My name is Miles Bakenhus and mathematician based in Chicago Illinois. I received my PhD in applied mathematics from Illinois Institue of Technology in August 2025, and I have a breadth of professional interests and experience. I am currently open to work in the fields of statistics, data science, and optimization. Click here to view my CV.

My PhD research covered multiple areas, including algebraic statistics and discrete optimization. In particular, I studied sets of “moves” called, Markov, Gröbner, and Graver bases, which may be used to connect integer points inside a given polytope. Using these moves, Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations can be used to sample these integer points. This approach can then be applied to testing the goodness-of-fit for different assumptions about descrete data, such as conditional independence. Another area I have worked in has been in the field of discrete optimization with regularization penalties. In many cases the set feasible solutions for these problems is also a set of integer points in a polytope, and methods similar to those used for discrete model validation in statistics may be used to explore these solutions.

In general, my research interest lies broadly in understanding discrete objects and their applications, with an emphasis on developing models and algorithms that describe and navigate the underlying structures present in them. This often requires a multidisciplinary approach, which has allowed me to explore a variety of topics in the fields of graphical models, algebraic geometry, combinatorial optimization, and discrete stochastic processes. I hope to use this approach in future research with an emphasis on applications of discrete data.

Prior to graduate school I worked as a consultant for SensorInsight and ElementBlue, helping to implement software solutions in energy, agriculture, healthcare, and more. During this time I was responsible for managing the cloud infrastructure on Amazon Web Services and implementing pipelines for storing sensor data. I frequently worked directly with clients helping to define project requirements and iterate feedback.

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