Research in the AI Era Seminar: David Woodruff, Accelerating Scientific Research with Gemini: Case Studies and Common Techniques

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David Woodruff

Speaker

David Woodruff (CMU)

Description

We present a collection of case studies demonstrating how researchers have successfully collaborated with advanced AI models, specifically Google's Gemini-based models (in particular Gemini Deep Think and its advanced variants), to solve open problems, refute conjectures, and generate new proofs across diverse areas in theoretical computer science, as well as other areas such as economics, optimization, and physics. This is based on a corresponding paper here, with around 18 testimonials of open problems we made progress on.

I will also discuss using such models for a STOC pre-submission feedback system, see: Gemini provides automated feedback for theoretical computer scientists at STOC 2026

Speaker Bio

David Woodruff is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the Computer Science Department. Before that he was a research scientist at IBM Almaden for ten years. He received his PhD from MIT in 2007. His research interests include data stream algorithms, distributed algorithms, machine learning, numerical linear algebra, optimization, sketching, and sparse recovery. He is the recipient of the 2020 Simons Investigator Award, the 2014 Presburger Award, Best Paper Awards at STOC 2013, PODS 2010, and PODS, 2020, and a STOC 2023 Test of Time Award. At IBM he was a member of the Academy of Technology and a Master Inventor.