News & Highlights

Yanlai Chen is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth whose research centers on numerical analysis, scientific computing, and scientific machine learning. His work advances high-order discontinuous Galerkin methods, finite element and structure preserving formulations, reduced basis methods, uncertainty quantification, and scientific machine learning notably the GPT-PINN family of physics-informed neural networks. Consistently funded by federal agencies including the NSF and AFOSR, Dr. Chen's research tackles major challenges in linear and nonlinear model order reduction toward fast and reliable numerical methods for partial differential equations and scalable simulations for complex physical systems. He also leads the research enterprise at UMass Dartmouth. See the full list of publications.

Since 2020

Sep 28, 2026 UMassD New research administration leaders join UMass Dartmouth
UMass Dartmouth welcomed three new research administration leaders to support researchers, scholars, and staff across the university.
Sep 2026 Paper EGPT-PINN published in Computers & Mathematics with Applications
Entropy-regularized generative pre-trained PINNs for parameterized nonlinear conservation laws, with Yajie Ji and Zhenli Xu.
Jun 2, 2026 UMassD Quantum Research Initiative kicks off at UMass Dartmouth
Launch of UMass Dartmouth's Quantum Research Initiative with partners from state government, industry, and academia.
Spring 2026 Group Dr. Preskella Mrad joins the group as a postdoctoral researcher
Jan 2026 Paper Reduced basis methods for the radiative transfer equation in Journal of Computational Physics
Reduced basis methods for parametric steady-state radiative transfer equation, with Kimberly Matsuda, Yingda Cheng, and Fengyan Li.
2026 Paper S²GPT-PINN published in Communications in Computational Physics
Reduced basis and hyper reduction-driven double reduction for physics-informed neural networks, with Yajie Ji and Shawn Koohy.
2026 Paper Graph convolutional autoencoder paper published in CSIAM Transactions on Applied Mathematics
Derivative-informed graph convolutional autoencoder with phase classification for the Lifshitz–Petrich model, with Yajie Ji and Zhenli Xu.
2026 Talk Plenary speaker at NAHOMCon 2026
High-order RBM-inspired linear and nonlinear model order reduction approaches for physics-informed machine learning.
Sep 24, 2025 UMassD UMass Dartmouth hosts MassCEC's state roadshow on regional climatetech leadership
Remarks on advancing climate and oceantech research with industry, government, and community partners in Southeastern Massachusetts.
Jul 1, 2025 Grant New AFOSR award on reduced order modeling for kinetic transport
Two-layered reduced order modeling for multiscale kinetic transport problems in rarefied gas dynamics and plasma physics (FA9550-25-1-0181, 2025–2028).
Summer 2025 Group Yajie Ji completes her PhD and starts a postdoc at Yale
Yajie was a doctoral student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, jointly advised with Zhenli Xu.
Spring 2025 Service Joined the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) as designee of President Marty Meehan
MassCEC welcomed Dr. Yanlai Chen to its Board of Directors.
Feb 28, 2025 UMassD UMass Dartmouth hosts Renewable Energy and Sustainability Roundtable for state officials
Shared the university's research vision with state leaders at a roundtable on renewable energy and sustainability.
Jan 6, 2025 Workshop Co-organized the ICERM workshop “Computational Learning for Model Reduction”
Topical workshop at ICERM, January 6–10, 2025.
Oct 10, 2024 UMassD Featured in a UMassD faculty commentary on the 2024 Nobel Prizes
Mentioned among UMass Dartmouth faculty applying machine learning and neural networks in their research.
Jun 17, 2024 Workshop Co-organized NAHOMCon 2024, the North American High Order Methods Conference
Dartmouth College, June 17–19, 2024; local organizer and minisymposium organizer on machine learning algorithms inspired by traditional numerical methods.
Summer 2024 Group Shijin Hou completes her PhD and joins Henan University as an Assistant Professor
Shijin was a doctoral student at USTC, jointly advised with Yinhua Xia.
May 23, 2024 Group UMassD feature story: Shawn Koohy ’24, opportunities in research
Shawn's undergraduate research on neural networks, supported by NSF grant DMS-2208277; he went on to doctoral study at UPenn.
May 14, 2024 UMassD Appointed Chief Research Officer of UMass Dartmouth
Effective July 1, 2024.
Apr 17, 2024 Group Shawn Koohy receives the Outstanding Undergraduate Research award
UMass Dartmouth 2024 Outstanding Scholarship and Mentorship awards.
Dec 15, 2022 Grant AFOSR award: Computationally and Energy Efficient Mixed Precision and Mixed-model Numerical Methods
Co-investigator with PI Sigal Gottlieb on this U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research award (FA9550-23-1-0037).
Aug 1, 2022 Grant NSF award DMS-2208277
Reduced Basis Enhancements of Neural Networks and Their Application to Quantum Materials Simulation (2022–2026), with co-PI Sigal Gottlieb.
Nov 2021 Media Research highlight: Reduced basis approaches to speed up kinetic transport simulations
Math Institutes highlight (ICERM) on reduced order models for radiative transfer, with Zhichao Peng, Yingda Cheng, and Fengyan Li, from the Spring 2020 ICERM program.
Sep 8, 2020 Grant NSF awards $650,000 S-STEM grant for the ACCOMPLISH program
Scholarships and a contextualized computing pedagogy to support low-income STEM students at UMass Dartmouth (DUE-2030552).
Jun 10, 2020 Workshop Co-organized Summer@ICERM 2020: Fast Learning Algorithms for Numerical Computation and Data Analysis
Summer undergraduate research program at ICERM, with Akil Narayan and Minah Oh.
Jan 26, 2020 Workshop Co-organized the ICERM semester program “Model and Dimension Reduction in Uncertain and Dynamic Systems”
Spring 2020 semester program at ICERM, including the workshop “Algorithms for Dimension and Complexity Reduction.”

Archive (before 2020)

Apr 10, 2019 Service Co-organized the Mathematics Department's AfterMath Symposium
The AfterMath Symposium connects current mathematics students with department alumni.
Dec 2018 Service Guest-edited a Journal of Scientific Computing special issue honoring Bernardo Cockburn's 60th birthday
Special issue on discontinuous Galerkin and related methods (vol. 77, no. 3), with Bo Dong and Chi-Wang Shu.
Jun 29, 2018 Talk Invited talk at the ICERM workshop on time-dependent electromagnetic wave problems
Computational Aspects of Time Dependent Electromagnetic Wave Problems in Complex Materials, June 25–29, 2018.
Summer 2018 Group Jiahua Jiang completes her PhD and starts a postdoc at Virginia Tech
Jiahua was co-advised with Akil Narayan and worked on uncertainty quantification and model order reduction.
Aug 1, 2017 Grant NSF award DMS-1719698
Rigorous Development of an Efficient Reduced Collocation Approach for High-Dimensional Parametric PDEs (2017–2022), with co-PI Sigal Gottlieb.
Jun 29, 2017 Workshop Co-organized the IMA workshop “Recent Advances and Challenges in Discontinuous Galerkin Methods and Related Approaches”
University of Minnesota, June 29–July 1, 2017, supported by NSF award DMS-1720825 (with Bo Dong).
May 27, 2017 Group Christopher Bresten earns his PhD in Engineering and Applied Science
Chris was co-advised with Sigal Gottlieb and worked on model order reduction for nonlinear and nonaffine problems.
2017 Group Rebecca Pereira (BS 2017) continues to the PhD program in the group
Rebecca joined the EAS-CSE PhD program to develop discontinuous Galerkin methods with Bo Dong.
Apr 26, 2016 Service Designed and coordinated the Mathematics Department's inaugural AfterMath Symposium
A program connecting graduating seniors with department alumni.
Jun 2014 Talk Minisymposium talk at ICOSAHOM 2014, Salt Lake City
International Conference on Spectral and High Order Methods, June 23–27, 2014.
Apr 17, 2014 Award Andrew Davey receives a Ben L. Fryrear Fellowship to the Colorado School of Mines
Andrew worked in the group from 2012 to 2014 on successive constraint methods in the collocation framework.
Jul 23, 2012 Grant NSF award DMS-1216928
Developing Reduced Basis Methods for Galerkin and Collocation Framework (2012–2016).
Jun 26, 2012 Talk Talk at the BIRS workshop on fast PDE algorithms, Banff
Certified fast algorithms for electromagnetic problems: reduced basis methods.