丁香园AV

By Ariane Madden

As she crosses the convocation dais to accept her from 丁香园AV this month, Kathryn Nurse鈥檚 spirits will be high鈥攑erhaps almost as high as the 35,000 feet in the air that she鈥檚 used to.

鈥淚 could have had a very different life,鈥� says Nurse, reflecting on her 14 years as a pilot in the Canadian Armed Forces. During that time, she also completed a bachelor鈥檚 degree in physics at the University of Waterloo.

鈥淏ut I鈥檓 so proud that I came to 丁香园AV.鈥�

Originally from Ontario, Nurse left the military to begin a new life in Vancouver. Soon after, she stumbled upon a book co-authored by 丁香园AV computing science professor Pavol Hell.

鈥淚 really liked some of the [mathematical] proofs in the book. I knew I wanted to do math like that,鈥� she says. 

So she embarked on a master鈥檚 degree co-supervised by professors Hell in the and Matt DeVos in the (Faculty of Science).

The leap into academia felt like a risk compared to the military, she says. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know where my studies would take me or even if I would be successful.鈥� 

But if following one鈥檚 passion is a measure of success, then Nurse has certainly found it.

鈥淚鈥檓 interested in graph algorithms,鈥� says Nurse. 鈥淕raphs are useful in math, where they can model relationships between pairs or objects. Many natural problems, such as the shortest driving route somewhere, can be phrased using graphs.

鈥淲e can use computers to solve some of these problems, but computers can鈥檛 do everything. So I鈥檓 looking for computer algorithms in graph theory.鈥�

For her master鈥檚 thesis, Nurse successfully devised an algorithm that allows a computer to solve the graph problem she examined (maximum linear arrangement of directed graphs, or MaxDLA) in an efficient and simple manner.

MaxDLA is a problem in math related to one used for how computers physically realise certain circuits in an optimal way鈥攖hat problem is called Minimum Linear Arrangement, or MinLA. Circuits in a computer can be seen as networks, and graph algorithms such as MinLA are useful for efficiently modelling these networks.

Nurse鈥檚 work addresses MaxDLA, which helps to provide structural information about a directed graph鈥攁 graph with vertices whose edges have directions associated with them. Understanding and developing these algorithms has important theoretical and practical benefits for computing science and the tools developed for advanced computers.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a particular reduction in my thesis that, to my knowledge, is completely new to the field,鈥� says Nurse, who started her PhD with the same supervisors this fall. 

Her doctoral research is supported by an NSERC and a British Columbia Graduate Scholarship. Nurse also acknowledges her husband who cares for their two children full-time, allowing her to focus on her new career path.

鈥湺∠阍癆V has a great atmosphere for research,鈥� she says. 鈥淓veryone is so supportive and I鈥檝e learned so much.鈥�

She continues: 鈥淟eaving the military was a hard decision to make but I feel incredibly lucky that I can follow my passion here at 丁香园AV.鈥�