Jaron Sanders

received in 2012 M.Sc. degrees in Mathematics and Physics from the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, as well as a PhD degree in Mathematics in 2016. After he obtained his PhD degree, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Jaron Sanders then worked as an assistant professor at the Delft University of Technology and now works as an assistant professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology. His research expertise is on optimization algorithms for large complex systems, while focusing on techniques on the intersection of probability theory / statistics / operations research and applications in machine learning / data science.

Professional Experience

Development Track Assistant Professor

September 2019 – Present. Since September 2019, Jaron Sanders works as a Development Track Assistent Professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology, in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Jaron works in the research group Stochastic Operations Research under Sem Borst, which is part of the section Stochastics. This section is in turn part of the Department of Mathematics & Computer Science. For more information, have a look at Jaron’s profile at TU/e.

Tenure Track Assistant Professor

December 2017 – August 2019. For a little under two years, Jaron Sanders worked as a Tenure Track Assistent Professor at the Delft University of Technology, in Delft, The Netherlands. Jaron worked in professor Piet Van Mieghem‘s research group Network Architectures and Services, which is part of the Department of Quantum & Computer Engineering. Their department is in turn part of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics & Computer Science.

Post-Doctoral Researcher

February 2016 – November 2017. During this period, Jaron Sanders did post-doctoral research at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, in Stockholm, Sweden. Together with professor Alexandre Proutiere, Jaron developed new techniques that now enable us to detect clusters in Markov chains. They also investigated stochastic learning algorithms for deep neural networks.

PhD Student

January 2012 – December 2016. Jaron Sanders completed his PhD studies at the Eindhoven University of Technology, in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, actively participating in EURandom. Under the guidance of professors Johan van Leeuwaarden and Sem Borst, Jaron investigated different topics in mathematics and physics. Each topic pertained to the Stochastic Optimization of Large-Scale Complex Systems.

Outreach Assistant

September 2007 – August 2010. Jaron Sanders participated in educational entertainment of children at elementary schools, and introduced children to physics by showing them unexpected physical effects.

Scientific Publications

Head on over to the page Scientific Publications for an overview of my publications. There, you will find brief descriptions of my publications, as well as links to download my articles. Alternatively, you can also have a look Orcid:

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0187-2065

Funding

• Waardevol AI EAISI IMPULS, awarded in 2022
• NWO Open Competition Domain Science M-1 (NWO ENW-M-1) grant, awarded in 2020 [Description]
  Clustering and Spectral Concentration in Markov Chains, Dr. J. Sanders (TU/e)
  The ability to accurately discover all hidden relations between items that share similarities is of paramount importance to a wide range of disciplines. Clustering algorithms in particular are employed throughout social sciences, biology, computer science, economics, and physics. One fundamental technique from artificial intelligence that still needs to benefit from clustering is Reinforcement Learning (RL), which has recently received substantial attention due to its wide spectrum of applications in robotics, games, medicine, finance, etc. By tackling the problem of clustering in Markov Chains (MCs) mathematically, we can exponentially speed up RL in the future and enter a new era of artificial intelligence.

Professional Service

• ACM MobiHoc 2020, 2021
• Technical Program Committee member [Description]
  ACM Mobihoc is a premier conference with a highly selective single-track technical program dedicated to addressing the challenges emerging from networked systems that must operate in the face of dynamics ranging from changing user demands to connectivity and resource availability. Examples of such dynamic networks include wired/wireless communication, data-centers, sensors, energy, social, and transportation networks. Work that presents new performance evaluation methods, novel algorithms or provides fundamental insights for these systems is encouraged.
• Member of the Dutch Network on the Mathematics of Operations Research (LNMB)
• Delft University of Technology
• MSc Coordinator of the Wireless Communication and Sensing track of Electrical Engineering (academic year 2018-2019) [Description]
  The Master’s coordinator has an important role to play as the link between the programme management, lecturers, students, E&SA and the administration. The Master’s coordinator has a coordinating role within the programme and an advisory role towards the students. In addition, the Master’s coordinator monitors individual study programmes and advises on exchange proposals. He or she also has an official role in student admissions and in nominating scholarships.
• MSc Project Coordinator of Network Architectures and Services (academic years 2018-2020)
• Eindhoven University of Technology
• (First) Chair of the Mathemathics & Computer Science PhD Council [Description]
  The PhD students make up the largest community in a faculty. As a PhD Council we represented the community in the decision making process. The council had quarterly meetings with the dean of the graduate school of our department. These meetings provided an opportunity to give feedback to the management and to request new changes. Furthermore, we believed that all PhD students can benefit from being in touch with each other, alumni and students therefore we encouraged and facilitated this through social events.
• Assistant at the 48th Dutch Mathematical Congress (NMC)
• Refereed for (among others): in 2021, Mathematical Reviews, ACM Mobihoc 2021; in 2020, Journal of Complex Networks, ACM Mobihoc 2020; in 2019, Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde; in 2018, Scientific Reports – Nature, Journal of Complex Networks; in 2017, Advances in Applied Probability; in 2016, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory; in 2015, Stochastic Models, IEEE CDC 2015; in 2014, Operations Research; and in 2013, Queueing Systems

Teaching Experience

• Eindhoven University of Technology
• 2MMS50 – Stochastic Decision Theory (responsible teacher, academic years 2019-2022)
• 2WB50 – Stochastic Simulation (responsible teacher, academic year 2020-2022)
• 2WH10 – Effectiveness of Mathematics (teacher, academic years 2019-2022)
• 2MMR10 – Professional Portfolio: Modelling Week (supervisor, academic years 2019-2020, 2021-2022)
• 2WH20 Programming and Modeling (supervisor, academic year 2019-2020)
• Delft University of Technology
• Network Architectures and Services’ Reading Seminar (responsible teacher, academic year 2018-2019)
• Data Communication Networking (responsible teacher, academic years 2017-2019)
• Eindhoven University of Technology
• Calculus A, B, and C (tutor, academic years 2012-2014)
• Optimization in networks (instructor, academic years 2011-2014)
• Probability theory (instructor, academic years 2013-2015)

Certificates and Qualifications

• University Teaching Qualifications
• Modules ASSESS, SUPERVISE (november 2018)
• Modules DEVELOP, TEACH (august 2018)

Awards and Prizes

Poster Award Stochastic Networks 2018

Five posters out of twenty five were selected by the Programme Committee and awarded a book
June 2018, Edinburgh, Scotland

TU/e PhD Thesis Award 2017

Eindhoven University of Technology
May 2017, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Nomination for the TU/e Final Project Award 2013

Dept. of Mathematics & Computer Science
July 2013, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

VvS+OR Master’s Thesis Award 2013

Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research
March 2013, Utrecht, The Netherlands

ASML Graduation Prize for Mathematics 2012

Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities
November 2012, Haarlem, The Netherlands

Selected Public talks

Here is a short list of invited presentations and other talks that I have given over the years:

Aalto University Stochastic Sauna (2019), NETWORKS Training Week (2019). Error Accumulation in Quantum Circuits

TU/e CASA Colloquium (2019), Young European Queueing Theorists Workshop (2019), Korteweg-De Vries Institute (2019), INFORMS-APS (2019), EURandom 20th Anniversary Workshop (2018), CWI Machine Learning Seminar (2018). Clustering in Block Markov Chains [Available here]

Applied Probability Society Conference (2017). Scaling Limits and Generic Bounds for Exploration Processes

Trinity College Dublin (2016). Online Optimization of Product-Form Networks and Rydberg Gases

InScience Dutch International Science Film Festival (2015). About Ramanujan: An opening to The Man Who Knew Infinity

Applied Probability Society Conference (2015), CWI Queueing Colloquium (2015), LNMB Lunteren Conference (2014). Optimal Admission Control for Many-Server Systems with QED-driven Revenues

Physics Symposium Eindhoven (2014). Why an Ultracold Gas is like a Wireless Network

First European Conference on Queueing Theory (2014). Wireless Network Control of Interacting Rydberg Atoms

Performance (2013), and Young European Queueing Theorists Workshop (2013). Scaled Control in the QED Regime

Valuetools (2012), and Applied Probability Society Conference (2013). Online Optimization of Product-Form Networks

VvS+OR Annual Meeting (2013), and Consultants in Quantitative Methods (2013). From particles, to algorithms, to …?

Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (2012). Draadloze netwerken en Rydberg gassen

Allerton (2012). Achievable Performance in Product-Form Networks

Education

PhD Courses