Email: wigal@illinois.edu

Office: CAB 57B

About Me

I am currently a postdoctoral research associate mentored by József Balogh at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. My Phd advisor was Xingxing Yu. I am broadly interested in algorithms, combinatorics, and optimization. When I am not studying mathematics, I am probably studying Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. 

My CV is available here.

My Phd Thesis is available here.

Research

• Toward Vu's conjecture with Peter Bradshaw, Abhishek Dhawan, and Abhishek Methuku. Submitted. 

• Packing edge disjoint cliques in graphs with József Balogh. Submitted.

• Turán densities for matroid basis hypergraphs with Jorn van der Pol and Zach Walsh. Submitted.  

• Longest path and cycle transversals in chordal graphs with James A. Long Jr. and Kevin G. Milans. Submitted.

• Clique covers and decompositions of cliques of graphs with József Balogh, Jialin He, Robert A. Krueger, and The Nguyen. Submitted.

• Improving uniquely decodable codes in binary adder channels with József Balogh, The Nguyen, Patric Östergård, and Ethan White. Submitted.

• On the Number of P-free Set Systems for Tree Posets P with József Balogh and Ramon Garcia, Order, 2025. arXiv.

• On Tutte cycles containing three prescribed edges with Xingxing Yu, Graphs and Combinatorics, 2025. arXiv. 

• The cordiality game and the game cordiality number with Elliot Krop and Aryan Mittal, Graphs and Combinatorics, 2024.  arXiv.

• Hardness and approximation of submodular minimum linear ordering problems with Majid Farhadi, Swati Gupta, Shengding Sun, and Prasad Tetali, Mathematical Programming, 2023. arXiv.

• Sampling planar tanglegrams and pairs of disjoint triangulations with Alexander Black, Kevin Liu, Alex McDonough, Garrett Nelson, Mei Yin, and Youngho Yoo, Advances in Applied Mathematics, 2023. arXiv.

• Approximating TSP walks in subcubic graphs with Youngho Yoo and Xingxing Yu, Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B, 2023. arXiv.

• Tutte paths and long cycles in circuit graphs with Xingxing Yu, Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B, 2023. arXiv.

• Algorithms for maximum internal spanning tree problem for some graph classes with Gopika Sharma and Arti Pandey, Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, 2022. arXiv.

• Ordered multiplicity inverse eigenvalue problem for graphs on six vertices with John Ahn, Christine Alar, Beth Bjorkman, Steve Butler, Joshua Carlson, Audrey Goodnight, Haley Knox, and Casandra Monroe, The Electronic Journal of Linear Algebra, 2021. arXiv.

• A dichotomy theorem for first-fit chain partitions with Kevin Milans, SIAM Journal of Discrete Math, 2020. arXiv.

• Online coloring a token graph with Kevin Milans, Graphs and Combinatorics, 2020. arXiv.

Teaching

• Fall 2025: Linear Programming

• Fall 2024: Linear Programming  (Two Sections)

• Fall 2023: Basic Discrete Mathematics (Two Sections)

• Spring 2023: Applied Combinatorics TA (Georgia Tech)

• Fall 2022: Discrete Mathematics TA (Georgia Tech)

• Spring 2019: Applied Combinatorics LA (Georgia Tech)

• Fall 2018: Integral Calculus TA (Georgia Tech)

• Spring 2018: Calculus I TA (WVU)