Explain your research clearly in one minute. This is exactly the task given to scientists from Charles University in the new video series Science at CU. The first to take on the task was mathematician Erin Carson, who is inventing new and better algorithms for supercomputers.
"The goal of my ERC project is to design and analyze algorithms for supercomputers, very large and very fast computers," says Erin Carson from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University. Specifically, she is focusing on matrix computation, which are underlying machine learning, data science, and computational science applications.
"A key part of my project is figuring out how we can exploit inexactness. So we can simplify parts of the algorithm sometimes in a very significant way and get better performance while still guaranteeing something about how good of an answer we get," says the researcher, who received her PhD in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.
But it was during her studies that she became interested in the work of researchers at Charles University. When she was finishing her postdoctoral fellowship, she applied for and received Primus support from the university. "It really is one of the best places in the world for numerical linear algebra," says Carson, who has been at Matfyz since 2018.
She is currently on maternity leave with her second child. "It's not always easy. You have to fit in the work when you can, but I'm still managing the project while I'm on my maternity leave," says the scientist, who was awarded a Starting Grant from the European Research Council in 2022. More in a separate article.
All videos are produced with Czech and English subtitles.
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Science at CU in one minute The Science at Charles University series of short videos showcases the diversity of science at Charles University. First to present her research is mathematician Erin Carson. |
Where was the filming?
Erin Carson's scientific home is the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics campus in Karlín, but we chose the newest math building "IMPACT" on the Troja campus for the filming. Opened in early June 2020, the pavilion's name consists of the initial letters of the Czech words Informatické a Matematické Posluchárny, Auditorium a Knihovna Troja (Informatics and Mathematics Clasrooms, Auditorium, and Troja Library). The building is wheelchair accessible, equipped with state-of-the-art technology and clad on the outside with a material that changes appearance according to weather and light conditions. Teachers also praise the capacity of the new premises. The large auditorium can accommodate up to 250 people. As a result, it is no longer necessary to conduct large lectures of basic courses in parallel, but for the whole year at once. Subsequent exercises are then held in ten smaller classrooms with a capacity of twenty to thirty-six seats. More in a separate article (in Czech).
