Activities
Selected scientific leadership; organized programs, workshops, and special sessions; invited lecture series; conference and workshop presentations; and colloquium and seminar talks.
Ongoing programs & seminar series
Mathematical Machine Learning Seminar, MPI MiS + UCLA, organized with the MML group; over 200 talks since 2020. [UCLA schedule]
Data Theory at UCLA — Faculty Advisory Board. A collaboration between the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics & Data Science focused on research and education in the mathematical and statistical foundations of data science.
Organized programs & workshops
Upcoming and recent
IPAM Workshop: Algebraic Geometry: A Window to Machine Learning, with Michael Murray, Rishi Sonthalia, and Yulia Alexandr, Feb 1–5, 2027.
ICML Workshop: Combining Theory and Benchmarks: Towards A Virtuous Cycle to Understand and Guarantee Foundation Model Performance, with B. Hu, N. Bottman, Y. Yang, Y. Yan, and J. Lee, Jul 9, 2026.
MFO Workshop: Modern and Emerging Phenomena in Machine Learning, Oberwolfach, with Michael Murray, Deanna Needell, and Rishi Sonthalia, Mar 9–13, 2026.
Conference on Mathematics of Machine Learning 2025, Hamburg University of Technology, with N. Ay, B. Gess, and M. Burger, Sep 22–25, 2025.
AIM SQuaRE: Neural Network Polytopes, with Laura Escobar, Patricio Gallardo, Javier González-Anaya, José González, and Alejandro H. Morales, 2023–2025.
Previous
IPAM Geometry and Learning from Data in 3D and Beyond — Reunion Conference, Lake Arrowhead, Dec 2021; reunion conference of the 2019 IPAM long program.
BIRS Workshop: Geometry & Learning from Data, Casa Matemática Oaxaca, with M. Ha Quang, R. Lai, and P. Suarez-Serrato, Oct 24–29, 2021.
Conference on Mathematics of Machine Learning 2021, ZiF Bielefeld, with B. Gess and N. Ay, Aug 4–7, 2021.
IPAM Long Program: Geometry and Learning from Data in 3D and Beyond, co-organizer, Mar–Jun 2019.
Collaborate at ICERM: Geometry of Data and Geometry of Networks, with J. Bruna, Z. Ma, N. Otter, and Y. Wang, Jun 17–21, 2019.
Deep Learning Theory, kickoff of ERC project DLT, MPI MiS, Mar 27–29, 2019.
AIM Workshop: Boltzmann Machines, American Institute of Mathematics, with A. Fischer and J. Morton, Sep 17–21, 2018.
DALI Workshop: Theory of Deep Learning, Lanzarote, with A. Fischer, Apr 5, 2018.
Mini-symposia & special sessions organized
Recent
SIAM AG Mini Symposium: New Frontiers of Geometry and Combinatorics in Machine Learning, with P. Gallardo, L. Escobar, J. González, and A. Morales, Jul 9–10, 2025. Three-part mini-symposium: Part I · Part II · Part III.
LatMath Special Scientific Session in Machine Learning, IPAM, Mar 6, 2025.
JMM AMS Special Session: Algebraic Methods in Machine Learning and Optimization, with J. Li, Y. Alexandr, and J. Lindberg, Jan 10, 2025.
SIAM MDS Mini Symposium: Algebraic Geometry and Machine Learning, with T. Tang, Y. Cooper, and J. Rodriguez, Oct 25, 2024.
GNN Meeting at MPI MiS, with P. Banerjee and K. Karhadkar, Jun 23, 2023.
Previous
Combinatorics, Algebraic Geometry, and Machine Learning, kickoff workshop of DFG project CIDL, MPI MiS, Aug 8, 2022.
Neural Networks and Polytopes at UCLA, mini-workshop sponsored by UCLA EDI Faculty Career Development Award, May 6–8, 2022.
Wasserstein Information Geometry, session at the 4th Conference on Geometric Science of Information (GSI), Toulouse, with W. Li, Aug 29, 2019.
Invited lecture series & short courses
Recent
MATH+ Visiting Scholar Lecture Series, five lectures on Mathematical Foundations of Modern Machine Learning: Parameter Spaces, Function Spaces, and Optimization Dynamics, TU Berlin, Jul 2026.
Mathematical Foundations of Machine Learning School, four lectures on Geometric and Structural Perspectives on Learning and Verification in Deep Neural Networks, Trento, Italy, May 2026.
Winter Conference in Statistics, main lecturer, four lectures, Umeå University, Sweden, Mar 2024.
Advanced Studies Institute in Data Science, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence, key lecturer, seven lectures, Urgench State University, Uzbekistan, Jan 2024.
Keynote, plenary & selected conference/workshop talks
Recent
Wallenberg Advanced Scientific Forum, Rånäs Castle, Sweden, Sep 28–Oct 2, 2026.
Workshop on Mathematical Approaches to Modern AI Challenges, National University of Singapore, Aug 31–Sep 4, 2026.
MPI MiS Workshop on Geometry, Topology, and Machine Learning, Leipzig, Nov 2025.
Munich AI Lecture, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Jul 17, 2025. [Munich AI Lectures]
Four invited AMS Special Session talks at JMM: Geometry and Machine Learning; Applications of Algebraic Geometry; Geometric and Combinatorial Methods in Deep Learning Theory; Algebraic Statistics in Our Changing World, Jan 2025.
SIAM Data Science minisymposium Incorporating Geometry in Machine Learning: Theory and Applications, Oct 2024.
INdAM Mathematics of Machine Learning, Cortona, Italy, Sep 2024.
10th International ScaDS.AI Summer School, Leipzig, Jun 2024.
Invited talks at RIKEN AIP, GAMM, and the Symposium on Sparsity and Singular Structures, Feb–Mar 2024.
Invited talks at IMSI, MPI MiS, DMV Meeting, Conference on Applied Algebra, SampTA, SIAM Optimization, and BIRS CMO; minisymposium keynote at ICIAM, 2023.
Previous
Keynote, International Conference on Information Geometry for Data Science (IG4DS), Hamburg University of Technology, Sep 2022.
Invited talks at COMPSTAT, Statistical Society of Canada, JMM Latinxs in Combinatorics, and SIAM Imaging Science; keynote at Algebraic Statistics, 2022.
Workshop keynote, Deep Learning through Information Geometry at NeurIPS, Dec 2020.
Plenary talk at MBI workshop on Optimal Transport, Topological Data Analysis and Applications, Jul 2020.
Workshop keynote at CVPR Differential Geometry and Machine Learning, Jun 2020.
Invited talks at IPAM, MPI MiS, Purdue, Isaac Newton Institute, MINDS/JHU, and other workshops, 2020–2021.
Selected invited, plenary, keynote, and tutorial presentations at ICIAM, SIAM AG, CVPR workshops, TMLSS, SIAM AN, SampTA, SPARS, Oberwolfach, ICML workshops, IGAIA, RIKEN, and ICLR, 2013–2019.
Selected colloquium & seminar talks
Recent
University of Göttingen, Feb 10, 2026.
University of Trento, Sep 9; Math + AI Seminar and Mathematics Colloquium, Arizona State University, Jan 15–17, 2025.
Naval Postgraduate School; TU Berlin; CIMAT; University of Wisconsin–Madison; KTH, 2024.
Caltech Machine Learning Seminar; Vanderbilt Machine Learning Seminar; MIT TILOS & OPTML++; UMass Amherst; University of Nottingham; Caltech CMX Seminar, 2023.
Previous
1W-MINDS; ASU LIONS; UCLA Statistics; Oxford Data Science Seminar; University of Chicago Statistics Colloquium, 2022.
Münster, RWTH Aachen, RPI, Shanghai Jiao Tong, MPI MiS, UCLA Statistics, TU Berlin, Purdue, UCL/DeepMind CSML, UCLA Biostatistics, UC Irvine, UC Davis, University of Vienna, KAUST, and Bielefeld, 2020–2021.
Selected seminars and colloquia at IPAM, Rényi Institute, MPI MiS, UCLA, USC, Peking University, MPI Informatics, MPI Intelligent Systems, Penn State, Microsoft Research Cambridge, and other institutions, 2017–2019.