Past work

For a discussion of my current research efforts, see Research Agenda.

Extraction of friends’ shared tastes from social networks

With Dr. Laura Dietz, I developed a scalable Gibbs sampling framework and implemented and compared several topic models. Furthermore, we demonstrated a substantial improvement in model performance by incorporating friendship network structure.

Relevant publications

Alexandru group: Lattice quantum chromodynamics

With Dr. Andrei Alexandru I developed a novel code base to greatly accelerate numerical calculation of lattice quantum chromodynamics. This included,

  • Implement a variety of optimized kernels for common linear algebra operations, along with testing framework
  • Devise and implement an optimized implementation of the Wilson d-slash operator for nVidia’s Fermi architecture, accomplishing a factor of 30 improvement in per-processor throughput over existing optimized CPU implementations
  • Adapt implementation of eigensystem-solver
  • Generalize the code-base to operate across a cluster of GPUs

Relevant publications

  • A. Alexandru, et al. “Efficient implementation of the overlap operator on multi-GPUs” arXiv:1106.4964 (published at Symposium on Application Accelerators in High Performance Computing, 2011)
  • A. Alexandru, et al. “Multi-mass solvers for lattice QCD on GPUs” arXiv:1103.5103 (published in the Journal of Computation Physics)

Reeves group: Ablation-aided spectroscopy

During my work in Dr. Mark Reeves’ group I worked to implement a laser ablation technique (MALDI) on length scales below the diffraction limit. This work involved,

  • Development and optimization of protocols for near-field tip production from chalcogenide fiber
  • Characterization and optimization of atomic force microscope behavior while measuring soft media
  • Integration of a variety of laboratory equipment for positioning, mass spectroscopy, and laser excitation.

Relevant publications

  • D. Raghu, et al. “Near-field ablation threshold of cellular samples at mid-IR wavelengths” arXiv:1201.4980 (published in Applied Physics Letters).
  • J. Hoffmann, et al. “Tip preparation for near-field ablation at mid-infrared wavelengths” (to be published in Reviews of Scientific Instrumentation).