Max Hopkins

I am a fourth year PhD student in UCSD’s theoretical computer science group with a Bachelor’s in mathematics from Harvard university. Moving into graduate school, I made the difficult decision to switch fields in order to pursue a more practically-driven research agenda—theoretical computer science has since provided the perfect opportunity to blend my passion for mathematics with real-world application. Throughout my PhD, I have worked broadly on understanding how mathematical structure fundamentally underlies our ability to learn, approximate, and compute. I hope that this work will provide a basis of attack for difficult problems in practice such as safe and accurate computer-assisted medical diagnosis. Throughout my time in the program I have been fortunate to engage with a wonderful and diverse set of faculty and colleagues; I hope to give back by continuing to work towards diversity, equity, and inclusion in computer science so that those traditionally discouraged from our community can better share in and enhance this experience for everyone. Finally, I am deeply indebted to the NSF, JSOE, and ARCS for their fellowship support that has turned my research dreams at UCSD into a reality, and am excited for all the opportunities yet to come!