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YY Ahn Delivers Keynote at CIKM 2025 on “The Geometry of Knowledge and Computational Discovery”
YY Ahn, professor of data science at the University of Virginia, was a keynote speaker at the 34th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM 2025) in Seoul, Korea. The conference, one of the premier global gatherings in data science, information retrieval, and artificial intelligence, convened leading researchers and practitioners to explore advances in knowledge discovery and computational intelligence.
In his keynote, The Geometry of Knowledge and Computational Discovery, Ahn explored how modern neural networks transform vast datasets into continuous embedding spaces that translate semantic relationships into geometric structures. He presented a simple theory for understanding the interpretability of these spaces, showing how theoretical understanding of embedding spaces can reveal insights into data, inspire new metrics, and illuminate the dynamics of complex systems.
Ahn’s research at UVA centers on the mathematical and computational foundations of data science, particularly in modeling social and information systems. His work seeks to move beyond “black-box” machine learning toward interpretable, data-driven understanding that bridges human and artificial intelligence.
Learn more about Ahn’s research at the UVA School of Data Science and the CIKM 2025 Conference.
