ComPer 2025: Workshop on Computational Topology
October 10 - 14, University at Albany, State University of New York

About the Workshop

The 5th Workshop on Computational Topology (ComPer 2025) will take place October 10-14 in hybrid mode at the University at Albany, State University of New York. This workshop provides a forum to exchange ideas on computational aspects of topological persistence, TDA, and related topics.

The schedule will consist of invited, contributed, and lightning talks in the mornings, as well as discussions and a poster session for the local participants in the afternoons.

We encourage in-person participation, but equally welcome submissions of researchers that attend remotely.

There is no registration fee, and no funds for travel support will be provided by the workshop.

Schedule

  • Click here for the tentative workshop schedule and here for talk abstracts. Contributed and invited talks are 20 minutes plus 10 minutes for questions and transition to the next speaker. Lightning talks are 10 minutes each including transitions.

Information for Onsite-Participants

  • Location: The workshop will be everyday in room BB B010, in the Massry School of Business Building at the UAlbany Uptown Campus, in Albany, NY. See this map, where the ComPer location is highlighted in red, and the parking, bus stops, and math department are highlighted in blue.
  • Accommodations: There are several hotels located near camps, e.g., the Hilton Garden Inn or Courtyard by Marriott. However, there are few dinner options within walking distance from these hotels. There are also several options for hotels downtown, e.g., the Hyatt or Hampton Inn + Suites. If you stay downtown, you can arrive to campus by car, lift/Uber, or bus (#12 or #910; the #12 bus stops right in front of the Massry Building). Remember that if you're from a public university, you can request a government rate for the nights you spend in Albany to attend the workshop (but not for any extra nights spent in Albany for leisure).
  • Travel: Albany has a (small) airport, but there are more connections from NYC (JFK, Laguardia, Newark). One can take an Amtrak Train between Penn Station/Moynihan in NYC and Albany-Rensselaer. The ride takes 2.5 hours and runs all the way along the Hudson River, so it's quite scenic. Buses also run between NYC and Albany, and can be cheaper but are not as scenic.
  • Food: For Friday's lunch, we suggest either the food court in the lower level of the Campus Center, where there are many good options, or the 1844 Restaurant's buffet on the 2nd floor of the Campus Center. The Campus center is right across the quad from Massry. From Saturday to Tuesday, these options are closed because of Fall Break. However, there several options for lunch within a 30 minute walk, particularly at University Plaza (Dosa Grill for Indian buffet and Tai Chi for ramen and rice bowls) and Stuyvesant Plaza (whose many restaurants are listed here).

    Besides these, Albany has many food options (some downtown, some elsewhere). Here are some we like: TapAsia, MysticMomo, SubCulture (vegan), Wizard Burger (vegan), The Hollow, Rain, Tara's Kitchen, Northeast Chinese.

    For coffee, we recommend Uncommon Grounds (several locations, including University Plaza, and Stuyvesant Plaza), A.J. Pequeño, and Stacks (several locations). For desert, we like Cheesecake Machismo, allegedly the best NY-style cheesecake. (Operated very weirdly, it opens only on some days, at noon, usually sold out by 2 p.m.).

Submission Details (for contributed talks and lighting talks with poster)

To allow more participants to share their results, this year's workshop will feature both contributed talks and lightning talks with posters. Proposals for this should be submitted as a .pdf abstract of at most two pages. The scientific committee will either accept a submission as a contributed talk, or offer a lightning talk with a poster instead, or reject the submission. If you wish to be considered only for a lightning talk with a poster, please state so in in your submission. The abstract should contain sufficient detail for the committee to gauge the quality of the work, and should not merely point to a description uploaded somewhere else.

  • Deadline for abstract submission: June 20, 2025
  • Submission server: Click here to submit
  • Notification of acceptance: July 18, 2025

Local Organizers

  • Håvard Bakke Bjerkevik
  • Barbara Giunti
  • Michael Lesnick

    • If you have any questions regarding the workshop, do not hesitate to contact us. Our e-mail addresses are hbjerkevikN, bgiuntiN, and mlesnickN, where N =@albany.edu.

Scientific Committee

  • Håvard Bakke Bjerkevik (UAlbany)
  • Tamal Dey (Purdue University)
  • Barbara Giunti (UAlbany)
  • Michael Kerber (Graz University of Technology)
  • Michael Lesnick (UAlbany)

Invited Speakers

  • Paul Bendich (Geometric Data Analytics, Inc.)
  • Thomas Brüstle (Université de Sherbrooke)
  • Konstantin Mischaikow (Rutgers)
  • Greg Henselman-Petrusek Roek (PNNL)
  • Radmila Sazdanovic (UNC)
  • Mikael Vejdemo-Johansson (CUNY)