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Luca Nyckees

About

Research Developer - Applied Mathematics

Hi, I'm Luca! 

In a few words, what I specialized in during my studies, through courses, internships and part-time jobs, is a branch of applied mathematics called Topological Data Analysis (TDA). I have worked on projects in various closely-related domains, such as machine learning (implementation of interesting neural networks, label propagation algorithms), data analysis of network time-series, contact tracing data analysis, statistical computation and visualisation of data, and more. The output of those projects go from an academic report to developing an App and providing efficient data analysis pipelines. 

What I really enjoy is making connections between domains, expressing a problem through mathematical, algebraic concepts. I am very enthusiastic about working on projects that put together mathematics and programming.  

I am interested in taking a part-time job in an innovative startup that needs a motivated data analyst. I have used many programming languages and tools until now, and the majority of my projects were done in Python.

Skills

Applied Mathematics

C++

Data Analysis

Differential Geometry

Matlab

Network Topology

Python

Open for

parttime

Work Experience

Laboratory for Topology and Neuroscience at EPFL

2020-11 - 2021-06

Workplace
Research Intern
Location

Vaud

Employement type

parttime

Using tools coming from topological data analysis (TDA) in order to better understand contact tracing data collected in the Canton of Geneva. This involves modeling interactions among users via simplicial complexes. This is a project done in collaboration with Yann Mentha Loris and supervised by Celia Hacker, Stefania Ebli and Prof. Kathryn Hess. In particular, we develop a user-friendly app allowing to interact with the data in an intuitive and visual manner. Key-concepts : persistent homology, graph time-series, exploratory analysis, graph calibration

Laboratory for Topology and Neuroscience at EPFL

2021-08 - 2021-11

Workplace
Research Developper
Location

Vaud

Employement type

parttime

Zigzag persistence, as introduced by Carlsson and De Silva, offers a way to better understand the behavior of topological features observed in a family of spaces or pointclouds by generalizing the setting of persistent homology. In this project, we aim at providing a tool to compute levelset zigzag persistence. We deduce the results from computations on extended persistence, which are already implemented in C++. To this end, we make use of Python bindings. This way, we develop an efficient computational tool to add to the general data science toolbox. This project is supervised by Nicolas Berkouk. Key-concepts : zigzag persistence, extended persistence, barcodes, strong diamond principle, relative Mayer-Vietoris diamonds, pyramid theorem, combinatorial bijective mapping

Laboratory for Topology and Neuroscience at EPFL

2021-12 -

Workplace
Research Developper
Location

Vaud

Employement type

parttime

In this project, we aim at making progress in the general setting of applied multi-persistence theory. More precisely, we introduce a distance on extended persistence barcodes of multi-persistence modules and implement an associated efficient automatic differentiation algorithm. This project is supervised by Nicolas Berkouk and Prof. Kathryn Hess. Key-concepts : automatic differentiation algorithm, sheaf theory, barcodes, extended persistent homology, gradient descent

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

2019-08 - 2020-11

Workplace
Teaching Assistant
Location

Vaud

Employement type

parttime

Teaching assistant positions at EPFL, for the following courses. - Analyse I - Physique I pour mathématiciens - Structures Algébriques - Topologie - Algebra The above include individual tutoring, solving problems in front of a class, group tutoring, creation of exercises, grading of homeworks, exercises and midterms, organisational meetings, as well as communication moderating duties (regulating online chat on Zoom).

Academic Experience

École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne -

 

2017.08 - 2020.06

Bachelor of Science, BSc in Mathematics

École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne -

 

2020.08 - 2022.06

Master of Science, MSc in Mathematics