Cassandra Marcussen

I am a Ph.D. student in theoretical computer science at Harvard University, advised by Madhu Sudan. In 2022, I graduated from Columbia University, where I double-majored in Mathematics and Computer Science and was advised by Xi Chen. My research is supported by an NDSEG Fellowship.

I am interested in theoretical computer science and probability theory. I like to think about problems related to property testing, error correction, probabilistic network models, and stochastic processes.

My email is cmarcussen-at-g-dot-harvard-dot-edu.

Research

Errors are Robustly Tamed in Cumulative Knowledge Processes [pdf]. COLT 2024.
Anna Brandenberger, Cassandra Marcussen, Elchanan Mossel, Madhu Sudan.

Uniformity Testing over Hypergrids with Subcube Conditioning [pdf]. SODA 2024.
Xi Chen, Cassandra Marcussen.

Uniform scrambles on graphs [pdf]. Australasian Journal of Combinatorics, 2023.
L. Cenek, L. Ferguson, E. Gebre, C. Marcussen, J. Meintjes, R. Morrison, L. Ostermeyer, S. Ramakrishna.

Scramble number and tree-cut decompositions [pdf].
L. Cenek, L. Ferguson, E. Gebre, C. Marcussen, J. Meintjes, R. Morrison, L. Ostermeyer, S. Ramakrishna, B. Weber.

Bounds on higher graph gonality [pdf]. Presented at the Young Mathematicians Conference, 2021.
L. Cenek, L. Ferguson, E. Gebre, C. Marcussen, J. Meintjes, R. Morrison, L. Ostermeyer, S. Ramakrishna.

Data Preparation of the nuMoM2b Dataset [pdf]. Technical report.
A. Goretsky, A. Dmitrienko, I. Tang, N. Lari, O. Kunhardt, R. Rashid Khan, C. Marcussen, A. Catto, D. Mallia, A. Leshchenko, A. Lin, A. Raja, A. Salleb-Aouissi, Itsik Pe'er, R. Wapner, C. Gyamfi-Bannerman. (Non-alphabetical author ordering)

Authors are ordered alphabetically unless otherwise indicated.

Teaching

At Harvard:

Teaching Fellow for Essential Coding Theory (CS 229r) taught by Madhu Sudan (Fall 2023)

At Columbia, I was a Teaching Assistant for the following courses:

Advanced Algorithms (COMS 4232) taught by Alexandr Andoni (Spring 2022)
Introduction to Cryptography (COMS 4261) taught by Tal Malkin (Spring 2022)
Analysis of Algorithms I (CSOR 4251) taught by Xi Chen (Summer 2021) and Alexandr Andoni (Fall 2021)
Artificial Intelligence (COMS 4701) taught by Ansaf Salleb-Aouissi (Spring 2021)
Discrete Mathematics: Combinatorics and Graph Theory (COMS 3203) taught by Ansaf Salleb-Aouissi (Fall 2020)

Other:

TA for the PCMI Undergraduate Summer School on Quantum Computation (Summer 2023)
I lectured and served as a TA for the Undergraduate Math Society's Introduction to Proofs workshop (Fall 2020, Fall 2021)

Fellowships and Selected Awards

NDSEG Fellowship (2024)
NSF GRFP Fellowship (2024, declined in favor of NDSEG)
Magna cum laude, Columbia College (2022)
John Jay Scholar – Columbia University Scholars Program (2018 - 2022)
Verizon App Challenge: Best in Nation (2017)

Seminars and Organizations

I currently organize TGINF, a theory seminar for graduate students and postdocs at Harvard.
Columbia Undergraduate Learning Seminar in Theoretical Computer Science: Founder and Leader (Summer 2021 to Spring 2022)
- Organizer of Analysis of Boolean Functions and Property Testing group (Summer 2021)
- Organizer of Theorist's Toolkit group (Fall 2021)
- Organizer of High Dimensional Probability and Applications to CS group (Spring 2022)
Columbia-Barnard Association for Women in Mathematics: Co-President (2021-2022)
- Organizer of Simple Random Walks reading group (Summer 2020)
- Organizer of Topology reading group (Summer 2021)

Research and Work Experience

Senior Thesis on Uniformity Testing over Hypergrids with Subcube Conditioning, advised by Xi Chen.
SMALL REU in Mathematics at Williams College (Summer 2021)
Research Assistant to Ansaf Salleb-Aouissi (January 2020 to August 2021)
Independent Developer in the Microsoft Research Reinforcement Learning Open Source Fest (Summer 2020). Project: Parallelized Parsing in C++ for Vowpal Wabbit
STEP Software Engineering Intern at Google (Summer 2020)
AFE Software Engineering Intern at Amazon (Summer 2019)

Axioms

I firmly believe Federico Ardila's axioms:

Axiom 1. Mathematical potential is equally present in different groups, irrespective of geographic, demographic, and economic boundaries.
Axiom 2. Everyone can have joyful, meaningful, and empowering mathematical experiences.
Axiom 3. Mathematics is a powerful, malleable tool that can be shaped and used differently by various communities to serve their needs.
Axiom 4. Every student deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.

Music

Outside of theoretical computer science and mathematics, one of my passions is music. I am a classical cellist, and I also play the piano and sing. I am currently learning the Bach Cello Suite No. 6 and Rachmaninoff's Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19.