World-leading academics - Dr Primoz Skraba
Primoz Skraba is a Senior Lecturer in Applied and Computational Topology. His research is broadly related to data analysis with an emphasis on topological data analaysis. Generally, the problems he considers span both theory and applications. On the theory side, the areas of interest include stability and approximation of algebraic invariants, stochastic topology (the topology of random spaces), and algorithmic research. On the applications side, he focuses on combining topological ideas with machine learning, optimization, and other statistical tools. Other applications areas of interest include visualisation and geometry processing.
He received a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2009 and has held positions at INRIA in France and the Jozef Stefan Institute, the University of Primorska, and the University of Nova Gorica in Slovenia, before joining Queen Mary University of London in 2018. He is also currently a Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute. Primoz is the Programme Director for MSc Data Analytics and was heavily involved in the programme’s development. Within the MSc Data Analytics programme, he teaches the compulsory module Storing, Manipulating and Visualising Data.
My academic career was something that was not quite planned. All my degrees are in fact in Electric Engineering rather than Mathematics. During graduate school, my advisor was in Computer Science, and I became involved with Applied Topology, as it was just starting out then. It just so happened that most of the problems I was (and am) working on were more mathematical.
Applied and computational topology is precisely what the name says, as it looks for applications of techniques and constructions from topology to other areas. Initially, the main application was to data analysis (which is a sub-area called topological data analysis), but as the area has matured, it now also intersects with symplectic topology and stochastic topology. The main differentiating factor from classical algebraic topology is that different constraints are considered: certain pathological cases are excluded, but we often deal with much more partial information. The field is still rapidly evolving and I imagine it will look quite different in a few years' time.
I enjoy the performance aspect of lecturing – it's always fun to be able to keep the attention of students. Thinking back to when I was a student, I always thought the best lecturers were the ones who were enthusiastic about what they were teaching and that's what I try to get across.