About Me
I am currently a fourth-year Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado, Boulder. My research interests include the applicaitons of computational topology to time-evolving metric spaces. After completing my Ph.D., I hope to stay on in academia as a professor.
In 2021 I recieved my Bachelor of Science in computer science and mathematics from Texas State University. My undergraduate thesis was entitled, "The Hidden Shape of Data: Topological Data Analysis for Anxiety Detection in Text," and can be accessed online via the Texas State honors program online thesis library.
When I'm not working on research, you can usually find me reading a good book, trying out a new baking recipe, or hanging upside down from a lyra, silks, or other aerial apparatus.
Publications and Presentations
Journal Articles
- Gharooni-Fard*, G., Byers, M.*, Deshmukh, V.* et al. A computational topology-based spatiotemporal analysis technique for honeybee aggregation. npj Complex 1, 3 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44260-024-00003-1
*co-first authors - Byers, M., Trahan, M., Nason, E., Eigege, C., Moore, N., Washburn, M., & Metsis, V. (2023). Detecting Intensity of Anxiety in Language of Student Veterans with Social Anxiety Using Text Analysis. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 41(2), 125–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228835.2022.2163452
Conference Papers
- Byers, M., Hinkle, L.B., Metsis, V. (2022). Topological Data Analysis of Time-Series as an Input Embedding for Deep Learning Models. In: Maglogiannis, I., Iliadis, L., Macintyre, J., Cortez, P. (eds) Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovations. AIAI 2022. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 647. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08337-2_33
- Byers, M., & Metsis, V. (2021). Text Analysis for Understanding Symptoms of Social Anxiety in Student Veterans. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 35(18), 15958-15959. https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v35i18.17975
Conference Presentations
- Byers, M., Kirkpatrick, B., Skillin, N., Bradley, E. Topological Data Analysis of Myoblast Self-Assembly. Contributed Talk. SIAM Conference on Applications of Dynamical Systems (DS23). May 2023 (Portland, OR).
- Byers, M., Kirkpatrick, B., Skillin, N., Bradley, E. Topological Data Analysis of Myoblast Self-Assembly. Poster. Dynamics Days. Jan. 2023 (virtual).
Teaching
- CSCI 2270: Data structures. Instructor of Record (1 semester)
- CSCI 2275: Programming & Data structures. TA (1 semester)
- CSCI 1300: Starting Computing. TA (3 semesters)
Service
- Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) Lead TA (2024 - 2025)