Andrew McGregor

Hi, I'm an Associate Professor in the College of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. I'm a member of the Theory Group and my research is in algorithms and complexity. Specific topics of interest include processing massive data sets and data streams, clustering, approximation algorithms, coding and information theory. Here are my research papers. Currently, I am the director of the TRIPODS Institute for Theoretical Foundations of Data Science at UMass.

Prior to UMass, I spent a great couple of years at Microsoft Research (Silicon Valley) and the Information Theory and Applications Center at UCSD. In 2007, I received my Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. During graduate school, I spent a summer at DIMACS and three summers at the Fundamental Maths Department at Bell Labs. In the dim and distant past, I received the Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics (2001) and a B.A. in Mathematics (2000) from the University of Cambridge.

Here's text of a short bio, a photo, and a cv.

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Since you're here, maybe you'd like to...

• get in contact:
  • Mail: College of Information and Computer Sciences, 140 Governor's Drive, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003-9264
  • Office: Room 334, 140 Governor's Drive (Campus Map and Area Map)
  • Email: mcgregor at cs.umass.edu
• submit a paper to a conference where I'm on the PC:
  • FSTTCS 2019, SOSA 2019, SODA 2018, STACS 2018, PODS 2017, ESA 2015, SPIRE 2014, SODA 2014, BD3 2013. SPIRE 2013, MASSIVE 2013, PODS 2013, STOC 2012, FAW 2011, CIKM 2010, DCOSS 2010, SODA 2010, DCOSS 2008, and CIKM 2008.
• check out material from one of workshops and tutorials I've been organizing:
  • Sampling, Sketching, Streaming, Small-Space Optimization: Algorithmic Approaches for Analyzing Large Graphs, KDD (2018). Related tutorials given at ICML (2016) and VLDB (2012).
  • Linear Sketching as a Tool for Everything, FOCS Workshop (2017)
  • Communication Complexity and Applications II, Banff International Research Station (2017)
  • Nexus of Information and Computation Theories, Henri Poincare Institute (2016)
  • Towards a Unified Treatment of Dynamic Graphs, Banff International Research Station (2015)
  • Algorithms for Large-Scale Graphs, NII Shonan (2014)
  • Communication Complexity and Applications, Banff International Research Station (2014)
  • Data Streams and Compression (Special Session of CiE 2013),
  • STOC 2012 Workshop: Algorithms for Distributed and Streaming Data,
  • IITK Workshop on Algorithms for Processing Massive Data Sets (2009),
  • DIMACS/DyDAn Workshop on Streaming, Coding, and Compressive Sensing: Unifying Theory and Common Applications to Sparse Signal/Data Analysis and Processing (2009).
• become a Ph.D. student at UMass and work in my group:
  • Great! I like the research I do (admittedly I'm biased) but see my papers to make sure you would too. I'm interested in most areas of theory.
  • A strong math background is a must for any area of theoretical computer science. A good grasp of probability is particularly useful in my work.
  • See here and here for the official application procedure. If you'd like to work with me, mention it in your application and send me an email.
  • For general advice about being a Ph.D. student, check out this, this, and everything here.
  • Unfortunately, I don't have any funds to support summer interns except for students eligible for the REU program.

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"We know that five minus four is one
But a cloud minus a sailboat
Have no idea what it is."

-- Another Kind of Mathematics, Nichita Stanescu