David Ettel

Download CV (PDF)

About

Mathematically, I am fascinated by algebraic geometry and algebraic topology. Recently, I wrote a thesis on theta characteristics on algebraic curves and how they can be used in combinatorial counting problems.

On the computer science side, my main interest lies in mathematical machine learning. I have been working on research projects in geometric and topological deep learning covering, among other things, the scaling of approximately equivariant networks.

I am also passionate about reasoning machines and using machine learning for mathematical discovery.

Research

Math

• Counting with Theta Characteristics — Thomas Brazelton [thesis]
• Non-conflicting flows on cubic bridgeless graphs — Dr. Philip Wood [manuscript]

Machine Learning

• Effects of Network Pruning on LLM Interpretability [paper | code]
• Almost Equivariant ML — advised by Melanie Weber
• Topological Deep Learning — advised by Vikas Garg
• HARDMath2: A Benchmark for Applied Mathematics (NeurIPS 2025) — Roggeveen [arXiv]

Projects

Math

• Senior Thesis: Counting with Theta Characteristics — Link coming soon.
• Appendix: Leray Spectral Sequences — Written as part of Thomas Brazelton's Math 231Br lecture notes. [PDF]

Engineering

• DIY Drone — Built a 70mm carbon fiber drone with 3D-printed propellers for Harvard's PS70 course. [write-up | original]

AI / Math

• comath — Faithful reconstruction of DeepMind's AI co-mathematician harness (Zheng et al., arXiv:2605.06651). Reverse-engineers the four-layer agent hierarchy, shared versioned workspace, formal verification layer, and reviewer consensus loop from the paper. [GitHub]

Arts

• The Fifth (dir. Silas Camp) — Won Best Actor in Harvard's East Asian Cinema class (150+ students).

Teaching

Teaching Assistant for Physical Mathematics (Graduate), Differential Topology, Real Analysis, Algebra I, Algebra II, Classical Geometry

Awards

• Top ten placements in Austrian National Mathematical Olympiad 2020 and 2021, including first place in the nationwide qualifying round
• Honorable Mentions, Cyber Math Competition 2020 and Middle European Math Olympiad 2020
• Best Mathematical Pre-scientific Paper in Austria (ÖMG 2021)

Contact

GitHub: github.com/ilstudente
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/david-ettel