I am a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the School of Data, Mathematical, and Statistical Sciences at the University of Central Florida with secondary joint appointment in the Department of Computer Science, and member of the UCF Insitute for for Artificial Intelligence.

My last name can also be written as Kuemmerle.

The research of my team focuses on scalable, efficient and reliable algorithms and models for artificial intelligence, machine learning and the Bitcoin ecosystem. I am interested in the theory and practice of addressing computational and statistical challenges arising from models involving sparsity, graph or low-rank structures with efficient optimization methods. I often use mathematical techniques from different areas including high-dimensional probability, applied and computational harmonic analysis, graph theory and continuous optimization. Furthermore, I am working on novel algorithms for improved payment delivery and capital allocation in payment channel networks such as the Lightning Network, which is a second-layer protocol for the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. I have taught courses on the Bitcoin protocol, covering the economic foundations, mathematics and computer science behind the Bitcoin cryptocurrency network.

I am deeply convinced that a major factor of many economic and societal ills of our time is broken money and the incentive system of government-issued fiat currencies. This motivates my research on Bitcoin, whose adoption has the potential to improve many of these ills.

I am looking for self-motivated graduate students with research interests in one of the following areas:

• AI and operations research for Bitcoin’s Lightning network
• Parameter-efficient deep learning via smoothing methods & explicit sparse and low-rank regularization
• Algorithm design & theory of saddle-escaping second-order methods

The projects can be suitable for students pursing a Ph.D. in Mathematics, Big Data Analytics, Computer Science, a master’s degree in these fields, or the master’s degree in Financial Technology. For students with interdiscplinary interests at the interface of AI and financial technology / Bitcoin / the Lightning network, please consider applying for a UCF Institute of Artificial Intelligence AI For All Doctoral Fellowship. Please reach out to me if you are interested in any of these projects and/or fellowships.

Prior to joining UCF, I was a tenure-track faculty at UNC Charlotte in Computer Science and Postdoctoral Fellow in Applied Mathematics & Statistics at Johns Hopkins University mentored by Mauro Maggioni. I completed a Ph.D. in Mathematics at Technical University of Munich in 2019, advised by Felix Krahmer.