Alexander Barg

I am a Professor in the Department of ECE and Institute of Systems Research of the University of Maryland, with affiliate appointments in the Departments of Computer Science and Mathematics. I am also an affiliate fellow of the UMD/NIST Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS).

Research: Currently I am interested in quantifying how codes and lattices approximate uniform distributions in their metric spaces, smoothing of codes and lattices, their links to problems in information theory such as channel resolvability and transmission over the wiretap channel.

I also work on quantum codes, such as qubit codes and their logical gates, as well as permutation invariant codes and their links with absorption-emission and spin codes.

Another recent area of research concerns data representation on graphs (finite and infinite) wherein the contents of a vertex is determined by the values of its neighbors in the graph. For infinite graphs, for instance, grids, this group of problems has connections with methods of dynamical systems and equilibrium statistical mechanics.

More details about my research appear on the Research and Publications pages accessible through the menu tabs on this page and in my GoogleScholar profile.

Teaching: I occasionally teach a special topics course on "Modern discrete probability". Recently I also taught another topics course on "Classical and Quantum Codes" (co-taught with Victor Albert), both cross-listed between ECE, CS, and Math. I regularly teach graduate courses in Random Processes, Information Theory, and well as undergraduate classes.