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Vaia Patta

Personal photo - Vaia Patta

Vaia Patta

Doctoral Student

Leaving date: 31st July 2018

Themes:

Interests

Research Interests

Theoretical Mathematics and Logic: Category Theory, Discrete Mathematics, Theory of Computation

Physics: Quantum Mechanics

Algorithms: Quantum Algorithms

I am currently working on a categorical axiomatisation of Entropy. Before this project, I have worked on applications of Category Theory to Matroid Theory. See Biography section for relevant links, and more on my current research.

My interests in foundations of Mathematics and Physics extend beyond the fields mentioned above. I occasionally attend grad school type events such as the YaMCATS and Cambridge Masterclass series. I have become intrigued by the ongoing discussion on the Landauer Erasure conjecture, which I may address in a future project.

You will also find me attending the Foundations Discussions at Wolfson, almost without fail since 2012 (people who say I am motivated by the free pizza and beer are bad people and you should not listen to them) as well as the similarly-themed Quantum Foundations Bash mini-conference.

Other professional interests: Science communication, School Outreach.

Biography

UPDATE: After minor corrections, my thesis was submitted. Read it here.

I was born and educated in Greece. I learned English, German and French while in school. I got my Master's Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. My Master thesis was on Quantum Algorithms.

I am currently working on a categorical axiomatisation of Entropy. My last project was on categories of matroids and strong maps between them; a paper has been published in Applied Categorical Structures.

I have attended the Quantum Physics and Logic conference in 2015, the Spring School on Quantum Mechanics workshop in 2014 and the Coalgebraic Methods in Computer Science workshop in 2018. I have presented my work in two workshops for the Quantum Group, two lunchtime talks and a departmental mini-conference. I have also presented my matroids paper at a seminar at Swansea University, as part of their series, and my Entropy-related work at PSSL 101 at the University of Leeds.

Presentation of my matroids work for the Quantum Group workshop is available here.

Presentation for the departmental conference (2015) is available here.

Presentation for the seminar I gave in Swansea (February 2016) is available here.

Presentation of my Entropy-related work for the Quantum Group workshop is available here.

Presentation of my Entropy-related work for PSSL 101 in Leeds (September 2017) is available here.

I have worked as a class tutor for Categorical Quantum Mechanics and for Quantum Computer Science. I have also worked as a demonstrator and tutor for Databases. I have also worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Mathematics Institute; I have spent one term TAing a class for the Category Theory course and another term TAing two classes for the Graph Theory course. I have also done some practical demonstrating for the Doctoral Training Centre (Introduction to Programming) and for the Computer Science Department (Imperative Programming 3).

In June 2016 I achieved the status of Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, in recognition of attainment against the UK Professional Standards Framework  for teaching and learning support in higher education.

My paper "The category of matroids", co-authored with my supervisor Chris Heunen, can be found here.

Reviewer for Applied Categorical Structures.

STEM Ambassador (with an award to show off).

Visit my LinkedIn page.

 

Activities