Teodoro (Teo) Fields Collin

(teoc at mit dot edu; teoc at csail dot mit dot edu; twitter; github; Room 32-G788)

I am a PhD student affiliated with the COMMIT group at MIT CSAIL where I am advised by Prof. Saman Amarasinghe. My broader research interests are at the intersection of compilers, programming languages, scientific computing, computer algebra, and numerical analysis. In particular, I am interested in building domain specific languages that allow scientists to write efficient simulations without too much effort. I want to improve science per op. I prefer my domains and scientists to use a lot of mathematics; for example, finite element methods are particularly close to my heart. Right now, I am particularly interested in languages for high level linear and relational algebra across many domains.

I recieved my undergraduate degree in applied mathematics from the University of Chicago where I worked on a DSL for the visualization of finite element solutions. I was advised by Gordon Kindlmann, L. Ridgway Scott, Charisee Chiw, and John Reppy. I worked on the Diderot Language. I was part of the VIS-PL Lab.

Peer Reviewed Publications

  1. Point Movement in a DSL for Higher-Order FEM Visualization [IEEE] [arXiv] [slides]

Under Submission

  1. An Adaptive Savitsky-Golay Filter for Smoothing Finite Element Computation (Submitted to SISC) [arXiv]
  2. Finch: Sparse and Structured Array Programming with Control Flow (Submitted to OOPLSA as second author with Willow Ahrens ) [ arXiv ]

Workshops

  1. A Programming Language for coordinate free linear algebra [PDESOFT24]
  2. Tensor Computations: Applications and Optimization [Dagstuhl Seminar 22101]
  3. Workshop on Parallel Computing Frameworks for FEM [BCAMATH19]
  4. Diderot: A Domain-Specific Language for Visualizing FEniCS Functions [FEniCS18] [Abstract]

Advised Theses

  1. Ricardo Gayle Jr - Halide in Molecular Dynamics [MIT MENG]
  2. Richard P. Sollee III - An Intermediate Representation for Expressing and Optimizing Computations in Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics. [MIT MENG]

Other Written Work

  1. Random Matrix Theory [UChicago Math REU 2016]
  2. The Finite Element Method and Curved Boundaries [UChicago Math REU 2017]

Fellowships

  1. MIT Presidential Fellow (2020)
  2. NSF GRFP (2022-2027)

Service

  1. ACDA21 (Subreviewer)
  2. ACDA24 (Subreviewer)
  3. OOPLSA24 (Subreviewer)
  4. PLR24 (Reviewer)
  5. PLR25 (Reviewer, Program Chair)

Collaborators and Collaborative Projects

I collaborate a lot and work on too many things. Here are some projects and people whom I work with.

  1. Finch.jl with Willow Ahrens, Changwan Hong, Jaeyeon Won, Kylee Deeds, Radha Patel, and many others.
  2. Sybil (FEM) with Gilbert Bernstein and Oded Stein
  3. A DSL for LQCD with the MIT contingent of the NPLQCD collaboration.
  4. Various activities in CESMIX, a PSAAP-III center.
  5. I have probably forgotten something important.

Collaborators and Collaborative Projects

I contribute to open source and intend to open source all my projects. I've contributed to Firedrake, Halide, Spack, and Finch.jl among others.

Other Stuff

I run the Linear Algebra and Programming Languages Reading group at MIT. I really enjoy sci-fi (e.g. The Culture Novels, Terra Ignota), philosophy of science (e.g. Against Method, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions), and grand strategy games (e.g. EU4, CK3). I participate in several groups that enjoy similar things, most notably the MIT Graduate Sci-fi book club. My favorite branches of mathematics are Functional Analysis and Numerical Analysis. Fixed point theorems are the best. Somehow I also love SQL. If you are interested in any of the above, feel free to ping me.

For Undergraduates looking for MEngs and UROPs

I keep a list of open UROP/MEng projects here.