Our Summer Research Associates in 2023
Topos Institute is proud to have ushered in another cohort of research associates (RAs) this summer! Each early career researcher made a positive impact on both the science and culture at Topos, through which their legacies live on. We hope that the collaboration was reciprocal, empowering them to succeed in whatever future projects they pursue. It is our great fortune to continue this program that is at the heart of our community-building mission. Make sure to keep an eye out for future announcements regarding recruitment for next year; but first, get to know the 2023 Summer RAs by taking a look at the profiles below!
Topos Institute is proud to have ushered in another cohort of research associates (RAs) this summer! Each early career researcher made a positive impact on both the science and culture at Topos, through which their legacies live on. We hope that the collaboration was reciprocal, empowering them to succeed in whatever future projects they pursue. It is our great fortune to continue this program that is at the heart of our community-building mission. Make sure to keep an eye out for future announcements regarding recruitment for next year; but first, get to know the 2023 Summer RAs by taking a look at the profiles below!
1 Harper
Harper Hults recently finished her undergraduate degree in math and computer science at University of Washington-Bothell where she studied tiling theory with Casey Mann. She is currently applying for math graduate programs and is interested in leveraging category theory to understand and control complex systems. This summer, she worked with Evan Patterson to create StatisticalTheories.jl, a Julia package for describing and manipulating statistical theories and synthesizing implementations of their models in the probabilistic programming language Gen.jl.
2 Samantha
Samantha Jarvis is a doctoral candidate in mathematics at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, advised by John Terilla. Her research interests are in category theory and categorified linear algebra, with specific applications in natural language. At Topos, she worked with David Spivak to construct dynamic monoidal categories from a so-called reverse chain rule category and a strong monoidal functor to the opposite category of sets.
3 Stephen
Stephen Mell is a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, where he works with Osbert Bastani and Steve Zdancewic at the intersection of programming languages and machine learning. He is particularly interested in how to represent mathematical and conceptual structures and how to learn them from data. Previously, he has worked on using linear logic to represent data, and on learning neurosymbolic programs for efficient and interpretable classification of object trajectories. This summer, he worked with Kris Brown and Evan Patterson on developing string diagrams for rig categories, to provide canonical and intuitive representations for structures like programs with control flow.
4 Harrison
Harrison Grodin is a PhD student in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, where he works at the intersection of type theory, programming language theory, and category theory with Bob Harper. This summer, he worked with Dana Scott and David Spivak to study synthetic domain theory and apply polynomial functors, free monads, and cofree comonads to computer science.
5 Luke
Luke Morris is a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Florida, where he works in Dr. James Fairbanks’ GATAS Lab. At UF, he leads development of the “Decapodes.jl” framework, which generates physics simulations given high level diagrammatic representations of their governing equations. At the Topos Institute this summer, he implemented the 3D Discrete Exterior Calculus in Julia with Evan Patterson.
