Dr Vitaliy Kurlin: mathematics & computer science

I work in Data Science using stable-under-noise topological methods for Materials Science, Computer Vision, Climate.
If you are a potential postdoc, PhD student or intern with C++ or Python skills, please e-mail vitaliy.kurlin(at)gmail.com.

Topological data analysis: tools and applications

Videos of a few talks explaining key ideas, basic examples and various applications of topological data analysis:

• 1-min video spotlight at CVPR 2014 (Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition), Columbus, Ohio (USA), June 2014.
• Applications of Topological Data Analysis to Computer Vision (1 hour), Microsoft Research Cambridge, February 2014.
• Reconstruction of plane graphs from noisy samples (1 hour), Informatics Forum, Edinburgh University, April 2013.

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Affiliations: current positions and connections

• Data Scientist at the Materials Innovation Factory (University of Liverpool) funded by Unilever, HEFCE, Leverhulme, ERC. MIF is a new £68 million institute spun out from the 1st Chemistry department in the UK for 4*/3* research (2nd overall).
• Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the 1st Computer Science department in the UK for 4*/3* research (6th overall).
• Leader of the Intel Parallel Computing Centre funded through the Big Data Centre at the Berkeley laboratory, US.
• Many thanks to the following research sponsors and collaborators:
             

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News: awards, papers and invited lectures

• September 2017 : my PhD student Grzegorz Muszynski (funded through the Intel Parallel Computing Centre at Liverpool) has won a Data Competition on recognising astronomical objects (Data Challenge #2: Astronomy Catalogs) at Berkeley.
• September 2017 : the school of EEE&CS has funded a PhD studentship for Mr Yury Elkin to work on the project "Topological Analysis of Colloids" from November 2017. The TDA group will soon include 6 PhD students.
• September 2017 : paper Superpixels Optimized by Color and Shape (joint with former final year project student Donald Harvey) has been accepted at EMMCVPR 2017 (Energy Minimization Models in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition) for a 20-min talk and a 14-page publication in LNCS, Springer.
• September 2017 : participated in the research programme on Topological Data Analysis in the HIM (Hausdorff Institute for Mathematics), Bonn (Germany).
• September 2017 : 30-min talk "Topological methods for a faster materials discovery" at the Mathematical Signal Processing and Data Analysis conference, Bremen (Germany).
• September 2017 : talk "Topological methods for a faster materials discovery" at the Leverhulme Research Centre workshop "Harnessing the exponential growth", Liverpool (UK).
• September 2017 : announced the NIPS 2017 workshop covering Topological Data Anaysis and referring to my blog.
• Since March 2013 : older news stories are in the news archive.

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Awards : fellowships and research grants

	Intel gift (40K USD) for the 1st year of Grzegorz Muszynski's PhD "Topological analysis of the Climate System" funded through the Berkeley lab (US) from April 2017 at the University of Liverpool, UK.
	EPSRC vacation bursary (2.7K GBP) for 2nd year student Simon Hirst at the University of Liverpool (UK) to work on superpixel segmentations of images over 10 weeks in summer 2017.
	Knowledge Transfer Secondments at Microsoft Research Cambridge with Andrew Fitzgibbon 2014 - 2016 : EPSRC gave about 24K GBP, Microsoft Research provided 75K in-kind contribution Title : Applications of Topological Data Analysis to Computer Vision. Covered visits to Prof Carlsson at Stanford University (US) and Ayasdi, to Prabhat at Lawrence National Laboratory in Berkeley (2016).
	Summer bursary of the London Mathematical Society for Philip Smith (value 1.1K GBP) to work on our project Superpixel meshes for faster image and video processing in August - September 2016, closely related to the collaboration with Microsoft Research Cambridge.
	Christopherson/Knott fellowship at Institute of Advanced Study (left after moving to Liverpool). Title : Optimal meshes of superpixels for faster image processing (3-month teaching replacement).
	Grant (3K GBP, jointly with M.Grinfeld and M.Haw) to run the ATI strategic workshop on 14 March 2016 : Topological Data Analysis in Materials Science and Engineering.
	Travel grant of the London Mathematical Society to give the contributed 20-min talk Topological Computer Vision in the section Mathematical Image and Signal Processing at 7ECM (European Congress of Mathematicians) at TU Berlin on 18-22 July 2016.
	Grant (1.7K Euros) by the ACAT (Applied and Computational Algebraic Topology) network of ESF (European Science Foundation) to visit IST Austria (March 2015).
	Applied Algebraic Topology network in the UK jointly organised in 2014-2016 with M.Farber, J.Brodzki, J.Grbić, M.Grant, D.Schuetz and funded by LMS, GMJT, IMA with 4 meetings per year at Aberdeen, Durham, Queen Mary London, Southampton.
	EPSRC first grant (100K GBP) with post-doctoral assistant Dr Alexey Chernov, 2011 - 2013 Title : Persistent Topological Structures in Noisy Images (ref. EP/I030328/1) followed by a collaboration with Microsoft (2014-2016).
	Marie Curie International Incoming Postdoctoral Fellowship (142K Euros) Combinatorial Knot Theory, Liverpool (UK), September 2005 - May 2007.
	Postdoctoral Fellowship (22K Euros) on Combinatorial Group Theory at University of Burgundy, Dijon (France), December 2003 - November 2004.
	INTAS PhD Fellowship (10K Euros) at Moscow State University (Russia), March 2001 - February 2003, covered research collaboration at Universities of Montpellier II, Liverpool, Dijon, Toulouse III, Paris VII.

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Group in Topological Data Analysis

	PhD student Mr Graham Briggs (since October 2017) is jointly supervised with Prof Andy Cooper (director of the MIF) and Dr Edward Pyzer-Knapp (IBM). Project : Towards a Cognitive Assistant for Computational Chemistry. Investigating automatable methods to analyse the output of simulations.
	PhD student Mr Fraser Holloway (since October 2017) is supervised by Dr Laura Harkness-Brennan and Dr Vitaliy Kurlin (50%), funded by the STFC. Project : Topological Data Analysis methods for AGATA (a gamma-ray detector).
	PhD student Mr Grzegorz Muszynski (since April 2017) is supervised by Dr Vitaliy Kurlin (80%) and the Senior Staff Scientist Dr Michael Wehner in the Computational Research Division at the Berkeley lab (US). Project : Topological Analysis of the Climate System
	PhD student Mr Krasen Samardzhiev (since October 2017) is supervised by Dr Daniel Arribas-Bel, Dr Vitaliy Kurlin (40%) and Prof Alex Singleton. Project : A Topological Data Analysis of Big Spatio-Temporal Urban Data.
	PhD student Mr Philip Smith (since October 2017) is supervised by Dr Vitaliy Kurlin (80%) and Dr Igor Potapov, funded by the Leverhulme Centre at the Materials Innovation Factory in Liverpool. Project : New Computational Methods for a Faster Materials Discovery.

• Here is a short list of the former students and postdocs of the group.
  • Dr Alexey Chernov : postdoc in 2011 - 2012, now a Senior Lecturer in Statistics at Brighton University, we continue our collaboration on combining Topological Data Analysis with Machine Learning.
  • Dr Marjan Safi-Samghabadi : PhD student in 2009 - 2013, a lecturer at International Imam Khomeini University, Iran.
  • Summer students in 2017 : Graham Briggs (MSc), Jason Brewer (MSc), Sandra Garcia (MSc),Yuyao Wang (MSc), Zijian Li (MSc), Simon Hirst (EPSRC), Aviral Srivastava (intern on site), Falgun Patel (intern on site), Ayush Mishra (intern online), Utkarsh Shukla (intern online).
  • Mr Christopher Smithers : PhD supervised in 2015-2016 before moving to Liverpool, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
  • Summer students in 2016 : David Torkington (MSc), Cheng Shen (MSc), Phil Smith (LMS), Aryaman Patel (intern on site).
  • Final year project students in 2015-2016 : Donald Harvey, Jeremy Forsythe, Christopher Parkinson, Lewin Strauss.

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Join the group in Topological Data Analysis

• If you know C++ or Python, and wish to join as an intern, PhD or postdoc, e-mail vitaliy(dot)kurlin(at)gmail(dot)com.
• 10 November 2017: iCase PhD studentship funded for 4 years by EPSRC and IBM Research. Project : ‘Seeing’ new organic ferroelectrics. Main supervisors : Prof Andy Cooper (director of the MIF) and Dr Edward Pyzer-Knapp (IBM).
  Description : Ferroelectric materials have important applications, for example as non-volatile memory. However, this phenomenon is rare in organic materials, with the discovery process often led more though serendipity than design. Recent advances in crystal structure prediction and, more generally, high-throughput (virtual) screening techniques have paved the way for a more simulation and data-driven approach.
  The student will develop state-of-the-art computation, pattern recognition algorithms, and machine learning to guide systematic experimental investigations in the Materials Innovation Factory into all-organic molecular room temperature ferroelectrics that are flexible, non-toxic, and solution processable. More generally, the project will build a new computational platform for the prediction of function from structure and available literature, through the use of information extraction and knowledge representation techniques.
  Qualifications: A 2:1 or higher degree or equivalent in Chemistry with a strong interest in data-science, or alternatively a strong interest in physical science but with Mathematics or Computer Science background. The candidate will be expected to have strong programming abilities (Python preferred), and an interest in the application of machine-learning techniques to complex data. How to apply : e-mail me as soon as possible to discuss details of your application.
• Deadline in August every year : Newton Bhabha PhD Placements Programme for Indian PhD students. Eligibility : strong C++ skills. Time of internship : 3 months at the University of Liverpool.
• For summer internships, e.g. for top students from India or China, we can host you for 10-12 weeks if you have funds from your university (about 2K GBP for accommodation plus visa and travel costs).
• We may support your application for a PhD studentship or a postdoctoral fellowship listed below.
  • AXA postdoctoral fellowships (deadlines in early April/October).
  • Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships (deadline in February-March).
  • EPSRC Postdoctoral Fellowships (no deadline, best submitted in January or July).
  • Royal Society Newton International Fellowships (deadline in February-March, extra fellowships for candidates from Israel, China, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey).

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Career highlights : achievements since 2005

• Mentoring : Dr Alexey Chernov (postdoc in 2011-2012) is a Senior Lecturer in Statistics at Brighton University, UK.
  Dr Marjan Safi-Samghabadi (PhD student in 2009-2013) is a lecturer at International Imam Khomeini University, Iran.
• Major collaboration with Prabhat leading the Big Data Centre funded by Intel at the Berkeley lab, US.
• Most prestigious grant : Marie Curie International Incoming Postdoctoral Fellowship (2005 - 2007).
• Keynote applied talk : Topological Computer Vision at Prospects in Data Science (January 2016).
• Best applied paper : V. Kurlin, Computer Graphics Forum (August 2015, journal impact factor 1.64).
• Best conference paper : V. Kurlin, Proceedings of Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (2014), a top 3 conference in entire Computer Science and the highest h-index conference in any field.
• Teaching award : one of 3 final nominees in the Science Faculty for a Lecturer of the Year (2013).
• Best pure maths talk : 20-min oral at International Congress of Mathematicians 2006, Madrid.
• Best pure maths paper : V. Kurlin, Compressed Drinfeld associators, Journal of Algebra (2005).
• Best public talk : What can Deep Learning do with Big Data? at the Pint of Science festival in Liverpool on 17 May 2017.
• Largest admin success : as the MSc course director in 2011-2013, I doubled the enrolment by asking candidates to solve maths problems as an entrance exam, which brought extra 100K+ GBP to university.

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Education : PhD (2003), MSc× and PGCert

• PGCert : Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (2008 - 2009) and full membership of the Higher Education Academy, UK.
• PhD in Geometry and Topology, Moscow State University (Russia), November 2000 - October 2003
  Thesis : Basic embeddings of graphs and 3-page embeddings of graphs.
  Supervisors: Prof Victor Buchstaber and Prof Arkady Skopenkov.
• MSc in Mathematics, Independent University of Moscow (Russia), 1995 - 2002 (part-time)
  Thesis : Turaev-Viro invariants of compact 3-dimensional manifolds.
• MSc in Mathematics (grade point average 5.0/5), Moscow State University (Russia), September 1995 - June 2000
  Thesis : 3-page diagrams of spatial 3-valent graphs.
• Gold medal (top grades 5/5 in all subjects), Physical-Mathematical School N146, Perm (Russia), June 1995.
• Top grades in mathematics and physics in the 2-year distance course by Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Sepember 1993 - May 1995) whose famous graduates include recent Nobel laureates A. Geim and K. Novoselov.

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Experience : CV and job history since 2000

• Vitaliy Kurlin's curriculum vitae (pdf, 4 pages, 345K, last updated in September 2016)
• Current research : Topological Data Analysis for Materials Science, Computer Vision, Climate
• Past research : geometric topology, graph theory, singularity theory, non-commutative algebra
• Programming skills : C/C++ (industry level), Java, PHP, HTML5, CSS3, Matlab, Python, Javascript
• Since 2016 : senior lecturer (associate professor), Computer Science and Materials Innovation Factory, Liverpool
• 2014 - 2016 : visiting scientist in the Computer Vision group at Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK
• 2007 - 2013 : university lecturer (assistant professor) in Mathematics, United Kingdom
• June - September 2007 : research postdoc in Sensor Networks, University of Lancaster, UK
• September 2005 - May 2007 : research postdoc in Knot Theory, University of Liverpool, UK
• February - May 2005 : teaching postdoc in Knot Theory, Independent University of Moscow, Russia
• December 2003 - November 2004 : research postdoc in Combinatorial Group Theory, University of Burgundy, France
• November 2000 - October 2003 : PhD student in Geometry and Topology at Moscow State University, Russia
• October 2000 - June 2001 : C++ programmer in traffic recognition, TochMash Module, Moscow, Russia.

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