Education

Teaching

• Numerical algorithms
• Probability
• Calculus, Differential equation
• Optimization

Programs

Programs

• Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology MS, PhD
• Data Science BS, BS/MS
• Data Science Graduate Certificate
• Data Science MS
• Engineering and Applied Science PhD
• Mathematics BA, BS

Courses

Research

Research awards

• $ 13,000 awarded by Mathematical Association of America for Mixed Model Implicit and IMEX Runge-Kutta Methods
• $ 130,113 awarded by U.S. Department of the Air Force for Computationally and Energy Efficient Mixed Precision and Mixed-model Numerical Methods
• $ 296,555 awarded by The National Science Foundation for Reduced Basis Enhancements of Neural Networks and Their Application to Quantum Materials Simulation
• $ 477,181 awarded by Office of Naval Research for UMassD MUST III: Multi-Fidelity Information Fusion for Accelerated Predictive Modeling and Optimal Design of High Entropy Alloys
• $ 435,393 awarded by Office of Naval Research for UMassD MUST II: Computational Strategies for Scientific Data-Driven Learning for Marine and Undersea Technology Applications

Research interests

• Numerical Analysis, scientific computing, computational partial differential equations
• Dimension reduction, model order reduction, reduced order modeling
• Uncertainty quantification, fractional-order partial differential equations
• Data mining, machine learning, image processing, neural networks
• high performance computing

Yanlai Chen received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2002, followed by a Master of Science in Computer Science and Engineering from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and a PhD in Mathematics from the School of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota in 2007. He then completed a postdoctoral research training at Brown University before joining the Department of Mathematics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in August 2010. Dr. Chen currently serves as a Full Professor and assumed the role of Chief Research Officer (CRO) at UMass Dartmouth in July 2024, where he oversees and fosters the university’s research enterprise.

Dr. Chen's own research, supported by the NSF, AFOSR, and ONR through UMassD's MUST program, focuses on numerical analysis and scientific computing. His areas of expertise include finite element methods, reduced basis methods, fast algorithms, uncertainty quantification, and the design and analysis of machine learning algorithms. He has supervised the completion of six doctoral dissertations as of 2024.

Passionate about undergraduate education, Dr. Chen led the establishment of UMass Dartmouth’s ACCOMPLISH program, funded by an NSF grant. This initiative provides comprehensive financial, social, and academic support, offering a contextualized, computing-centered education for eligible STEM students. In addition, Dr. Chen has held significant administrative roles, including Co-Director of the Graduate Program in Engineering and Applied Science between September 2020 and July 2024, and Co-Director of the Center for Scientific Computing and Data Science Research in Spring 2022.

Additional links

• Personal website
• Google scholar page

Latest from Yanlai

Mentioned in

• May 23, 2024 Shawn Koohy '24: Opportunities in research