Combinatorics

• Atharva Pathak, “Combinatorial aspects of the card game War” (mentor Dr. Tanya Khovanova) ( slides )
• Sophia Benjamin, Arushi Mantri, and Quinn Perian, “On the Wasserstein distance between $k$-step probability measures on finite graphs” (mentor Pakawut Jiradilok) ( slides )
• Anuj Sakarda, Jerry Tan, and Armaan Tipirneni, “On the distance spectra of extended double stars” (mentor Feng Gui) ( slides )

3:50-4:50 pm: Session 6: Geometry

• Andrew Du, “Quaternion-based analytical inverse dynamics for the human body” (mentor David Darrow) ( slides )
• Kevin Cong, “Square tilings of translation surfaces” (mentor Prof. Sergiy Merenkov, CCNY – CUNY) ( slides )
• Daniel Xia, “A Minkowski-type inequality in AdS-Melvin space” (mentor Prof. Pei-Ken Hung, University of Minnesota) ( slides )
• Luke Robitaille, “Topological entropy of simple braids” (mentor Dr. Minh-Tam Trinh) ( slides )

5:00-5:45 pm: Session 7: Algebra

• Sushanth Sathish Kumar, “Extending the restricted Lie algebra structure on the homology of a double loop space” (mentor Adela Zhang) ( slides )
• Joshua Guo, “On the Gauss-Epple homomorphism of B _n , and generalizations to Artin groups of finite type” (mentor Kevin Chang) ( slides )
• Ram Goel, “Products of reflections in smooth Bruhat intervals” (mentor Christian Gaetz) ( slides )

Sunday, October 17

Computer Science and Computational Biology

9:00 am: Welcoming Remarks

• Dr. Slava Gerovitch, PRIMES Program Director
• Prof. Srini Devadas, PRIMES Computer Science Section Coordinator

9:10-10:15 am: Session 8: Computer Science

• Rachel Chen, “CryptoCuties: A new family of non-fungible virtual assets” (mentor Jules Drean) ( slides )
• Yavor Litchev, “Distributed signature scheme with monotonic access pattern” (mentor Yu Xia) ( slides )
• Abigail Thomas, “The implementation of model pruning to optimize zk-SNARKs” (mentor Yu Xia) ( slides )
• Simon Beyzerov and Eliyahu Yablon, “Versatile anonymous authentication with Cloak” (mentor Sacha Servan-Schreiber) ( slides )

10:25-11:25 am: Session 9: Computer Science

• Kunal Kapoor, “Consensus under a dynamic synchronous model” (mentors Jun Wan and Hanshen Xiao) ( slides )
• Tanisha Saxena “A compromise between synchronous and asynchronous systems” (mentor Jun Wan) ( slides )
• Akhil Kammila, “An analysis of the Tor Handshake” (mentor Kyle Hogan) ( slides )
• Carl (Zifan) Guo, “Studying the effectiveness of transformer models for analyzing low-level programs” (mentor William Moses) ( slides )

11:35 am - 12:45 pm: Session 10: Computer Science

• Abhinav Mummaneni, “Unsupervised contrastive learning with hard positive samples” (mentors Prof. Suvrit Sra and Joshua Robinson)
• Jack (Qi Hao) Wang, “Generalization of X-fields image interpolation model to higher dimensions” (mentor Guillaume Leclerc) ( slides )
• Michael (Yihao) Huang and Claire Wang, “Efficient algorithm for parallel Bi-core decomposition” (mentors Prof. Julian Shun and Jessica Shi) ( slides )
• Tanmay Gupta and Anshul Rastogi, “Enhancing distributed tracing to order events” (mentor Prof. Raja Sambasivan, Tufts University) ( slides )

12:50-1:20 pm: Virtual Chat with PRIMES Computer Science Section Coordinator Prof. Srini Devadas and mentors (for students and parents)

1:50-2:35 pm: Session 11: Computer Science and Computational Biology

• Kevin Edward Zhao, “More than BERT: oLMpics on diverse language models” (mentors Prof. Anna Rumshisky, Namrata Shivagunde, and Vladislav Lialin, UMass Lowell) ( slides )
• Christine (Ali) Yang, “Linear classifiers and t-SNE for understanding relationships across cancer types” (mentors Prof. Stefanie Jegelka and Alkis Gotovos) ( slides )
• Anish Mudide, “Predicting mammalian conservation status from genome summary statistics” (mentor Dr. Ayshwarya Subramanian, Broad Institute)

2:45-3:55 pm: Session 12: Computational Biology and Bioinformatics

• Neil Chowdhury, “Interplay between loop extrusion and compartmentalization during mitosis” (mentor Sameer Abraham)
• Vishnu Emani, “Computational fluid modelling for surgical planning of single ventricle congenital heart defects” (mentors Dr. David Hoganson and Dr. Vijay Govindarajan, Boston Children’s Hospital) ( slides )
• Arthur Hu and Powell Zhang, “Remote interactions and effects on mental and physical health” (mentor Prof. Gil Alterovitz)
• Sruthi Kurada and Victoria Yuan, “Characterizing ergothioneine pathways and potential drug targets via intrinsically disordered protein analysis” (mentor Prof. Gil Alterovitz) ( slides )

4:05-4:35 pm: Session 13: Mathematics

• Nathan Xiong, “The master field and free Brownian motions” (mentor Pu Yu) ( slides )
• Rishabh Das, “Thermocapillary modulation of fluidic lenses in microgravity” (mentor Dr. Valeri Frumkin) ( slides )

Eleventh Annual Spring Term PRIMES Conference, May 22-23, 2021

May conference abstracts

Saturday, May 22

Mathematics

9:00 am: Welcoming Remarks

• Prof. Pavel Etingof, PRIMES Chief Research Advisor
• Dr. Slava Gerovitch, PRIMES Program Director

9:15-10:15 am: Session 1: PRIMES Circle

• Gloria Chun & Alicia Li, “The Post Correspondence Problem” (mentor Alexandra Hoey) ( slides )
• Isha Agarwal & Minseo Kim, “DP-3T: Ensuring Cryptographic Safety and Security In COVID-19 Contact Tracing” (mentor Talia Blum) ( slides )
• Kien Lau & Andrew Zeng, “Models from Introductory Probability" (mentor Jordan Benson)

10:20-11:20 am: Session 2: PRIMES Circle

• Lisa Liu & Tanvi Ganapathy, “A Brief Review of Special Topics in Group Theory” (mentor Gabrielle Kaili-May Liu) ( slides )
• Xavier Choe & Garima Rastogi, “Number Fields and Galois Theory” (mentor Merrick Cai) ( slides )
• Dimitar Dimitrov & Isaac Patterson, “Invariants in Knot Theory” (mentor Preston Cranford)

11:25 am - 12:20 pm: Session 3: PRIMES Circle

• Neil Jin & Apurva Varigonda, “Graph Theory and the Optimization of City Infrastructure” (mentor Rachana Madhukara)
• Anusha Senapati & Iris Heikkinen, “Branches of Graph Theory: On Spanning Trees” (mentor Rebecca Nelson)
• Ephram Chun, “Applications of Combinatorial Algorithms for Graph Traversal and Efficiency” (mentor Jung Soo Chu) ( slides )

12:30-1:00 pm: Virtual Chat with PRIMES Chief Research Advisor Prof. Pavel Etingof, Head Mentor Dr. Tanya Khovanova, Circle coordinator Peter Haine, and assistant Circle coordinator Marisa Gaetz (for students and parents)

1:15-2:10 pm: Session 4: PRIMES Circle

• Christian Nichols & Duy Pham, “Combinatorics” (mentor Eli Garcia) ( slides )
• Shreya Sinha & Jennifer Yuan, “Well, that's just a theory.... a GAME theory” (mentor Katie Gravel)
• Saniya Srivastava & Heidi Zhang, “Modeling Altruism in Evolutionary Biology Using Game Theory” (mentor Ariana Park)

2:15-3:10 pm: Session 5: PRIMES Reading and PRIMES STEP

• Jason Tang (PRIMES Reading), “The Sperner Property and Quotients of Boolean Algebras” (mentor Luis Kumanduri) ( slides )
• Michael Han, Ella Kim, Evin Liang, Mira Lubashev, Oleg Polin, Vaibhav Rastogi, Benjamin Taycher, Ada Tsui, Cindy Wei (PRIMES STEP Junior group), “Fun with Latin Squares” (mentor Dr. Tanya Khovanova) ( slides )
• Matvey Borodin, Eric Chen, Aidan Duncan, Boyan Litchev, Jiahe Liu, Veronika Moroz, Matthew Qian, Rohith Raghavan, Garima Rastogi, and Michael Voigt (PRIMES STEP Senior group), “Stable Marriage Problem” (mentor Dr. Tanya Khovanova) ( slides )

Sunday, May 23

Computer Science and Computational Biology

9:00am Welcoming Remarks

• Dr. Slava Gerovitch, PRIMES Program Director
• Prof. Srini Devadas, PRIMES Computer Science Section Coordinator

9:10-10:10 am: Session 6: Computer Science

• Benjamin Chen, “Practical Anonymity Sets in Pseudonymous Forums” (mentor Kyle Hogan) ( slides )
• Linda Chen, “Communication Complexity of Byzantine Broadcast” (mentor Jun Wan) ( slides )
• Matthew Ding, “Signed-Message Relay Version of Iterative Approximate Byzantine Consensus for Directed Graphs” (mentor Hanshen Xiao) ( slides )

10:20-11:20 am: Session 7: Computer Science and PRIMES Reading

• Beining (Cathy) Zhou, “A High-Order Cumulant-Based Sparse Ruler for Improved Lag Generation” (mentor Hanshen Xiao) ( slides )
• Jason Yang, “Decentralized Gradient Descent: How Network Structure Affects Convergence” (mentors Jun Wan and Hanshen Xiao ( slides )
• Ishita Goluguri and Toyesh Jayaswal (PRIMES Reading), “Jumping into Markov Chains” (mentor Dr. Benjamin Landon) ( slides )

11:30 am - 12:10 pm: Session 8: Computational Biology

• Sarah Chen, “In Silico Prediction of Retained Intron-Derived Neoantigens in Leukemia” (mentors Dr. Nicoletta Cieri, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Kari Stromhaug) ( slides )
• Mikhail Alperovich, “Data Driven Quality Control for Single-Cell RNA Sequencing” (mentor Dr. Ayshwarya Subramanian, Broad Institute)

Mathematics Reading Groups

Tuesday, December 7

Zoom webinar

7:00 pm Welcoming Remarks

• Prof. Pavel Etingof, PRIMES Chief Research Advisor
• Dr. Slava Gerovitch, PRIMES Program Director

7:05 pm

• Matvey Borodin, Kaylee Ji, and Yifan Kang, “Bidding Games” (mentor Chun Hong Lo) ( slides )
• Jessica He, Annie Wang, and Max Xu, “Points on Elliptic Curves” (mentor Dr. Konstantin Jakob) ( slides )
• Derek Chen and Advay Goel, “Spectral Graph Theory” (mentor Luis Kumanduri) ( slides )
• Andrew Wen, “Applications of Homology” (mentor Lucy Yang, Harvard University) ( slides )

Contact

With questions, contact PRIMES Program Director Slava Gerovitch at