Summer Research Associate Program
About
The Summer Research Associate program hosted by Topos Institute offers an opportunity for early career researchers to engage in cutting-edge research under the mentorship of experts affiliated with the institute. Research areas explored in the program include mathematics, especially category theory and mathematical logic; programming language theory and software systems; and philosophy, especially ethics of science and technology.
Current RAs and projects
- Tony Wehbe
- Topic: Composition of attractor lattices
- Mentor: Sophie Libkind
- Lucy Horowitz
- Topic: Logical expressivism
- Mentor: Kris Brown
- Aaron Fairbanks
- Topic: Comonads on Set
- Mentor: Kevin Carlson, David Spivak
- Matt Cuffaro
- Topic: Systems ecology and modelling in CatColab
- Mentor: Evan Patterson, Dana Scott
- Ea E T
- Topic: Loose bimodules for dynamical systems
- Mentor: Sophie Libkind
- C.B. Aberlé
- Topic: Cartesian double theories and formalisation
- Mentor: Evan Patterson, Kevin Carlson, Dana Scott
Past RAs and projects
2024
- C.B. Aberlé
- Topic: Polynomial functors for the semantics of dependent type theory
- Mentor: David Spivak
- Blog post: Polynomial universes and natural models
- Keri D’Angelo
- Topic: Wiring patterns for composition of Mealy machines
- Mentor: Sophie Libkind
- Blog post: Wiring diagrams for Mealy machines
- Owen Haaga
- Topic: Agent-based modelling in AlgebraicJulia
- Mentor: Kris Brown
2023
- Harrison Grodin
- Topic: Synthetic domain theory and polynomial functors in computer science
- Mentor: Dana Scott and David Spivak
- Blog post: Poly-morphic effect handlers
- Harper Hults
- Topic: Statistical theories and probabilistic programming
- Mentor: Evan Patterson
- Blog post: Categorical statistics in Julia
- Samantha Jarvis
- Topic: Constructing dynamic monoidal categories from reverse derivative categories
- Mentor: David Spivak
- Blog post: Building dynamic structures
- Stephen Mell
- Topic: Graphical languages for distributive monoidal categories
- Mentor: Kris Brown
- Luke Morris
- Topic: Discrete exterior calculus on 3D semi-simplicial sets
- Mentor: Evan Patterson
- Software: CombinatorialSpaces.jl
2022
- Angeline Aguinaldo
- Topic: AI planning using categorical databases and rewriting
- Mentor: Evan Patterson
- Blog post: Using categorical logic for AI planning
- Anthony Agwu
- Topic: Categorical semantics of untyped lambda calculus
- Mentor: Dana Scott
- Blog post: Scott’s model of lambda calculus
- Alejandra Arciniegas
- Topic: Technology ethics at Topos Institute
- Mentor: Brendan Fong
- Blog posts: Strategies for ethically oriented pursuit of research and technology, and Project cards: a tool for research transparency
- Harrison Grodin
- Topic: Programming language semantics using topology and domain theory
- Mentor: Dana Scott
- Blog post: Recursive Types via Domain Theory
- Michael Lambert
- Topic: Double categories for knowledge representation and databases
- Mentor: Evan Patterson
- Blog post: Data operations are functorial semantics
- Joshua Meyers
- Topic: Polynomial functors and computation
- Mentor: David Spivak
- Blog posts: Computation and category theory, and Imagining bicomodules with type theory
2021
- Sophie Libkind
- Topic: Mathematics and software for composing open dynamical systems
- Mentor: Evan Patterson
- Software: AlgebraicDynamics.jl
- Owen Lynch
- Topic: Design and implementation of categorical databases (“struct acsets”)
- Mentor: Evan Patterson
- Software: categorical databases (“acsets”) in Catlab.jl
- David Jaz Myers
- Topic: Categorical theory of dynamical systems
- Mentor: David Spivak
- Book: Categorical Systems Theory
- Nelson Niu
- Topic: Polynomial functors
- Mentor: David Spivak
- Book: Polynomial Functors: A Mathematical Theory of Interaction
