Luke Morris A map of the USA with KY and FL highlighted CS PhD Student

University of Florida CISE

Contact:

Email: myfirstname[dot]mylastname@ufl.edu

A professional photo of Luke Morris

About me:

I'm a Computer Science PhD candidate in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida.

I am employed as a graduate research assistant in the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department.

I graduated with my Bachelor's in Computer Science from the University of Kentucky in 2021, summa cum laude.

I am searching for full time opportunities starting Spring 2026.

Luke Morris presenting at the SIAM CSE23 conference.

My advisor here in Gainesville is Dr. James Fairbanks of the GATAS Lab.

My Current Research Involves:

A little more about me:

2017 - 2021

I received my Bachelor's in Computer Science at the University of Kentucky (UK) in May, 2021. While at UK, I completed an internship at Carlson Software, where I wrote software to improve digital surface models from LiDAR point cloud data to aid in streamflow simulation. I also completed a co-op with the US Army Corps of Engineers, where I wrote software for computing flood inundation models. Both of these experiences were at the intersection of Hydrology and computer science. I was also an exchange student in Berlin, taking courses in Machine Learning. After graduating, I completed an internship via the DoD's HPC Modernization Program, working on Machine Learning models for Computer Vision.

2021 - Present

My professional experiences during undergrad inspired me to study under Dr. James Fairbanks to explore how Applied Category Theory and Differential Geometry can improve scientific computing simulations at large scale. At Lawrence Livermore National Lab, I performed computational Opinion Dynamics and computer science research. My most recent internship was with The Topos Institute, where I implemented the 3D Discrete Exterior Calculus for use in Multiphysics Simulations. I am currently collaborating with Space Weather experts to produce models of the ionosphere in a novel multiphysics framework.

Professional experiences:

Here are some links to the different organizations where I have worked. See my LinkedIn profile for more information.

Some photos:

Rotating vortices on a sphere.
The Decapodes multiphysics project uses the Discrete Exterior Calculus to automatically generate physics simulations. Here I replicated the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations and demonstrate 6 rotating point vortices on a sphere.

Luke Morris presenting at the SIAM CSE23 conference.
One of the best parts of my job is sharing our group's work with the research community. Here, I am presenting at a conference for computational scientists in Amsterdam.

A view of Berlin's Siegessaule with rollerbladers in the foreground. A view of Berlin's Siegessaule.
I was an exchange student at the Technische Universität Berlin where I took courses in Machine Learning and Signal Processing. Here are some participants in the (rollerblading portion of) the Berlin Marathon, with the Siegessäule, one of Berlin's most famous landmarks, in the background.

A dairy calf playing with a ball.
My first research experience as a freshman at the University of Kentucky was spent analyzing dairy calf feeding data, remotely-collected via RFID tags. This calf is playing with a ball in her pen.

Eucalyptus grove in Berkeley, CA.
I was a research associate intern at The Topos Institute in Berkeley, where I implemented the 3D Discrete Exterior Calculus. Despite Berkeley being mostly urbanized, there exists a grove of eucalyptus trees between UC Berkeley's campus and the rest of downtown.

Some interesting links: (Affiliation not necessarily implied!)

  • AlgebraicJulia Blog
    • AlgebraicJulia is an organization devoted to using Applied Category Theory for scientific computing.
  • Decapodes.jl
    • Decapodes.jl is a physics simulator library that I lead development on.
  • USACE: ERDC Technology News
    • The US Army Corps of Engineers: Engineer Research & Development Center provides updates on cool, high-tech research projects.
  • Merlin's Notebook
    • My colleague, Dr. Benjamin Merlin Bumpus, shares his thoughts on topics ranging from sheaf theory, temporal graphs, applied category theory, and more.
  • The Topos Institute Blog
    • The Topos Institute conducts a variety of mathematics research for public benefit.
  • Space Weather Enthusiasts Dashboard
    • NOAA provides a dashboard of various space weather nowcasts and forecasts.
  • Lawrence Livermore National Lab News
    • Lawrence Livermore National Lab provides updates on cool, high-tech research projects with a focus on nuclear energy and basic research.
  • University of Kentucky Keeping Current
    • The University of Kentucky Department of Computer Science hosts 10 years of talks on various UK CS research projects.
  • UF Weather Cam 1 & UF Weather Cam 2
    • What's the weather like in Gainesville, Florida? (Affectionately referred to as "The Swamp" or unaffectionately as "Rain-sville".)
    • The Decapodes Leaderboard (DLB) is a site I built for showcasing physics simulations.

Prospective UF Grad Students:

Feel free to message me if you have questions about being a grad student at UF CISE.

An image of an alligator basking on a rock