Meet the team Q&A
Our hub members have been kindly answering a set of questions so that we can share more about them and their work. We start with Hub Co-Director Jeffrey Giansiracusa of Durham University.
Can you share a bit about your background and your current research focus?
I started off as a very pure mathematician, working in topology and homotopy theory. From there I drifted towards algebraic aspects of tropical geometry, but over the past 5 years I’ve become increasingly interested in applications of topological data analysis to quantum field theory data, as well as machine learning in non-archimedean and tropical geometry.
What inspired you to pursue this area?
By now I’ve worked in several very different areas of mathematics. In each case it was the incluence of mentors and a supportive community that brought me into learning and doing new things.
Which themes are you connected to within the Erlangen AI Hub?
Theme A: Understanding Data
Theme B: Understanding Machine Learning Models
What attracted you to the Erlangen AI Hub and what do you hope to see it achieve?
As one of the architects of the hub, I was very excited about the opportunity to help develop the already impressive community of people in the UK doing topological data analysis, encouraging them to connect to ML and AI and some of the really big questions around right now.
What’s been the most surprising or exciting finding in your work so far?
Gradient descent optimisation shouldn’t work in a non-archimedean setting, where small steps can’t add up to a big step. But we found a non-archimedean optimisation procedure that looks a lot like gradient descent which does work!
What challenges have you faced in your research, and how did you overcome them?
My biggest challenge is always balancing my various projects and responsibilities, and balancing work with family commitments. I often have to leave meetings early to collect my kids from school and take them to their various activities.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out in your field?
Find the people you enjoy working with, and then work with them! Don’t waste your time working with people that you don’t like.
What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you outside of research?
My favourite person to do mathematics with is my brother.