Math professor first TMU researcher to secure international collaboration grant
Math professor Pawel Pralat is the first TMU researcher to receive the NSERC Alliance International Collaboration grant for continued and new work on complex networks with SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other partner universities. Photo: Sarah McIntyre
A Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) professor has received funding for an international research project that will help TMU maintain and establish strategic partnerships, create a better understanding of complex networks and contribute to quantum computing research.
Faculty of Science math professor Pawel Pralat is the first researcher at TMU to receive the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Alliance International Collaboration grant in the amount of $194,000. The funding will support professor Pralat’s continued collaboration with researchers at the SGH Warsaw School of Economics as they embark on a new global project involving researchers from four countries.
Professor Pralat and researchers at the SGH Warsaw School of Economics have worked together on several research projects with industry partners and governments, including projects for the Department of National Defence and Canada’s Communications Security Establishment.
“There is a huge overlap in what we are interested in, but our approaches are a bit different,” said professor Pralat. “I am a pure mathematician specializing in random graphs, which helps me design new tools for machine learning and understanding real-world processes that are usually stochastic by nature. The SGH Warsaw School of Economics researchers are very good at implementing these tools and applying them to industrial and economic problems. It has proven to be a perfect fit.”
As part of this project professor Pralat is also establishing new collaborations with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Using the Julia programming language created at MIT, professor Pralat and his team will create tools and algorithms to analyze data represented as hypergraphs. Hypergraphs allow for a more accurate representation of human-technology interactions and relationships than traditional graphs. For example, hypergraphs are better able to capture complex interactions like those that occur in a group email chain where individuals interact with other individuals as well as the group as a whole. This research could lead to better prediction, recommendation and detection models, like those that detect bots on social media, as hypergraphs allow researchers to collect more data from these interactions.
The team also aims to design new algorithms for quantum computers and is exploring opportunities to collaborate with technology companies.
“Congratulations to professor Pralat, who has demonstrated tremendous commitment to global engagement through connecting, partnering and collaborating with international researchers,” said Steven N. Liss, TMU’s vice-president, research and innovation. “This exciting new collaboration will ensure TMU is at the forefront of advanced data analytics and quantum computing research and discovery.”
The seven institutions involved in the collaborative research project are:
- Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands)
- Loyola University Chicago (USA)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)
- McMaster University (Canada)
- Northeastern Illinois University (USA)
- SGH Warsaw School of Economics (Poland)
- Toronto Metropolitan University (Canada)
Learn more about the NSERC Alliance International grants (external link) .
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