I am seeking an internship for Summer 2027 and am open to roles involving mathematics and/or machine learning. Please feel free to get in touch.

About

Nguyễn Hoàng Khang

I am a PhD student in the Department of Mathematics at UCLA. I am fortunate to be advised by Professor Guido Montúfar.

I am interested in the intersection of mathematics and machine learning, including machine learning theory, optimization, and large language models for mathematical reasoning.

Email: khang at math.ucla.edu · Office: MS 7601

CV · Google Scholar · GitHub · LinkedIn

News

• Nov 18, 2026: I will give a talk on parameter symmetries and conservation laws in gradient flow at the Geometric and Algebraic Foundations of Deep Learning Minisymposium at SIAM MDS26 in Salt Lake City. If you’re there, I’d love to chat.
• Sep 29, 2026: Our paper on critical points of linear self-attention was accepted at OPT 2026, the NeurIPS workshop on Optimization for Machine Learning.
• Aug 3-14, 2026: I attended the Princeton Machine Learning Theory Summer School.

Research

• On Parameter Symmetries and Conservation Laws in Gradient Flow
  Khang Nguyen and Guido Montúfar.
  arXiv preprint, 2026.

• Critical Points of Linear Self-Attention with Quadratic Loss on a Single Training Example
  Ava Berenji, Khang Nguyen, and Guido Montúfar.
  Accepted at OPT 2026: Optimization for Machine Learning, a NeurIPS 2026 workshop.

• Revisiting Over-smoothing and Over-squashing Using Ollivier-Ricci Curvature
  Khang Nguyen, Hieu Nong, Vinh Nguyen, Nhat Ho, Stanley Osher, and Tan Nguyen.
  International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 2023.

• DeepGRAND: Deep Graph Neural Diffusion
  Khang Nguyen, Hieu Nong, Khuong Nguyen, Tan Nguyen, and Vinh Nguyen.
  Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, 2023.

• On the Connectivity of the Proper Enhanced Power Graph of Groups
  Le Van Chua, Nguyen Tien Hoang, and Khang Nguyen.
  Unpublished preprint, 2021.

Teaching

Teaching assistant at UCLA:

• MATH 164: Optimization — Fall 2026.
• MATH 174E: Mathematics of Finance for Mathematics/Economics Students — Summer 2025 and 2026.
• COMPTNG 16A: Python with Applications I — Fall 2025, Winter 2026, and Spring 2026.
• MATH 32B: Calculus of Several Variables — Spring 2025.
• MATH 33A: Linear Algebra and Applications — Fall 2024 and Winter 2025.

Mentoring and Outreach

• UCLA Olga Radko Endowed Math Circle — Research Mentor, 2025–2026.
  Mentored high school students in research on the optimization landscape of self-attention, leading to an accepted OPT 2026 workshop paper.

• Projects in Mathematics and Applications Summer Camp — Head of Academic Content, 2024.

• Maths and Science Summer Program — Mathematics Mentor, 2019–2021.

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