Zipei Nie's homepage

Email: znie@illinois.edu

Welcome to my homepage! I am a J.L. Doob Research Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, mentored by Jake Rasmussen. Before this role, I was a senior researcher in mathematics at Huawei for more than four years. I earned my Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2020 under the guidance of Zoltán Szabó, and my academic journey began at MIT, where I received my Bachelor of Science in Mathematics in 2015.

All of my works are publicly accessible and can be found below.

Research

  1. Chainmail links and non-left-orderability [fields: low dimensional topology]
    arXiv:2310.16830

  2. Petal diagram from simple braids [fields: low dimensional topology]
    arXiv:2310.09569

  3. Automated reasoning for proving non-orderability of groups [fields: automated reasoning, low dimensional topology, group theory]
    (Joint with Alexei Lisitsa and Alexei Vernitski) 
    arXiv:2310.05891

  4. Simpler analyses of union-find [fields: data structrue]
    (Joint with Zhiyi Huang, Chris Lambert, and Richard Peng) 
    arXiv:2308.09021

  5. Euclidean capacitated vehicle routing in random setting: A 1.55-approximation algorithm. [fields: approxiamation algorithm]
    (Joint with Hang Zhou)
    32nd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA), 2024 arXiv:2304.11281

  6. On a conjecture of Knuth about forward and back arcs [fields: data structure, combinatorics]
    arXiv:2301.05704

  7. The number of correct guesses with partial feedback [fields: combinatorics]
    arXiv:2212.08113

  8. Matrix anti-concentration inequalities with applications [fields: random matrix theory, algorithm]
    In Proceedings of the 54th Annual ACM SIGACT Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC), pages 568–581, 2022 arXiv:2111.05553

  9. Non-left-orderability of cyclic branched covers of pretzel knots P(3, -3, -2k-1) [fields: low dimensional topology]
    (Joint with Lin Li) 
    Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series A: Mathematical Sciences, 98(10), 2022 arXiv:2106.15582

  10. Improved online correlated selection [fields: online algorithm]
    (Joint with Ruiquan Gao, Zhongtian He, Zhiyi Huang, Bijun Yuan, and Yan Zhong)
    In 2021 IEEE 62nd Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS), pages 1265–1276. IEEE, 2022 arXiv:2106.04224

  11. An explicit description of (1, 1) L-space knots, and non-left-orderable surgeries [fields: low dimensional topology]
    Communications of Huawei Research, VOL-001:212–219, 2021 arXiv:2102.10891

  12. On 1-bridge braids, satellite knots, the manifold v2503 and non-left-orderable surgeries and fillings [fields: low dimensional topology]
    arXiv:2003.14296

  13. Topologically slice (1, 1)-knots which are not smoothly slice [fields: low dimensional topology]
    arXiv:1901.07774

  14. Left-orderability for surgeries on (-2, 3, 2s+1)-pretzel knots [fields: low dimensional topology]
    Topology and its Applications, 261:1–6, 2019 arXiv:1803.00076

  15. Linear restrictions on cone polynomials [fields: combinatorics]
    (Joint with Weibo Fu) 
    arXiv:1510.04630

  16. On the minimum area of null homotopies of curves traced twice [fields: combinatorics, group theory]
    arXiv:1412.0101

  17. Hilbert functions and the finite degree Zariski closure in finite field combinatorial geometry [fields: combinatorics]
    (Joint with Anthony Y Wang)
    Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A, 134:196–220, 2015 arXiv:1402.3018

  18. Points on lines in \mathbb{F}_q^3 [fields: combinatorics]
    (Joint with Anthony Y Wang)
    MIT SPUR Final Papers. 2013 pdf