Sasan Tavakkol

I am a computer scientist working on graph algorithms and machine learning. 

About Me

I am a Senior Software Engineer at the Algorithms & Optimization team of Google Research. Our mission is to build the most scalable library for graph algorithms and analysis and apply it to a multitude of Google products such as Search, YouTube, AdWords, Play, Maps. Previously, I was a tech lead on github.com/kartta-labs, an open source project from Google Research aiming to reconstruct a 4D map of the world. We launched Kartta Labs as re.city in 2020. The project was taken down in 2023. You can still see some screen-captured videos of our website in YouTube

I did my PhD at University of Southern California, where I had the privilege to work with Patrick Lynett and Cyrus Shahabi. My PhD's outcome, Celeris, democratized high-performance computing in coastal engineering and is in use by thousands of researchers and engineers in over 50 countries. Its user manual is translated to Spanish, Farsi, and Italian by independent users.

EMPLOYMENT

Google AI

Senior Software Engineer, 2018 - Present

2021-Now: I work on scalable learning and graph theory as part of Google AI's Graph Mining team.

2018-2020: I was a lead in github.com/kartta-labs, an open-source project for unrendering historical maps and reconstructing 4D map of the world. We used artificial intelligence and crowdsourcing to tackle tasks such as 3D reconstruction, georectification, vectorization, etc. Have a look at it here: http://re.city.

Celeria Labs, LLC

Founder, 2020 - Present

Celeria Labs specializes in computational hydrodynamics. Its major product is Celeris, a simulation software for nearshore waves. Learn more at celerialabs.com.

Niantic, Inc.

Software Engineering Intern, Summer 2018

I was the very first Intern of Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go. I contributed to the launch of Ingress Prime as part of the core Unity3D engineering team. 

Google

Software Engineering Intern, Winter 2018

As a member of the core engineering team of Code Jam, I significantly contributed to the launch of Code Jam 2018 competition on the new platform and received a shiny spot bonus for the “heroic launch”. 

Google

Software Engineering Intern, Summer 2017

As a member of the Brand Lift team, I  scaled up the ad quality measurement tools both in time and space, from spontaneous runs in specific regions to continuous monitoring in several countries.

EDUCATION

University of Southern California

Doctor of Philosophy in Computational Hydrodynamics          2018

Dissertation: Interactive and Immersive Coastal Hydrodynamics [WEBSITE] [JOURNAL PAPERS 1, 2 ,3] 

University of Southern California

Master of Science in Computer Science                                               2016

Thesis: Efficient Geospatial Crowdsourcing for Post-Disaster Decision Making  [CONF. PAPER]

Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic)

Master of Science in Computational Hydraulics                             2013

Thesis: Curvilinear Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics [JOURNAL PAPER]

Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic)

Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering                                           2010

Thesis: Shear Force Distribution in Open Channels [JOURNAL PAPER]

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS