Anzo Teh

The enthusiastic, curious, and eccentric.

anzo_niagara_falls

Hello everyone! I am Anzo Teh. I'm currently a third year PhD student at MIT's EECS, advised by Prof. Yury Polyanskiy. I recently graduated from University of Waterloo, majoring in Computer Science and Pure Mathematics.

Research

At MIT, my current research focuses on statistical inference, theoretical machine learning, and information theory. A topic that I have been studying is called empirical Bayes.

List of my publications:
  • [Arxiv] Jana, S., Polyanskiy, Y., Teh, A., Wu, Y. Empirical Bayes via ERM and Rademacher complexities: the Poisson model. Conference on Learning Theory (COLT), 2023.
  • [Arxiv] Teh, A., Polyanskiy, Y. Comparing Poisson and Gaussian Channels. IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT), 2023.
  • [Link] Xu, X., Leonardi, C., Teh, A., Jao, D., Wang, K., Yu, W., Azarderakhsh, R. Improved Digital Signatures Based on Elliptic Curve Endomorphism Rings, International Conference on Information Security Practice and Experience (ISPEC), 2019, pp. 293-309, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-34339-2_16.
Recent talks:
  • Feature Alignment via Energy Distance (MIT SDS Conference 2024).
  • Comparing Poisson and Gaussian Channels (ISIT 2023, 2023 North American School of Information Theory).
  • Empirical Bayes Method for Short-Term Time Series Forecasting (MIT SDS Conference 2022, Princeton Theoretical Machine Learning Summer School (Student Poster session)).

My undergraduate research experience include:

Mathematics

Mathematical awards won, including a gold medal in the 2014 International Mathematical Olympiad.

Math Leadership Project: Junior Olympiad of Mathematics

(Also: problems proposed to this Olympiad).

Other Projects: Leisure Proof Writing

Solution walkthrough on YouTube

Teaching

What can be better than imparting my passion to audience who is eager to understand exactly what I have already known? Inspired by a classmate (Spencer), I hosted two review sessions (one on Advanced Calculus 2, the other on Advanced Linear Algebra 1) for my classmates before the final exam in April 2017. The aim of the sessions was to reinforce the knowledge of every attendee to the sessions.

review session
A photo of me conducting Linear Algebra review session, credits to classmate Tate Cheng

Trigonometry handout

IMO Camp Training

In January 2016, I accepted Mr. Suhaimi's (the head coach for Malaysian Math Olympiad team) offer to train the students selected into the IMO camp. Not only I was privileged to speak about my favourite topics in geometry, my mathematical craze and obsession was also rekindled in the process of preparing the handouts for students.

Tutoring students on Math Olympiad

In June 2016, I started giving lessons on advanced topics in Math Olympiad to 2 of the students who were among the 24 students selected into the IMO training camps held in March 2016. More information could be found here.

Blogging and Writing

No prescribed topic. No required format. This allows me to depict my thoughts and experiences, and to share my things on my Wordpress webpage.

Writing Project: Project Insights

Like my other ambitious comrades in the A-Levels, I aspired to study in the top universities around the world. This, however, added substantial amount of toil to us (with various admission tests, essays and recommendation letters to be done).

My close friend, Lumo Woong, then came out with this idea of initiating Project Insights that aimed to illuminate future college applicants on the process, the do's and dont's along the way. I accepted his invitation into his team, and wrote three articles on it:

  • The process of asking for financial aid from colleges in US
  • My experience of having an MIT interview
  • A writeup describing my college decision process

Coding

Why code? From the viewpoint of a mathematics lover, codes help us to overcome our limitations in doing computations and solving problems.

My snaphots of coding experience:

Research Experience: Finding weakly connected components in a dynamic graph

Music

The only instrument I play is piano, but it's enough to carry me forward. It has been a privilege to appreciate the masterpieces by the greatest musicians in the history.

My current musical presence are Youtube Channel (with explanation) and High School Graduation Song Composition (YouTube, Soundcloud). I also performed at A-Level Graduation performance as a pianist (musician).

Educational Background

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PhD student in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (expected 2026 - 2027).
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (2023, thesis)
  • University of Waterloo, Bachelor of Mathematics (Class of 2021).
  • Sunway College, G.C.E. A-Levels (Class of 2015).
  • Chung Ling (National Type) High School Butterworth, Malaysian Certificate of Education (Class of 2013).