Ben Li

Research interests

My research interests lie in combinatorics and theoretical computer science. More specifically, I am interested in combinatorial design theory, graph theory, and the design and analysis of efficient and approximation algorithms for combinatorial optimization problems.

In the study of combinatorial designs, I am interested in mainly Steiner triple system, BIBDs, difference sets and covering designs. I have worked on projects that involved the enumeration of all non-isomorphic designs with certain parameters and studied whether certain combinatorial designs exist. I have also studied properties of certain classes of designs such as friendship 3-hypergraphs and Sperner partition systems.

In my study of graphs, I am mainly interested in studying combinatorial optimization problems such as vertex cover and matchings. I am interested in developing approximation algorithms for NP-Hard problems. I am also interested in hardness of approximation of various NP-Hard problems. Finally, I am interested in studying subclasses of NP-Hard problems for which the subclasses are polynomial-time solvable.

Courses taught

• COMP 1010 – Introduction to Computer Science
• COMP 2080 – Analysis of Algorithms
• COMP 2130 – Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science
• COMP 2140 – Data Structures and Algorithms
• COMP 2160 – Programming Practices
• COMP 2280 – Introduction to Computer Systems
• COMP 3170 – Analysis of Algorithms and Data Structures
• COMP 3290 – Introduction to Compiler Construction
• COMP 3720 – Computer Networks
• COMP 4140 – Introduction to Cryptography and Crypto-systems
• COMP 7720 – Approximation Algorithms
• COMP 7720 – Combinatorial Algorithms
• COMP 7720 – Combinatorial Optimization