Thomas Gebhart

I am a computer scientist, applied mathematician, and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Minnesota, Department of Computer Science. My research is focused on the application of ideas from algebraic topology and category theory to a range of multi-disciplinary problems. My research is broadly motivated by a desire to understand how knowledge is acquired, structured, and employed by humans, machines, or their larger collective structures. I am particularly interested in systems where knowledge is parameterized or transformed by networks, as is the case with deep learning, knowledge graphs, and numerous problems within the computational social sciences. Modeling these network-structured knowledge domains with the proper level of mathematical abstraction allows for better control and more efficient usage of the domain’s accumulated knowledge, resulting in, for example, more faithful representations of accumulated knowledge, more explainable AI, and better insight into the drivers of scientific and technological change.

My CV is available here.