Siddharth Pritam

Research

My research is in computational topology and topological data analysis, with a focus on algorithms for persistent homology. I am particularly interested in combinatorial reductions of simplicial complexes and filtrations, such as strong collapses and edge collapses, that preserve relevant topological and persistence information.

More broadly, I work on problems at the interface of algebraic topology, computational geometry, and algorithms.

Current directions include filtered and directed complexes, multiparameter persistence, and topological methods for studying temporal dynamics, neural activity, and collective choice. This work is supported in part by an ANRF ARG Matrics Grant, 2026–2031.

News

• Oct 2026 Featured in Quanta Magazine: "How Voting Is Like a Klein Bottle", on our work showing that Condorcet's voting paradox has the shape of a Klein bottle (paper).
• Apr 2026 Received ANRF ARG Matrics Grant, 2026–2031.

Selected publications

Complete lists are available on DBLP and Google Scholar.

Conference papers

• Collapse and Persistence of Directed Filtered Graphs
  with Rohit Roy. ALENEX 2026.
• Filtration-Domination in Bifiltered Graphs
  with Ángel Javier Alonso and Michael Kerber. ALENEX 2023.
• Swap, Shift and Trim to Edge Collapse a Filtration
  with Marc Glisse. SoCG 2022.

Journal papers

• The Non-Orientable Topology of Condorcet’s Paradox
  with Ori Livson and Mikhail Prokopenko. MDPI Mathematics, 2026. (arXiv)
• Time Series Analysis of Spiking Neural Systems via Transfer Entropy and Directed Persistent Homology
  with D. Peek, M. P. Skerritt, and S. K. Chalup. Neurocomputing, 2026.

Preprints

• Homological Trimming and Regularity of Filtrations via Local Obstruction Modules
  S.P. Preprint, 2026.
• Persistent Simple-homotopy Invariants via Discrete Morse Theory
  with Divya Ahuja, Priyavrat Deshpande, and Jaya N. N. Iyer. Preprint, 2026.
• Filtration-Based Representation Learning for Temporal Graphs
  with S. Chowdhury, Rohit Roy, and Madhav C. S. Preprint, 2025.

Software

• Directed Edge Collapse, with Rohit Roy. Also archived on Zenodo.
• Edge collapse module in GUDHI, with Marc Glisse.

Teaching

Positions

• Assistant Professor, Chennai Mathematical Institute, July 2023–present.
• Visiting Researcher, The University of Newcastle, Australia, June 2024–January 2025.
• Assistant Professor, Shiv Nadar University, July 2021–June 2023.
• Postdoctoral Fellow, DataShape, Inria Sophia Antipolis, October 2020–May 2021.

Selected talks

Online

• Computing the Topology of Directed Networks, AATRN Network Seminars, October 2026.
• Efficient Computation and Applications of Persistent Homology, ANU Canberra, Australia, and BIMSA Beijing, China, June 2026.
• Swap, Shift and Trim to Edge Collapse a Filtration, AATRN Online Seminars, August 2022.

In person

• TDA Basics and Applications, University of Sydney, Australia, August 2024.
• Persistent Homology: Theory and Computation, FGV Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, February 2020.
• Strong Collapse and Persistence, UAB Barcelona, Spain, May 2018.

Service

Program Committee member: FSTTCS 2026, SoCG 2027.