Emily Kyle Fox

Emily Kyle Fox is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), affiliated with the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, 2013), followed by postdoctoral positions at Duke University and Brown University’s Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics (ICERM). Her research focuses on algorithmic foundations with an emphasis on computational geometry, topology, and graph algorithms, particularly leveraging topological methods to design efficient algorithms for complex problems.

Education

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2013)
• M.S. in Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2010)
• B.S. in Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2008)

Research Interests

• Computational Geometry & Topology
• Graph Algorithms & Optimization
• Algorithm Design for Surface-Embedded and Geometric Networks
• Applications of Topology in Algorithm Development

Publications Trends Her work includes breakthroughs in geometric transportation problems, minimum cut algorithms on hypergraphs/surface graphs, and efficient approximation schemes for transshipment and Fréchet edit distance. Recent contributions emphasize deterministic algorithms with near-linear time complexity and applications of topology to graph algorithm design.

Awards

• NSF CAREER Award (2020)
• Best Teacher in Computer Science (UTD, 2020)
• Stutzke Dissertation Completion Fellowship (UIUC, 2013)

Grants & Affiliations Dr. Fox secured a $586,654 NSF CAREER grant (2020) for topology-driven algorithm design. She serves on UTD’s Graduate Admissions Committee and actively contributes to the Algorithms and Theory Group.

Labs/Teams Active in the Algorithms and Theory Group at UTD, focusing on foundational algorithm research with geometric and topological applications.