The Faculty of Mathematics celebrates the outstanding achievements of Yinan Li and Yilin Chen, the two recipients of the 2020 Huawei Prize for Best Research Paper by a Mathematics Graduate Student. Both students published research papers that advance their field of study with an innovative approach to a complex problem.
Yinan Li (Applied Mathematics) received a Huawei Prize for successfully developing a novel algorithmic approach to designing controllers for cyber-physical systems in her paper, Robustly Complete Synthesis of Memoryless Controllers for Nonlinear Systems with Reach-and-Stay Specifications. Li currently partners with Clearpath Robotics to apply her research to the control of unmanned ground vehicles in a project funded by a NSERC Engage grant.
Yilin Chen (Statistics and Actuarial Science) also received a Huawei Prize. She entered unchartered territory in becoming the first researcher to propose a statistical framework for analyzing non-probability survey samples in her paper, Doubly Robust Inference with Nonprobability Survey Samples. In response to the need for a reliable tool to evaluate these samples in the era of big data, Chen developed a framework that overcomes bias through introducing additional information from probability survey samples.
The prize is the result of a partnership between the University of Waterloo and Huawei to advance world-class research and innovation. Every year, each department or school within the Faculty of Mathematics can submit at most one nominee to receive the $4,000 prize for excellence in research through a peer-reviewed paper.
We take great pride in the accomplishments of these researchers and wish them success in their future endeavours.