Ethan Chen

Ethan Chen headshot

Hi! I'm a third-year undergraduate at the Georgia Institute of Technology studying Mathematics. I am fortunate to work with Prof. Yongxin Chen and Prof. Amirali Aghazadeh on the mathematics of machine learning, with a focus on generative models. Outside of research, I enjoy photography, writing, reading, and bouldering. This past summer I participated in a REU at Williams College; next summer I'll be a Quantitative Trading Intern at Susquehanna International Group (SIG).

Research

My research focuses on understanding machine learning from mathematical first principles. I have worked on the theoretical foundations for diffusion models on Riemannian manifolds, convexity-preserving normalizing flows using optimal transport, and sampling acceleration for discrete processes, particularly for structured biological data. My current work involves generalizing Wasserstein gradient flows to equilibrium matching for molecular dynamics, establishing nonasymptotic convergence bounds for sequential Monte Carlo samplers on non-log-concave distributions, and developing statistical methods for estimating martingale optimal transport plans.

I am also interested in differential geometry, natural language processing, and high-dimensional statistics.

Academics

I have taken a fair amount of undergraduate and graduate courses in mathematics and computer science. Here are some highlights, with * indicating graduate courses.

In Progress (Fall 2025)

Highlighted Mathematics Coursework

Highlighted Computer Science & ECE Coursework

Contact

ec [at] gatech [dot] edu / linkedin