Three students from the Interdisciplinary Program in Applied Mathematics were recently awarded prizes for their research. Each addresses a different research question, and together they present a broad spectrum of applied mathematical work, grounded in modeling, computational tools, and interdisciplinary thinking.
Idan Sorin, PhD candidate
Supervised by Prof. Emeritus Alexander Nepomnyashchy
Jacob’s Fellowship recipient
Their research examines the dynamics of ecological systems characterized by cyclic competition (similar to the “Rock-Paper-Scissors” game). They analyze conditions for convergence to temporal homogeneous dynamics and synchronization within habitat networks, alongside instability phenomena that can lead to chaos, the selection of new homogeneous solutions, spatial patterns, and more.
From the dynamics of natural systems, the focus shifts to research employing mathematical tools to address environmental challenges.
Ofek Aloni, MSc student
Supervised by Prof. Barak Fishbain, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering
GLORIA & KEN LEVY FOUNDATION Fellowship recipient
Their work lies at the intersection of differential equations and AI, aiming to combine established physical models with recent advances in machine learning. The goal is to develop fast, accurate, and robust tools for real-world environmental applications.
Current research explores embedding an automatically differentiable numerical solver into the training loop of a neural network, enabling the reconstruction of full physical fields from sparse measurements across a range of settings. This allows a novel way of training, relying only on measurements in the sample points.
The sequence concludes with research focused on the development and understanding of computational models in deep learning.
Snir Hordan, PhD candidate
Supervised by Dr. Nadav Dym
GLORIA & KEN LEVY FOUNDATION Fellowship recipient
They study the expressivity of Geometric Deep Learning. Their work identifies geometric blind spots in current architectures and develops geometrically complete, low-dimensional models that offer rigorous theoretical guarantees with moderate computational cost.
Three awards, three applied research projects, and one program that fosters mathematical research connected to contemporary challenges.
We wish all three continued success in their research.
