Algorithms (Bioinformatics, Geometric, Graph)

Research in algorithms revolves around fundamental questions such as: How efficiently can we solve a given computational problem? If exact solutions are computationally expensive, can we find approximation algorithms that are efficient and provide guarantees on the quality of their solution? How should we implement an algorithm in software in order to achieve good performance on real data?

Algorithms research at Arizona spans several areas: from applied algorithms for computational science such as bioinformatics and computational biology, and computational astronomy (Kececioglu), to computational geometry (Efrat) and graph algorithms (Kobourov). Our research emphasizes discovering new theoretical results, as well as releasing practical software tools that implement our discoveries.

 

Our collaborations involve colleagues in the College of Medicine, the College of Engineering, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) located on campus. Recently-funded interdisciplinary projects include: NSF TRIPODS, a joint effort with the departments of Mathematics and Statistics that studies fundamental problems in data science; and NSF ANTARES, a collaborative effort with astronomers at NOAO for fast filtering of astronomical alerts from the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).

Algorithms Faculty

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Alon Efrat headshot

Alon Efrat

Associate Professor
Office: GS 742
Interests: Geometric pattern machining, realistic input models, geographics information science and spatial databases, algorithms for mobile robots.
(Ph.D., Tel-Aviv University, 1998)
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John Kececioglu headshot

John Kececioglu

Professor
Office: GS 727
Interests: Computational biology, algorithm design and implementation, combinatorial optimization.
(Ph.D., The University of Arizona, 1991)

PhD Students

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Kapilan Balagopalan headshot

Kapilan Balagopalan

PhD Student
Office: GS 725
Interests: Machine Learning and Artifical Intelligence
Advisor: Dr. Kwang-Sung Jun
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UA Blue and Red roadrunner standing on an open laptop

Bennett Brixen

PhD Student
Office: GS 721
Advisor: Dr. John Kececioglu
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Amir Mohammad Esmaieeli Sikaroudi headshot

Amir Mohammad Esmaieeli Sikaroudi

PhD Student
Office: GS 718
Interests: Algorithms (Bioinformatics, Geometric, Graph) and Artificial Intelligence (NLP, ML, Vision)
Advisors: Dr. Michael Chertkov and Dr. Alon Efrat
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Harshita Narnoli Headshot

Harshita Narnoli

PhD Student
Office: GS 725
Interests:  Computer vision, Computer Graphics and Machine Learning
Advisor: TBD
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UA Blue and Red roadrunner standing on an open laptop

Phyllis Spence

PhD Student
Office: GS 721
Advisor: Dr. Alon Efrat
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MD Moyeen Uddin headshot

MD Moyeen Uddin

PhD Student
Office: GS 721
Interests: Computer Security, Machine Learning, Computational Biology, Algorithms
Advisor: Dr. John Kececioglu