Ali Rostami

Experience

• Aug 2023 — present

  Senior Data Scientist and Algorithm Engineer

  Vodafone

  Analytical graph models using combinatorial optimization, integer programming and big data methods; time series analysis, clustering and geo-analysis.

• Mar 2021 — Jul 2023

  Senior Data Scientist

  Deutsche Telekom, through Axxessio GmbH

  Designed and implemented an NLU system covering TV, appointment, weather and other domains. Built annotation tools, a ranking system for training data, and a fuzzy search concept for content entity recognition.

• Feb 2019 — Feb 2021

  Senior Data Scientist

  Deutsche Telekom, through MobilabSolutions

  Natural language understanding for the Magenta voice platform — the same problem space as the Axxessio engagement above.

• Feb 2017 — Jan 2019

  Senior Software Engineer

  ScaDS and KNIME

  Built a visualization system for large graphs using Spark and Flink, and developed graph analysis workflow tools integrated into the KNIME Analytics Platform.

• 2012 — 2016

  Junior Software Engineer

  Parallel to PhD studies

  Parallelized a serial geothermal simulation code using MPI and OpenMP for the Jülich Supercomputer Centre.

Education

• 2012 — 2016

  PhD, Combinatorial Scientific Computing

  Friedrich Schiller University Jena

  Combining Partial Jacobian Computation and Preconditioning

• 2010 — 2012

  MSc, Media Informatics

  RWTH Aachen University
• 2004 — 2009

  BSc, Applied Mathematics

  Sharif University of Technology

Teaching & leadership

• Taught parallel programming, visual analytics and big data.
• Supervised seminars and theses.
• Coordinated the international GraphTea project.

Skills

Where each of these has actually been used.

Projects

• GraphTea

  2012 — now

  An open-source mathematical platform for graph algorithms and visualizations. I am a developer, designer and maintainer, and I coordinate the international project.

  • Website
  • Source
  • Run online

• Magenta

  2019 — 2022

  Deutsche Telekom's voicification project, unifying voice control across Telekom products from smart home to TV and telephone. I designed and implemented methods for the German-language NLU model.

• BIGGR

  2017 — 2019

  A collaboration between KNIME and ScaDS Leipzig on a system for building graph analysis workflows graphically. I implemented GradoopVis and extended the KNIME Analytics Platform with new tools.

  • GRADOOP

• SIMG-VIZ

  2017 — 2018

  A visualization system for entity resolution and clustering. Analyses precomputed similarity graphs and supports entity-resolution match tasks with FAMER, including parallel layout computation and sampling for large graphs.

  • Source

• PreCol

  2013 — 2017

  Computes graph coloring and preconditioning using automatic differentiation, implemented in C++ for efficiency and parallelism, with graphical interfaces for Java and MATLAB.

  • Documentation

• ChemTea

  2014 — now

  Tools for computing parameters in chemical graph theory using big data approaches. Originally a GraphTea extension, now a separate project with a C++ core and a Python interface.

• MeProRisk II

  2012 — 2016

  A multi-disciplinary effort to reduce risk in geothermal reservoir exploration. I integrated parallel computing into the SHEMAT-Suite simulation code.

  • Project page
  • SHEMAT-Suite

• EXPLAIN

  2013 — 2016

  Interactive, browser-based learning modules for teaching scientific computing. Students write and test algorithms in the page and watch them run against real matrices and graphs.

  • Open EXPLAIN

• Earlier work

  2011 — 2012

  Redmine Client — mobile client for Redmine project management (Humance AG). Castle Crisis — Android location-based game (Fraunhofer Bonn summer school). AggGen — 3D model extraction of black carbon in MATLAB/C++ (RWTH Aachen). OpenFlipper — hexagonal mesh algorithm for a C++ 3D graphics library (RWTH Aachen).

  • Castle Crisis
  • OpenFlipper

Interactive demos

Small, self-contained things you can play with in the browser — no install, no sign-up.

• Publication Knowledge Graph

  My publications as a navigable graph of co-authors, venues and topics.

• Graph Coloring Puzzle

  Color every node so no two neighbours match — using as few colors as you can.

• Parallel Algorithm Race

  Sequential versus parallel execution, competing side by side in real time.

• Steiner Tree Explorer

  Build a graph, assign prizes and costs, then find the optimal subtree.

• Polyglot Benchmark

  One algorithm implemented across seven languages, compared on speed.

• Graph Theory Lecture Tool

  Teaching aid for stepping through classic graph algorithms in front of a class.

Publications

Peer-reviewed papers, most recent first.