Mathematician Arvind Saibaba Receives NSF CAREER Award

Arvind K. Saibaba, an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics at NC State, has received a Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The award, also known as the NSF CAREER award, is one of the highest awards the foundation bestows upon young faculty in the sciences.

The five-year award will support Saibaba’s research project entitled “Fast and Accurate Algorithms for Uncertainty Quantification in Large-Scale Inverse Problems.” The project aims to develop fast and cost-effective algorithms for uncertainty quantification (UQ) that is applicable across a broad range of imaging technologies.

Current imaging processes have inherent uncertainties that can lead to undesirable outcomes, such as misjudging the location and spread of a suspected tumor. Quantifying this uncertainty is computationally challenging, and current approaches are either too slow or not applicable across a broad range of imaging technologies. Saibaba’s project addresses these gaps by  developing algorithms that will be useful across a variety of fields, such as biomedicine, geophysics and materials science. In addition, the project will include training workshops and research experiences for pre-service and early-career K-12 educators and enhancements to undergraduate and graduate curricula at NC State.

Saibaba received his B.Tech. from National Institute of Technology Karnataka in India in 2007 and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2010 and 2013, respectively.