François Clément

Email:fclement@uw.edu

I’m a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Washington, mentored by Pr Stefan Steinerberger. I recently finished by PhD at Sorbonne Université, where I was co-supervised by Dr Carola Doerr and Dr Luís Paquete (University of Coimbra). My work is mostly focused on discrepancy theory and the construction of uniformly distributed point sets. In particular, I’ve been interested in providing excellent low-discrepancy sets for practical combinations of (numer of points, dimension), and not just the asymptotic regime. More generally, I’m broadly interested in Optimization and Combinatorics, and I’m always looking for new fun problems! Feel free to contact me for information on past work/code/presentations, or possible collaborations.


Preprints


  1. Outperforming the Best 1D Low-Discrepancy Constructions with a Greedy Algorithm, preprint, arxiv

  2. Transforming the Challenge of Constructing Low-Discrepancy Point Sets into a Permutation Selection Problem, preprint, arxiv

  3. Constructing Optimal L star discrepancy point sets, with C. Doerr, K. Klamroth and L. Paquete, arxiv (long version). Accepted in Proceedings of the AMS.

  4. Approximately Jumping Towards the Origin, with A. Albors, S. Kiami, B. Sodt, D. Yifan and T. Zeng, arxiv. Project done as part of the WXML projects at University of Washington.


Publications


  1. Computing Star Discrepancies with Numerical Black-Box Optimization Algorithms, with D. Vermetten, J. de Nobel, A.D. Jesus, C. Doerr and L. Paquete, accepted for GECCO 2023, arxiv, 2023.

  2. Heuristic Approaches to Obtain Low-Discrepancy Point Sets via Subset Selection, with C. Doerr and L. Paquete, arxiv, Journal of Complexity, 2023.

  3. Partitions for Stratified Sampling, with N. Kirk and F. Pausinger, arxiv, Monte Carlo Methods and Applications, 2023.

  4. Star discrepancy subset selection: Problem formulation and efficient approaches for low dimensions, with C. Doerr and L. Paquete, Journal of Complexity, Vol 70, 101645, published, arxiv, 2022.

  5. On the two-parameter Erdos-Falconer distance problem in finite fields, with H. Nassajian Mojarrad, D. Hiep Pham and C. Shen, Bulletin of the Australian Mathematical Society, 1-5, published, arxiv, 2022.

  6. Distribution of Distances in Five Dimensions and Related Problems with T. Pham, SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, Vol 36, 3, pages 2271-2281, published, arxiv, 2022.


Student Supervisation


  1. 06/24: Deyao Chen bachelor student from University of Saint-Andrews, 1 month research internship on algorithms for the L star discrepancy and L2 subset selection.

  2. 06/24-12/24: Rabea Freese, master thesis. Co-supervisation with Kathrin Klamroth, University of Wuppertal. Topic: Multi-objective optimization for the fusion of low-discrepancy point sets.


Talks, seminars and presentations


A number of the presentations are quite similar so not all the slides are here. If you would like a specific set, reach out by email!

2024

  1. PhD Defense, slides

2023

  1. Queen’s University Belfast MSRC Seminar, 06/02/2023, slides

  2. MCM2023, Sorbonne Université, Subset Sampling for Low-Discrepancy point sets and Optimal Constructions, 29/06/2023, slides

  3. GECCO 2023, Lisbon: Computing Star Discrepancies with Numerical Black-Box Optimization Algorithms. Conference presentation linked to the paper above with D. Vermetten, J. de Nobel, A. Jesus, C. Doerr and L. Paquete, slides.

  4. Dagstuhl Seminar 23351: Algorithms and Complexity for Continuous Problems, slides

  5. PGMO23, Optimal Sets for the L Star Discrepancy.

2022

  1. MCQMC Conference in Linz, Austria, Efficient Algorithms for Star Discrepancy Subset Selection, 22/7. slides

  2. PGMO days at EDF Labs in Palaiseau, Subset Sampling for Low-Discrepancy Point Sets, 30/11.


Teaching


I will be teaching MAT381 Discrete Mathematical Modelling at UW in Winter and Spring 2024-25.

2024-2025

  1. MAT381 Discrete Mathematical Modelling (Winter and Spring)

As part of my PhD, I taught undergraduate courses in TD and TME in Sorbonne Université. TD correspond to exercice sessions on paper and TME to exercice sessions/projects on computer. French Bachelors are in 3 years and usually followed by 2 years of Master.

2023-2024

  1. LU3IN003 Algorithmic 2 (Bachelor third year)- TD: General programming paradigms such as dynamic programming, greedy algorithms and common graph algorithms (Kruskal, Prim, Dijkstra).

2022-2023

  1. LU3IN003 Algorithmic 2 (Bachelor third year)- TD

  2. LU2IN005 Discrete Mathematics (Bachelor second year) -TME: A course on common mathematical reasoning in computer science: logic, induction and a large part on automata. I was in charge of project supervision for one group: students had to code common functions on automata.

  3. LU2IN003 Algorithmic 1 (Bachelor second year) -TD: A basic introductory class to algorithms, with basic complexity and validity proofs as well as the discovery of graphs.

2021-2022

  1. LU2IN005 Discrete Mathematics (Bachelor second year) -TME: See above but with two groups

  2. LU1IN001 Introduction to programming (Bachelor first year) - TME: An introductory class to programming in Python.

  3. LU2IN003 Algorithmic 1-TD: See above.


Other


Reviews for Journal of Complexity, Optimization and Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, Theory of Probability and Mathematical Statistics

Organized the LIP6 RO team seminar in 2024, with a presentation every week from February to July.


Studies


I did a classe préparatoire in Lycée Hoche in Versailles (MPSI-MP*), followed by École Polytechnique where I obtained a “diplôme d’Ingénieur de l’École Polytechnique”, with a focus on theoretical computer science and optimisation. For those not familiar with the French system, classe préparatoire+ engineering school is roughly the same as a Master’s degree, but with a bigger range of topics. I also studied mathematics, physics, applied maths and a number of history and politics classes in École Polytechnique.

As a complement and as part of my last year in Polytechnique, I obtained a Master in Computer Science from ETH Zürich in 2022, with a specialisation in Theoretical Computer Science. I did my Master thesis with Dr. Thang Pham (now at VNU in Hanoi) on the Erdos-Falconer distance problem in finite fields.


CV and Thesis


A relatively up-to-date CV, the above list is more accurate for publications.

PhD Thesis: An Optimization Perspective on the Construction of Low-Discrepancy Point Sets, latest version.