PhD Student Jacob Adamczyk Receives IMPACT Award from the American Physical Society
At the 2024 annual meeting of the American Physical Society (APS), Physics PhD student Jacob Adamczyk was presented with an IMPACT award by the APS Topical Group on Data Science (GDS).
The esteemed national award is given each year to only a handful of graduate students based on their impact on data science and their potential for continued success in the field.
“This award is a recognition of the amazing accomplishments Jacob has already made as he progresses in his PhD research. He is effectively creating a new field which can be termed ‘physics-informed reinforcement learning’ and he has published several papers related to this topic in the leading journals in both physics and computer science,” said Adamczyk’s advisor, Professor of Physics and Department Chair Rahul Kulkarni.
Adamczyk's current research focus is on reinforcement learning, an exciting area of machine learning used to solve sequential decision-making problems.
"I work at the intersection between theory and algorithms, where our group uses insights from physics to develop novel approaches to solve reinforcement learning problems,” said Adamczyk.
Adamczyk’s research is closely tied to his teaching efforts. This semester, he developed and is teaching an informal course on deep learning. He created the class to make the revolutionary field of deep learning more accessible to a wider audience. In the class, he covers a broad range of deep learning topics (backpropagation, gradient descent, MLPs, CNNs, ResNets, RNNs, Transformers, Reinforcement Learning), and includes discussion of state-of-the-art models and applications. The engaging course has received rave reviews from the physics, computer science, chemistry, and mathematics majors in the class.
Before joining UMass Boston, Adamczyk earned Honors BS degrees in physics and mathematics at Cleveland State University. He contemplated whether to join industry or academia when he graduated college.
After meeting Kulkarni and other faculty from UMass Boston’s Physics Department, Adamczyk knew he wanted to pursue a PhD at UMass Boston. He explained that “the physics department’s interests aligned well with my own: biophysics, quantum computing, and machine learning. In fact, I was able to learn about machine learning from conversations with Professor Kulkarni before I was even a UMass Boston student.”
“Jacob’s contributions to the field and to the UMass Boston community are quite remarkable. We are fortunate to have him as a graduate student in our physics department,” said Kulkarni.
Latest University News
- UMass Boston’s Welcoming Ceremony Celebrated Diverse Indigenous CulturesOn March 20, UMass Boston’s Native American Indigenous Studies Program (NAIS), the New England Institute for Native American Studies (INENAS), and the Native/Indigenous Student Association (NISA) hosted a delegation from Hawai’i Community College (Hawai’i CC) for a day long visit to our campus that included a cultural exchange, knowledge sharing, student performances, and more.
- UMass Boston Celebrates LGBTQ+ Day, Unveils New Pride LogoThis month, the UMass Boston Queer Student Center, in partnership with various campus organizations, hosted an LGBTQ+ Day of Celebration, centered on the spirit of unity, pride, and hope. More than 100 students, faculty, and staff members came out to the celebration, which included an extensive resource fair, drag performances, and a luncheon.
- Congressman Lynch, Chancellor Suárez-Orozco Celebrate $1M in Federal Funding for New Offshore Workforce Development Center at UMass BostonCongressman Stephen Lynch joined UMass Boston Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco at Fox Point Dock today to announce and celebrate $1 million in federal community project funding for UMass Boston to create an Offshore Workforce Development Center.
- UMass Boston Adopts Okanagan CharterJoins Other Health Promoting Universities in Pledge
- A ‘Living Legend’: Associate Provost Rosanna DeMarco Honored by the American Nurses Association MassachusettsUMass Boston Associate Provost and Professor of Nursing Rosanna DeMarco, PhD, RN, FAAN, has been named a Living Legend in Massachusetts Nursing by the American Nurses Association Massachusetts.
- Massachusetts Attorney General and UMass Boston Applied Ethics Center Address AI Consumer ProtectionMassachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell joined Professor of Philosophy and Director of the UMass Boston Applied Ethics Center Nir Eiskovits for a fireside chat to discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) is influencing consumer and civil rights. Postdoctoral fellow at the center, Alec Stubbs, moderated the lively discussion between Campbell and Eiskovists, which covered the risks and benefits with the emergence of AI, biases in algorithms, and data protection.