Hello! I am a fourth-year PhD student advised by Professors Daniele Panozzo and Denis Zorin in the Geometric Computing Lab @ NYU. I am also a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellow. Broadly speaking, I am interested in physical simulation, robust numerical methods, and geometric processing.
Before joining the GCL, I completed my Bachelor's at Northwestern University, where I double majored in Computer Science and Physics. There, I had the chance to research astrophysical jets with Professor Sasha Tchekhovskoy and colloidal suspensions with Professor Michelle Driscoll.
Before that, I grew up on the California coast in a town called Half Moon Bay.
Outside of research, I am an avid baseball fan. I also enjoy writing, reading, and watching non-science things (most recently Dune), hiking when I get the chance to escape the city (often Montara Mountain), traveling, and trying different foods.
You can contact me by emailing maxpaik (at) nyu (dot) edu.
August 2025
I co-authored a paper. We include a review of over 40 previous methods for handling contact, generate a set of natural desiderata for such methods, and derive a novel barrier potential that satisfies those properties. Check out the paper here.
July 2025
I had the chance to present my work twice this month. First, I shared some in progress work improving the scalability of Incremental Potential Contact (IPC) simulations at the DOE CSGF Program Review in Washington D.C. I also shared an overview of IPC at the 18th U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics in Chicago, Illinois.
August 2024
I spent the summer in Livermore, California performing uncertainty quantification for semi-microscopic optical potentials.
March 2024
I have been awarded the Computational Science Graduate Fellowship.
February 2024
I co-authored a paper on 3D GRMHD simulations of cylindrical jets. Check it out here.
September 2023
I began my PhD program in Computer Science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences in New York, New York.
June 2023
I graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Computer Science and Physics.
Working with Professors Daniele Panozzo and Denis Zorin, I am investigating robust and scalable numerical methods for elastodynamic simulation and contact with applications from microstructure design to biomechanics.
Working with Professor Sasha Tchekhovskoy, I designed, ran, and analyzed magnetohydrodynamic simulations of relativistic jets propagating through the gas surrounding their black hole. My simulations, which ran on some of the most powerful supercomputing clusters in the world, helped explain observations of different jet profiles in different physical systems.
Working with Professor Michelle Driscoll, I designed an apparatus to capture video of drying colloidal suspensions. When the pandemic took away the chance to work in the lab, I developed an image processing tool to automatically detect and analyze cracks in droplets.
Northwestern Undergraduate Research Expo (Poster), 2021
I'm always happy to chat about research, life as a PhD student, or anything else. Email me!
maxpaik (at) nyu (dot) edu