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By Natalie Kitroeff
John Urschel, an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens, recently co-authored a paper in the Journal of Computational Mathematics. It is titled "A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians" and apparently includes "a cascadic multigrid algorithm for fast computation of the Fiedler vector of a graph Laplacian, namely, the eigenvector corresponding to the second smallest eigenvalue." I understand close to none of the words in that sentence, which comes from the paper's abstract. I probably never will. The rest of the study is similarly accessible. See some highlights below:
The symbols are straightforward algebra. Knowing what the symbols mean is what separates a mathematician and apparent specialist in graph theory such as Urschel from someone like me, an engineer who has taken a few math courses. On the field that it's about, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebraic_connectivity .
ReplyDeletePretty cool! The first paper linked was about modeling option prices in relation to crossing a priace barrier, in situations were the Black Scholes closed-form formula doesn't apply. Once he's done with football there is a potentially 7-figure position awaiting him as a quant in Wall street.
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