Austin R. Benson

Contact

arb@cs.cornell.edu
413B Bill & Melinda Gates Hall
@austinbenson
arbenson

Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Field Member of Applied Math
Cornell University

My research develops numerical methods and computational frameworks for analyzing and understanding large-scale and complex datasets. I often approach problems with some combination of network science, matrix and tensor computations, and machine learning.
[Curriculum Vitae]

My research is supported by the ARO and the NSF.

Cornell classes

• Spring 2020. CS 6241: Numerical Methods for Data Science
  Office hours: 4:15-5:15pm Thursdays in Gates 413B.
• Fall 2019. CS 2850/INFO 2040/ECON 2040/SOC 2090: Networks
• Spring 2019. CS 6241: Numerical Methods for Data Science
• Fall 2018. CS 2850/INFO 2040/ECON 2040/SOC 2090: Networks

Expository material

• SIAM ALA '18 tutorial on Tensor Eigenvectors and Stochastic Processes (with David Gleich).
  [web] [slides] [code]

Preprints

• Hypergraph Cuts with General Splitting Functions.
  Nate Veldt, Austin R. Benson, and Jon Kleinberg.
  arXiv:2001.02817, 2020.
  paper pdf

• Incrementally Updated Spectral Embeddings.
  Vasileios Charisopoulos, Austin R. Benson, and Anil Damle.
  arXiv:1909.01188, 2019.
  paper pdf code poster

• Measuring Directed Triadic Closure with Closure Coefficients.
  Hao Yin, Austin R. Benson, and Johan Ugander.
  arXiv:1905.10683, 2019.
  paper pdf

• Planted Hitting Set Recovery in Hypergraphs.
  Ilya Amburg, Jon Kleinberg, and Austin R. Benson.
  arXiv:1905.05839, 2019.
  paper pdf code data

• Network Interpolation.
  Thomas Reeves, Anil Damle, and Austin R. Benson.
  arXiv:1905.01253, 2019.
  paper pdf code

Peer-reviewed papers

• Hypergraph clustering with categorical edge labels.
  Ilya Amburg, Nate Veldt, and Austin R. Benson.
  To appear at WWW, 2020.
  paper pdf code data

• Frozen Binomials on the Web: Word Ordering and Langauge Conventions in Online Text.
  Katherine Van Koevering, Austin R. Benson and Jon Kleinberg.
  To appear at WWW, 2020.
  

• Using cliques with higher-order spectral embeddings improves graph visualizations.
  Huda Nassar, David Gleich, Austin R. Benson, Shweta Jain and Caitlin Kennedy.
  To appear at WWW, 2020.
  

• Random Walks on Simplicial Complexes and the normalized Hodge 1-Laplacian.
  Michael T. Schaub, Austin R. Benson, Paul Horn, Gabor Lippner, and Ali Jadbabaie.
  To appear in SIAM Review (SIREV), 2020.
  paper pdf

• Retrieving Top Weighted Triangles in Graphs.
  Raunak Kumar, Paul Liu, Moses Charikar, and Austin R. Benson.
  To appear at WSDM, 2020.
  paper pdf code data

• Neural Jump Stochastic Differential Equations.
  Junteng Jia and Austin R. Benson.
  Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), 2019.
  paper pdf code poster

• Modeling and Analysis of Tagging Networks in Stack Exchange Communities.
  Shangdi Yu*, Xiang Fu*, and Austin R. Benson (*equal contribution).
  Journal of Complex Networks, 2019.
  paper pdf code data

• Computing tensor Z-eigenvectors with dynamical systems.
  Austin R. Benson and David F. Gleich.
  SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications (SIMAX), 2019.
  paper pdf code

• Unsupervised learning of dislocation motion.
  Darren C. Pagan, Thien Q. Phan, Jordan S. Weaver, Austin R. Benson, and Armand J. Beaudoin.
  Acta Materialia, 2019.
  paper pdf

• Automated Grain Yield Behavior Classification.
  Darren C. Pagan, Jakob Kaminsky, Wesley A. Tayon, Kelly E. Nygren, Armand J. Beaudoin, and Austin R. Benson.
  The Journal of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (JOM), 2019.
  paper pdf

• Pairwise Link Prediction.
  Huda Nassar, Austin R. Benson, and David F. Gleich.
  Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM), 2019.
  Best Paper Award Runner-up.
  paper pdf code

• Graph-based Semi-Supervised & Active Learning for Edge Flows.
  Junteng Jia, Michael T. Schaub, Santiago Segarra, and Austin R. Benson.
  Proceedings of the ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD), 2019.
  paper pdf code poster

• Network Density of States.
  Kun Dong, Austin R. Benson, and David Bindel.
  Proceedings of the ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD), 2019.
  Best Paper Award.
  paper pdf code poster

• Three hypergraph eigenvector centralities.
  Austin R. Benson.
  SIAM Journal on Mathematics of Data Science (SIMODS), 2019.
  paper pdf code

• Link Prediction in Networks with Core-Fringe Data.
  Austin R. Benson and Jon Kleinberg.
  Proceedings of the World Wide Web Conference (WWW), 2019.
  paper pdf code poster

• Choosing to grow a graph: Modeling network formation as discrete choice.
  Jan Overgoor, Austin R. Benson, and Johan Ugander.
  Proceedings of the World Wide Web Conference (WWW), 2019.
  paper pdf code poster

• Random Spatial Network Models with Core-Periphery Structure.
  Junteng Jia and Austin R. Benson.
  Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (WSDM), 2019.
  paper pdf code data poster

• Sampling Methods for Counting Temporal Motifs.
  Paul Liu, Austin R. Benson, and Moses Charikar.
  Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (WSDM), 2019.
  paper pdf code data

• The Local Closure Coefficient: A New Perspective On Network Clustering.
  Hao Yin, Austin R. Benson, and Jure Leskovec.
  Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (WSDM), 2019.
  paper pdf

• Simplicial closure and higher-order link prediction.
  Austin R. Benson, Rediet Abebe, Michael T. Schaub, Ali Jadbabaie, and Jon Kleinberg.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 2018.
  paper pdf supplement code data

• Found Graph Data and Planted Vertex Covers.
  Austin R. Benson and Jon Kleinberg.
  Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), 2018.
  paper pdf code data poster

• Sequences of Sets.
  Austin R. Benson, Ravi Kumar, and Andrew Tomkins.
  Proceedings of the ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD), 2018.
  paper pdf code data poster

• Higher-order clustering in networks.
  Hao Yin, Austin R. Benson, and Jure Leskovec.
  Physical Review E (PRE), 2018.
  paper pdf code

• A Discrete Choice Model for Subset Selection.
  Austin R. Benson, Ravi Kumar, and Andrew Tomkins.
  Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (WSDM), 2018.
  paper pdf code data poster

• Local higher-order graph clustering.
  Hao Yin, Austin R. Benson, Jure Leskovec, and David F. Gleich.
  Proceedings of the ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD), 2017.
  paper pdf code data

• Motifs in temporal networks.
  Ashwin Paranjape*, Austin R. Benson*, and Jure Leskovec. (*equal contribution)
  Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (WSDM), 2017.
  paper pdf code data poster

• The spacey random walk: a stochastic process for higher-order data.
  Austin R. Benson, David F. Gleich, and Lek-Heng Lim.
  SIAM Review (SIREV), 2017.
  paper pdf code data

• Higher-order organization of complex networks.
  Austin R. Benson, David F. Gleich, and Jure Leskovec.
  Science, 2016.
  paper pdf supplement code data

• General tensor spectral co-clustering for higher-order data.
  Tao Wu, Austin R. Benson, and David F. Gleich.
  Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), 2016.
  paper pdf code

• On the relevance of irrelevant alternatives.
  Austin R. Benson, Ravi Kumar, and Andrew Tomkins.
  Proceedings of the International Conference on World Wide Web (WWW), 2016.
  paper pdf

• Modeling user consumption sequences.
  Austin R. Benson, Ravi Kumar, and Andrew Tomkins.
  Proceedings of the International Conference on World Wide Web (WWW), 2016.
  paper pdf

• Improving the numerical stability of fast matrix multiplication.
  Grey Ballard, Austin R. Benson, Alex Druinksy, Benjamin Lipshitz, and Oded Schwartz.
  SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications (SIMAX), 2016.
  paper pdf code

• Tensor spectral clustering for partitioning higher-order network structures.
  Austin R. Benson, David F. Gleich, and Jure Leskovec.
  Proceedings of the SIAM International Conference on Data Mining (SDM), 2015.
  paper pdf code

• A framework for practical parallel fast matrix multiplication.
  Austin R. Benson and Grey Ballard.
  Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming (PPoPP), 2015.
  paper pdf code

• Scalable methods for nonnegative matrix factorizations of near-separable tall-and-skinny matrices.
  Austin R. Benson, Jason D. Lee, Bartek Rajwa, and David F. Gleich.
  Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), 2014.
  Selected for spotlight presentation.
  paper pdf code data poster

• Learning multifractal structure in large networks.
  Austin R. Benson, Carlos Riquelme, and Sven Schmit.
  Proceedings of the ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD), 2014.
  paper pdf supplement

• A parallel directional Fast Multipole Method.
  Austin R. Benson, Jack Poulson, Kenneth Tran, Björn Engquist, and Lexing Ying.
  SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing (SISC), 2014.
  paper pdf code

• Silent error detection in numerical time-stepping schemes.
  Austin R. Benson, Sven Schmit, and Robert Schreiber.
  International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications (IJHPCA), 2014.
  paper pdf supplement code

• Direct QR factorizations for tall-and-skinny matrices in MapReduce architectures.
  Austin R. Benson, David F. Gleich, and James Demmel.
  Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Big Data (IEEE BigData), 2013.
  paper pdf code

Theses

• Tools for higher-order network analysis.
  Austin Reilley Benson.
  Stanford PhD thesis, 2017.
  Stanford ICME Gene Golub Doctoral Dissertation Award winner.
  paper pdf