Professor David Saad

Profile
I obtained a BA in Physics and a BSc in Electrical Engineering at the Technion, Haifa, Israel and later on an MSc in Physics (relativistic field theory) and a PhD in Electrical Engineering (neural networks) at the Tel-Aviv University. In 1992 I joined the neural networks group in the physics department at Edinburgh University first as a postdoc and later on as a lecturer, working mainly on theoretical issues. In 1995 I joined the Neural Computing Research Group at Aston as a lecturer and was promoted later on to a reader (1997) and subsequently to a professor (1999).  Since 2006 I have been the Head of the Mathematics Group.

Qualifications & Education

• BA in Physics (Cum Laude), Technion, Haifa, Israel, 1982
• BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, (Cum Laude), Technion, Haifa, Israel, 1982
• MA in Physics, Tel-Aviv University, 1987
• PhD in Engineering, Tel-Aviv University, 1992

Employment

• 1999 – date: Professor of Information Mathematics in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Aston University; Head of Mathematics since 2006.
• 1997 – 1999: Reader in the NCRG and Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Aston University
• 1995 – 1997: Lecturer in the NCRG and Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Aston University.
• 1993 – 1995: Lecturer in the Physics Department, University of Edinburgh.

Teaching activity

Teaching on the Mathematics programmes:

• Partial Differential Equations (currently delivered by Bill Cox)
  
• Mathematical Methods

Research interests

• Statistical mechanics of disordered systems
• Advanced Inference in complex systems
• Error Correcting Codes and Cryptography
  
• Multiuser communication (CDMA, broadcasting)
  
• Hard Computational Problems
  
• Computing with noise
• Distributed resources in networks

Recent research funding
I held 7 EPSRC grants as well as grants from the Leverhulme Trust (2), EU (3), Royal Society and British Council (2).

Current grants:
Inference and Complexity in Complex Composite Systems, EPSRC (EP/E049516/1) - £322,747 (with D. Lowe - CI).

Noisy Computation in Boolean Functions – a Statistical Physics View, Leverhulme Trust (F/00 250/H) - £135,111.

Decoding Network Structure with Message Passing Algorithms, The British Council, British-German Academic Research Collaboration programme - £2,250.

Inference Beyond the Limits via Insights from Physical Systems, Leverhulme Trust, £154,017 (with J. Neirotti - CI).

PhD Supervision
I have supervised about 11 PhD students and 14 MSc students.

Membership of Professional Bodies
American Physical Society

Key publications 

Books:
D. Saad (editor), On-Line Learning in Neural Networks, Publications of the Newton Institute, Cambridge University Press, (1998).

M. Opper and D. Saad (editors), Advanced Mean Field Methods - Theory and Practice, MIT press,

Journal papers:

Y. Kabashima, T. Murayama and D. Saad, ``Typical Performance of Gallager-type Error-Correcting Codes'',   Phys. Rev. Lett.   84, 1355-1358, (2000).

Y. Kabashima, T. Murayama and D. Saad, ``Cryptographical Properties of Ising Spin Systems'',    Phys. Rev. Lett.   84, 2030-2033, (2000).

R. Vicente, D. Saad and Y. Kabashima, ``Error-correcting Code on a Cactus: a Solvable Model'',   Europhys. Lett. ,   51, 698-704, (2000).

A.C.C. Coolen, D. Saad and Y. Xiong, ``On-line Learning from Restricted Training Sets in Multilayer Neural Networks'', Europhys. Lett. ,   51, 691-697, (2000).

Y. Kabashima and D. Saad, ``Statistical Mechanics of Low-Density Parity Check Codes'', Jour. Phys. A (invited paper), 37, R1-R43, (2004).

J.P. Neirotti and D. Saad, ``Improved Message Passing for Inference in Densely Connected Systems'',   Europhys. Lett. 71, 866-872, (2005).

K.Y.M. Wong and D. Saad, ``Inference and Optimization of Real Edges on Sparse Graphs - a Statistical Physics Perspective'', Phys. Rev. E, 76, 011115 (2007).

A. Mozeika, D. Saad and J. Raymond, ``Computing with Noise - Phase Transitions in Boolean Formulas'',  Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 248701 (2009).