Hi! My name is Pachara but some people might know me as Akin. I am currently a forth-year PhD student in the Theory Group at Princeton University where I am fortunate to be advised by Prof. Huacheng Yu . Prior to joining Princeton, I obtained a B.S. (in Mathematics and in Compute Science) and an M.Eng (in Computer Science) from MIT where I was advised by Prof. Ronitt Rubinfeld . email: [1stname] ๑ princeton dot edu | office: 35 Olden St #318b
Research I am broadly interested in theoretical aspects of computer science. My goal is to understand the various foundations in algorithmic lower bounds and the interplay between them. This includes areas such as data structure lower bounds, communication complexity, and information theory . Lately, I have also been thinking about graph algorithms in restricted-access models of computation. On the Communication Complexity of Maximum Matching and Negative-Weight Shortest Paths Yu Cheng, Tianle Jiang , Pachara Sawettamalya, Hua cheng Yu Manuscript A (Very) Nearly Optimal Sketch for k-Edge Connectivity Certificates Pachara Sawettamalya, Huacheng Yu SOSA 2026 (to appear) Minimum s-t Cuts with Fewer Cut Queries Yonggang Jiang, Danupon Nanongkai , Pachara Sawettamalya SODA 2026 (to appear) [ talk@Brown ] Strong XOR Lemma for Information Complexity Pachara Sawettamalya , Huacheng Yu STOC 2025 [ video ] Near-Optimal Relative Error Streaming Quantile Estimation via Elastic Compactors Elena Gribelyuk, Pachara Sawettamalya , Hongxun Wu, Huacheng Yu SODA 2025 Simple & Optimal Quantile Sketch: Combining Greenwald-Khanna with Khanna-Greenwald Elena Gribelyuk, Pachara Sawettamalya , Hongxun Wu, Huacheng Yu PODS 202 4 Fast Algorithms for Bounded-Range LIS Approximation Pachara Sawettamalya Master Thesis 2022
Teaching In the past, I have TA'ed the following courses. Princeton University COS 445 : Economics and Computation (Spring '24) COS 521 : Advanced Algorithms Design (Fall '23) MIT 6.045 : Computability and Complexity Theory (Spring '22) 18.061 : Linear Algebra and Optimizations (Fall '21) 15.455x : Advanced Mathematics for Finance (Summer '21) I also served as a grader/mentor for these courses at MIT; 6.046 (Design and Analysis of Algorithms); 18.600 (Probability and Random Variables); 18.404 (Theory of Computation); 18.200 (Principles of Discrete and Applied Mathematics); 18.S097 (Proof Writing Workshop). On several occasions, I guest-lectured at Thailand's IMO p reparat ory camp.
Talks / Presentations By papers/topics . Minimum s-t Cuts with Fewer Cut Queries Brown Theory Seminar; WOLA 2025 (contributed talk) Strong XOR Lemma for Information Complexity STOC 2025; WALDO 2025 ( poster ) P arallel Repetition in Communication and Information , MPI Saarbrucken Lunch Talk (2025) ( slides ) ; Princeton TCS Student Seminar (2024) ( slides ) Simple & Optimal Quantile Sketch: Combining Greenwald-Khanna with Khanna-Greenwald Informal talks: Princeton TCS Student Seminar : AGM Sketch for Spanning Forest (2025), Bipartite Matching in Communication Models (202 3 ) ( notes ), Matrix Multiplication and Seidel's Algorithm for APSP (2022) ( notes ) Bipartite Ramanujan Graphs of All Degree, Modern Coding Theory and Expanders Reading Group @ IAS (2023) ( slides ) Compressing Communication, Communication Complexity Reading Group @ Princeton (2024) Fast Algorithms for Bounded-Range LIS Aproximation, MIT SuperUROP Showcase (2021)
Miscellaneous I was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand. My name is pronounced Pa-cha-ra Sa-vet-ta-marn. Beyond academics, I enjoy playing poker, soccer and alpine skiing. Recently, I have also picked up recreational running. Here are some photos of my huge cat Pepper .
