New Faculty: Dr. Sarah Chen

Dr. Sarah Chen, a renowned expert in computational mathematics and GPU computing, has joined AIMS South Africa as Associate Professor. With over 15 years of experience in high-performance computing and machine learning applications, Dr. Chen brings invaluable expertise to the institute’s growing computational sciences program.

Academic Background

Dr. Chen completed her PhD in Applied Mathematics at Stanford University, where she specialized in parallel computing algorithms for large-scale scientific simulations. She has held research positions at leading institutions including MIT and the University of Cambridge, where she developed groundbreaking techniques for accelerating mathematical computations using graphics processing units (GPUs).

Research Contributions

Her research focuses on the intersection of mathematical modeling, machine learning, and high-performance computing. Dr. Chen has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers and has been instrumental in developing CUDA programming techniques that have revolutionized how complex mathematical problems are solved.

“The achievements of Machine Learning have been made possible by the incredible power of GPUs,” Dr. Chen explains. “These processors, originally designed for generating graphics, are now used for a variety of applications in High Performance Computing, including Machine Learning.”

Teaching at AIMS

Dr. Chen will be teaching the new module “CUDA Programming for GPUs,” which introduces students to NVIDIA’s CUDA programming language - an extension of C/C++. Through a combination of lectures and practicals, students will learn how to write codes to execute on GPUs, assess performance, and optimize data movement within the GPU.

The course covers practical applications including Monte Carlo simulations and finite difference PDE approximations, directly relevant to many African research challenges.

Vision for Africa

“I’m excited to contribute to AIMS’ mission of developing Africa’s next generation of mathematical scientists,” Dr. Chen says. “GPU computing has the potential to accelerate research across many fields - from climate modeling to epidemiology - and I want to ensure African researchers have access to these powerful tools.”

Dr. Chen’s appointment strengthens AIMS’ position as a leading center for computational mathematics education and research in Africa.