Benjamin Yellin

In 2018, I completed a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with a minor in Chemistry from Haverford College. In 2020, I earned a Master of Science degree in Information Systems with a concentration in Health Technology from Cornell Tech and Technion-The Israel Institute of Technology in 2020. I'm currently a Ph.D. student in Computational Mathematics at Emory University, in the Scientific Computing Group.

I am interested in the numerical modeling of the cardiovascular system to solve blood flow problems, and numerical PDES for biology and chemistry in general. Right now, I am using physics informed neural networks to approximate solutions to PDEs. In my free time, I like to swim, run, and play the piano. I also have a blog where I write about two of my passions, math and baking.

Research Projects

Multigrid Training of Physics Informed Neural Networks for PDEs

I am training physics informed neural networks to approximate the solutions of the Poisson equation ∆ u(x,y) = f(x,y) for various functions f. I am interested in how the accuracy of the solution depends on properties of the function f(x,y). The multigrid approach has a coarse training component and a fine training component. The coarse training is designed to be fast, and the parameters learned from the coarse training are used to initialize the fine training.

Academic Projects and Presentations

Blind Deconvolution for Image Deblurring (for Numerical Optimization course)

Origami for Solving For Cubic Equations (RANT Seminar Talk, method adapted from this resource)

I created a Geogebra notebook that implements this method of solving cubic equations on the polynomial f(x)=x^3-6x^2+11x-6 to find its zeros. The goal is to find a fold (a placement of the line containing GH) that simultaneously sends A onto the line A'F and sends E onto the line B'J. In order for this to happen, the line containing GH must be the perpendicular bisector of both EI and AF.

I'm still trying to understand exactly why this method works, but I realized that finding a zero corresponds to the point H hitting the line segment containing CG. I think there's a relationship between the cubic equation that passes through the points on CD and the original cubic equation, but I am still trying to figure out what that is. The cubic equation plotted is one cubic that passes through these 3 points, but there are infinitely many of these.

Grading/Teaching Experience:

Primary Instructor, Calculus I (Math 111), Fall 2023
TA, Linear Algebra (Math 221), Fall 2022
Grader, Mathematical Statisics II (MATH 362), Spring 2022
Grader, Calculus I (MATH 111), Fall 2021
Head Peer Tutor (Haverford College), Fall 2017/Spring 2018

Student-Led Scientific Computing Seminar (DISC)

Together with Ariana Brown, I organize a seminar designed to introduce students to methods in scientific computing. Here is a link to our website.

Emory Mathematics Directed Reading Program

You can learn more about this program on Chris Keyes's website.

Spring 2022: PDE Constrained Optimization using Perspectives in Flow Control and Optimziation by Max Gunzburger (Student: Judy Hao, Emory Class of 2023)

Emory Math Circle

You can learn more about this program on the Emory Math Circle website.

Fall 2020
Spring 2021

Cooking

I love experimenting in the kitchen, and over the last few years I've gotten really into baking sourdough bread. I've improved a lot since first starting, but I'm still learning something new every time I bake! I also like fermentation in general, and I've been making my own yogurt recently. And I spent the last year making miso! Here are some of my creations!

Sourdough bread

Homemade Yogurt

Homemade Miso

Music

I play the piano and harmonica and love playing folk, rock, and pop music. I'm always trying to sneak harmonica in whenever I get the chance, but it works particularly well with Billy Joel and Bob Dylan.