PhD, Quantum Algorithms & Optimization
San Francisco Bay Area
✉ thanosro@gmail.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/athanasios-rompokos/
I recently completed my PhD in Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Southern California, where I worked with Prof. Edmond Jonckheere on differential-geometric methods for nonconvex optimization and adiabatic quantum computing.
My research developed a Ricci-flow curvature transport framework for nonconvex optimization, and extended it to adiabatic quantum processes — using curvature and torsion signatures to flag minimum spectral-gap bottlenecks that constrain runtime. This work resulted in three IEEE CDC publications and the open-source Quantum-Flow pipeline.
Earlier in my PhD, I was part of the USC Data Science Lab with Prof. Viktor Prasanna, where I built optimization models for renewable energy scheduling in microgrids as part of the DeepSolar project.
I hold an integrated 5-year Diploma (BSc + MSc joint degree) in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece (2016).
Currently
I'm looking for industry roles in quantum computing, quantum software, algorithmic R&D, and optimization. Based in the SF Bay Area, open to remote and relocation.
If you're working on something interesting in this space, I'd love to chat — please reach out at thanosro@gmail.com or LinkedIn .
My research sits at the intersection of applied optimization, differential geometry, and quantum computing. Specifically:
Geometric methods for nonconvex optimization using Ricci flow and curvature transport to localize candidate extrema
Diagnostics for adiabatic quantum computing flagging minimum spectral-gap bottlenecks via curvature/torsion analysis of energy-level trajectories
Robust quantum control optimal information transfer in spin networks under model uncertainty
A. A. Rompokos, P. Bogdan and E. Jonckheere, "Discrete Ricci Flow for Detecting Gaps in Adiabatic Quantum Processes," 2025 IEEE 64th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2025 [link , presentation ].
S. P. O’Neil, I. Khalid, A. A. Rompokos, C. A. Weidner, F. C. Langbein, S. Schirmer and E. Jonckheere, "Analyzing and Unifying Robustness Measures for Excitation Transfer Control in Spin Networks," in IEEE Control Systems Letters [link ].
A. A. Rompokos, F. C. Langbein and E. Jonckheere, "Information Transfer in Spintronics Networks under Worst Case Uncertain Parameter Errors", 61st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Cancún, Mexico, 2022 [link , presentation ].
E. Jonckheere, H. Krovi, and A. A. Rompokos, "Nonconvex optimization on data manifold by accelerated curvature transport", 59th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Jeju Island, Korea, 2020 [link ].
A. D. Papadopoulos, A. A. Rompokos and A. T. Alexandridis, "Nonlinear and observer-based PD position and sway control of convey-crane systems," 2016 24th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED), Athens, 2016.
Quantum-Flow: Ricci-Flow Gap Diagnostics for Adiabatic Quantum Processes
A geometry-based Python/QuTiP pipeline that screens AQP energy-level trajectories to flag candidate minimum spectral-gap bottlenecks constraining runtime. Validated across ~5 AQP case-study families including QUBO and integer factorization. [GitHub]
Credit Card Fraud Detection (Supervised Learning)
Supervised fraud models on 97K transactions with cost-sensitive threshold calibration. Achieved 83.33% FDR@3% on test and 59.21% on out-of-time holdout. [GitHub ]
Tax Fraud Detection in NYC Real Estate (Unsupervised Learning)
Anomaly detection workflow combining PCA and autoencoder scoring on 1M property records to prioritize candidates for investigation. [GitHub ]
Microgrid Energy Dispatch Optimization
LP and min-cost network-flow scheduling models for renewable energy dispatch — peak shaving and duck-curve ramp minimization. Delivered up to 11% cost savings vs. greedy baselines in case studies.
Outside of work, I'm into film photography (still develop B&W in the darkroom), playing football (the European kind), and exploring the Bay Area.