MattSuperdock

Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Rhodes College
Memphis, Tennessee

Office: Briggs 207

My email is superdockm at rhodes.edu.

About me.

Research.

Here are some research questions and topics I'm currently thinking about, in two areas:

Interactive theorem proving.

• Constructing formal, computer-verifiable proofs (about math or code).
• Building interactive editors for dependently typed data.
• Defining metacircular programming languages.

Topological combinatorics.

• Can we extend Borsuk-Ulam and its applications to slightly discontinuous functions?
• Are there topological obstructions to the existence of finite projective planes?
• What is the smallest simplicial complex with a given fundamental group?

If you're a Rhodes student, and you'd like to talk about research, please reach out!

Publications.

Gromov-Hausdorff distances, Borsuk-Ulam theorems, and Vietoris-Rips complexes (pdf)
(preprint)
with Henry Adams, Johnathan Bush, Nate Clause, Florian Frick, Mario Gómez, R. Amzi Jeffs, Evgeniya Lagoda, Sunhyuk Lim, Facundo Mémoli, Michael Moy, Nikola Sadovek, Daniel Vargas, Qingsong Wang, Ling Zhou.

Vertex numbers of simplicial complexes with free abelian fundamental group (pdf)
(submitted)
with Florian Frick.

Simplicial complexes from finite projective planes and colored configurations (pdf)
Discrete Mathematics 346(1):113117 (2023)

A nonlinear Lazarev-Lieb theorem: \(L^{2}\)-orthogonality via motion planning (doi, pdf)
Journal of Topology and Analysis 14, No. 3, 569-585 (2022)
with Florian Frick.

Clean tangled clutters, simplices, and projective geometries (pdf)
Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B 154 (2022)
with Ahmad Abdi, Gérard Cornuéjols.

A new infinite class of ideal minimally non-packing clutters (html, pdf)
Discrete Mathematics 344(7):112413 (2021)
with Ahmad Abdi, Gérard Cornuéjols.

Thesis.

Topics in topological combinatorics:
Simplicial complexes, finite geometries, and the topology of circle-valued maps (pdf, slides)
Advisor: Florian Frick

Talks.

April 15, 2023
Quantifying discontinuity
AMS Special Session on Topological and Geometric Methods in Combinatorics (Cincinatti, OH)

April 28, 2022
Simplicial complexes and fundamental groups
Rhodes College Math Seminar

March 29, 2022
Small simplicial complexes with fundamental group \(\mathbb{Z}^{n}\)
Iowa State University Discrete Math Seminar (link)

November 21, 2021
Simplicial complexes, finite projective planes, and colored configurations
AMS Special Session on Topological Methods in Discrete Mathematics (remote)

October 22, 2020
The necklace splitting problem and robot motion planning
Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization Seminar, Carnegie Mellon University

Teaching.

Rhodes College.

• COMP241 - CS III: Data Structures & Algorithms (Fall 2022)
• COMP355 - Advanced Algorithms (Fall 2021, Fall 2022)
• COMP141 - CS I: Programming Fundamentals (Fall 2021, Spring 2022)

Carnegie Mellon University.

• 21-240 - Matrix Algebra with Applications (Fall 2019)

Charles E. Jordan High School.

• AP Calculus AB/BC (2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17)
• AP Computer Science A (2014-15, 2016-17)
• Mobile Computer Science Principles (2015-16)

Software.

The links below are Github repositories:

agda-unused - Check for unused code in an Agda project (Haskell).

vim-agda - Asynchronous type-checking for Agda 2.6.2 (Vimscript).

vim-foldout - Outline-based folding with syntax highlighting (Vimscript).