Curriculum Vita
Education
New York University
Graduate School of Arts & Science, Department of Mathematics
Ph.D., Mathematics, January 2006
Stanford University
B.S., Mathematics, cum laude, June 2000
Dissertation
Title: "A Trainable Graph Combination Scheme for Belief Propagation"
Advisor: Davi Geiger, Professor of Computer Science and Neural Science, New York University
This dissertation tackles one of the fundamental difficulties in computer vision: the interaction between local and global information. Belief propagation on Markov random fields allows local information to propagate globally, but exact solutions on loopy networks are NP hard to compute, and approximate variational schemes can be computationally expensive. I propose a scheme that combines exact belief propagation on multiple sets of tree structures. The algorithm is highly efficient, achieves accuracy beyond that attainable on each set alone, and is competitive with alternative schemes on an extensive image segmentation test case. I further demonstrate how to train the parameters of this scheme for applications where selecting them by hand would be too costly. The trained algorithm can now combine the dual approaches of region- and boundary-based segmentation and produce competitive results on natural images.
Teaching Experience
Instructor, September 2005 - December 2005, New York University
Assisted with Calculus I: taught sections, and wrote and graded weekly quizzes and exams
Instructor, September 2004 - May 2005, New York University
Taught Calculus I and Calculus II: developed lectures, homework assignments, and exams
Teaching Assistant, September 2002 - May 2003, New York University
Assisted with Calculus I and Quantitative Reasoning: Mathematical Patterns in Nature
Research Experience
New York University, September 2000 - January 2006
Doctoral dissertation: see Dissertation above
Cornell University, Summer 1999
- Research Experience for Undergraduates, sponsored by the National Science Foundation
- Studied and implemented new computational model for sphere packing (see Publications below)
- Presented results at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, December 1999
Publications
Voronoi Polyhedra of Unit Ball Packings with Small Surface Area. Károly Bezdek, Endre Daróczy Kiss, and Kai Ju Liu. Periodica Mathematica Hungarica 39.1-3 (1999): 107-118 (link).
Honors
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, September 2000 - May 2004
Stanford University President's Scholar, September 1996
Technical Skills
Scientific Programs and Languages
Matlab, Mathematica, LaTeX
General Programming Skills
C/C++, Java, Lush, HTML
Languages
Mandarin: fluent in speaking, proficient in reading and writing
German: proficient in speaking, reading, and writing
Activities
Stanford Music Society, Stanford University
President, September 1999 - May 2000; Vice-President, September 1998 - May 1999
- Organized Stanford Young Artists Festival: opportunity for young classical music students to bring music to local elementary schools with insufficient funding for music programs