• Research: temporal network models, optimization, stochastic blockmodels.

• Support: research assistant for a semester under my AFOSR grant on 'Algebraic statistics for network models' (2013-2017). 

• Next position: Associate Director, Secretariat Economists

Sara was a postdoc with me during 2018-2020, after which she moved to Lake Forest College as an Assistant Professor of Math&Computer Science. 

We have worked on machine learning for non-linear algebra and threaded Groebner bases in Macaulay2 and Python.

• Research: applied algebraic geometry, applied commutative algebra, and algebraic statistics.

• Support: supported under my AFOSR grant on 'Algebraic statistics for network models' (2013-2017), and partly under joint NSF grant 'Randomized and Structure-Based Algorithms in Commutative Algebra' (2015-2017).

• Awards: Dane has spent summer 2015 visiting ISM in Tokyo under the NSF-EAPSI program. He received the department's Teaching Assistant Award in 2017. He was awarded a SIAM Student Travel Award to attend the SIAM Conference on Applied Algebraic Geometry (AG17) July 31 – August 4, 2017, at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Dane had also been co-organizing the weekly Algebraic Statistics seminar at IIT (except Spring 2017).

• Next position: Dane went on to be a postdoc at Brown University's ICERM program on non-linear algebra, followed by a postdoc at York University working with Hélène Massam. He now works at the Mitre corporation. 

Despina was a postdoctoral researcher working with me 2012-2014 at both Penn State and Illinois Tech, and then I was lucky to be able to hire her again 2015-2017. Her research includes statistical network models, structure-based algorithms, random structures. 

• Support: her positions have been funded by DARPA and AFOSR grants on Algebraic Statistics for Network Models.

• Awards and other positions: Despina received the Marie Curie ER Fellowship at the Laboratory for Internet Computing, Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus and spent 2014 - 2015 there. Despina is a co-PI on our joint collaborative NSF grant Randomized and Structure-Based Algorithms in Commutative Algebra with UC Davis.

Elizabeth was a PhD student working with me 2010-2013. Her dissertation was on Algebraic complexity problems in statistics using combinatorial and tensor methods.  

• Support&awards:

  • AY2011/12 funded as a visiting graduate student from Penn State statistics (my home department at that time).

  • AY2012/13 funded by the Dean's scholar award at UIC.

• Next position: Upon graduation, Elizabeth was awarded an NSF Graduate Fellowship with Seth Sullivant at NCSU, and a tenure-track position at San Jose State University which she started in Fall 2014.

Masters of Applied Mathematics student. Research group member 2015-2016.

• Research: Martin's Masters Thesis research spanned various aspects of computational and applied mathematics and statistics. His thesis focused on a mixing time problem for Markov chains arising in algebraic statistics. In particular, in his thesis `Runtime for performing exact tests on the p1 statistical model for random graphs', he showed that the chain we developed by Gross-P.-Stasi for the p1 random graph model mixes rapidly on all fibers where the simple switch chain does.

• Support: Formerly undergraduate student: In summer 2015, his research on complexity of Markov bases for contingency tables was supported by the F.R. "Buck" McMorris Summer Research Stipend. He presented a poster on this research at Menger Day 2016.

• Next position: Quantitative Analyst, Financial Risk Management, Milliman.