Pop-Up Institutes

Each year the Rhodes IID sponsors several Pop-Up Institutes.

Each Pop-Up Institute centers on a topic of current scientific importance driven by faculty in the mathematical and computational science community from across the university. Each Pop-Up Institute typically contains several elements spread over several months:

• Introductory mini courses: These courses last several weeks and are an invitation for students and researchers new to the topic to enter the conversation. They are also a mechanism by which researchers from diverse backgrounds, already working around the topic, to find a common language and perspective to better seed joint projects.
• Reading group: By reading through a number of recent or seminal papers on the topic from a number of different perspectives, the reading group will bring students and researchers up to the current state of the art. The hope is that the discussion will lead the group to start new collaborations.
• Distinguished visitors: Through conferences and seminars, we’ll bring leading experts on the subject to Duke to connect the conversations to the state-of-the-art in the broader scientific community and to show different perspectives on the subject.
• Other elements, such as long-term visitors or collaboration with other centers at Duke or nationally will be considered when available.

The initial topics were chosen through conversations with the current IID community. In subsequent years, an open call will be made to solicit topics. 

2026 Events

Pop-Up Mini Course: Emerging Methods in Sampling

January 9
12-1 pm GH 330
With: Jonathan Mattingly, Greg Herschlag, Johann Guilleminot, Scott Schmidler, Di Fang

iiD Community Lunch with Di Fang

January 21
GH330
12:00-1:15 p.m.

Algorithmic Advances in Generative AI

February 6-7
Pop-Up
2/6: GH 330
2/7: GH 103

2026 Gene Golub SIAM Summer School on Fault-Tolerant Algorithms in Quantum Computing

July 27- August 7
Hosted by Di Fang
Dates: July 27 – August 7, 2026
Location: Gross Hall 103
Application link
Application Deadline:  March 1st, 2026

Quantum computing stands at the forefront of scientific innovation, captivating broad interest as a dynamically evolving field. Recent years have witnessed remarkable progress in developing and analyzing quantum algorithms for a wide range of scientific computing challenges. These applications include various numerical linear algebra tasks, solving high-dimensional differential equations, learning from quantum systems, and more.

In this summer school, we will introduce quantum algorithms and quantum computing from a numerical analysis and applied mathematics perspective. We will first go over fundamental principles and basics of quantum mechanics and quantum computing, introduce contemporary and essential techniques for constructing fault-tolerant quantum algorithms, and then delve into quantum algorithms of various tasks for scientific computing purposes, including quantum dynamics simulation, numerical linear algebra tasks, numerical differential equation, and quantum learning tasks. No prior background in quantum physics or quantum computing is assumed.

The summer school will be held in person at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, from July 27 to August 7, 2026. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students with strong interests in applied mathematics, scientific computing, or quantum information are especially encouraged to apply. The summer school plans to provide travel and local expense support for all attendees.

Digital Humanities Symposium

Sept. 25-26
GH 330
With: Astrid Giugni and Richard So

2025 Events

Fall 2025 Pop-up:  Transformers and Generative Diffusion Models in AI

The Rhodes iiD mini-course on Transformers will start *THIS THURSDAY* September 18th at 10:00-11:20 in Gross Hall room 230C with Larry Carin giving the first lecture on transformers.The minicourse will continue on Tuesday and Thursday at the same time moving forward.
You can always find up to date info at https://bigdata.duke.edu/participate/pop-up-institutes/

The *reading group* will continue this Tuesday in Gross Hall 330 with lunch at 12 noon and the discussion starting at 12:15pm.

There will also be an associated conference and visitors that will be announced as the semester develops.