Bella Finkel

about / research / activities / talks
Bella Finkel

I am a Ph.D. student in the mathematics department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My advisor is Jose Israel Rodriguez .

My studies are supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

To find my publications, check out my Google Scholar page.

Here is my CV.

Office: Van Vleck 320
Email: blfinkel [at] wisc [dot] edu

Upcoming travel:

Research

I am interested in algebraic geometry and its applications to physics and machine learning.

  • Assessing Matched Filtering for Core-Collapse Supernova Gravitational-Wave Detection (with H. Andresen).
    Submitted (2024)
  • Activation thresholds and expressiveness of polynomial neural networks (with J. I. Rodriguez, C. Wu, T. Yahl).
    Submitted (2024)
  • Stochastic gravitational-wave background from stellar core-collapse events (with A. Andresen and V. Mandic).
    Physical Review D (2022)

Activities

  • May 16-18, 2025: I am organizing the special session Advances in Applied Algebra and Algebraic Statistics at the AWM Research Symposium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, WI.
  • As of Spring 2024, I am on the organizing committee of UGmMaW, the AWM student chapter at UW-Madison serving undergraduates.
  • In Fall 2023, I was a volunteer with Adopt-a-Physicist through Sigma Pi Sigma and the American Association of Physics Teachers.
  • As an undergraduate at Skidmore College, I served as a student representative on the Building Safe Spaces topical cohort of the American Physical Society Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Alliance (APS-IDEA) team.
  • In the summer of 2022, I was at the University of California, Davis Mathematics REU. My advisor was Dr. Greg Kuperberg.
  • In the summer of 2021, I was at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Physics REU. My advisor was Dr. Vuk Mandic.

Talks

  • Activation degree thresholds and expressiveness of polynomial neural networks (AMS Spring Southeastern Sectional Meeting at Clemson University, March 2025) [slides]
  • Classifying protoneutron star oscillation modes with gravitational waves (ML+X Forum at UW-Madison, February 2024)