Dear All,
We are pleased to invite you to the IEOR Seminar by Dr. Max Pfeffer on Thursday, Mar 05, 04:00 pm. The details are given below.
TITLE: Manifold Optimization in Data Science
SPEAKER: Dr. Max Pfeffer, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
DATE & TIME: Thursday, Mar 05, 2026, 04:00 pm
VENUE: IEOR 211 (Seminar room), Dept. of IEOR.
ABSTRACT:
Matrix and tensor factorizations are widely applied in Data Science for dimensionality and noise reduction as well as for feature extraction. Often, additional constraints are imposed on the factors in order to improve uniqueness and interpretability of the results. We consider several specific factorization formats with smooth and nonsmooth constraints that can be computed using techniques from Riemannian optimization. For this, existing methods need to be adapted according to the problem at hand. Furthermore, we apply our methods also for Data Fusion, where several data sets are factorized simultaneously.
SPEAKER BIO:
Max Pfeffer is a junior professor at Universität Göttingen, Germany. His research interests include Matrix and Tensor Factorizations, Riemannian Optimization, Cancer Classification, Low-Rank Approximation, Numerics in Quantum Chemistry, Parametric PDEs.
Positions
* Since April 2023: Junior professor at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
* May 2022 - April 2023: Research consultant at SimulaMet, Oslo, Norway
* April 2022 - March 2023: Adjunct professor at Technische Universität Chemnitz
* January 2021 - March 2022: DFG Eigene Stelle at Technische Universität Chemnitz
* July 2020 - December 2020: PostDoc with Markus Bachmayr at Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
* April 2020 - September 2020: Adjunct professor at Universität Leipzig
* October 2017 - June 2020: PostDoc with André Uschmajew at Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig
* February 2014 - October 2017: PhD-student with Reinhold Schneider at TU Berlin
Education
* March 2018: PhD in Mathematics at TU Berlin
* January 2014: M.Sc. in Mathematics at TU Berlin
* October 2011: B.Sc. in Mathematics at TU Berlin
* June 2007: Abitur at Werner-von-Siemens-Gymnasium, Berlin