PhD student, founder, and full-stack engineer

Christoph Staudt

I bridge tensor-network and inference research with production-ready software, web applications, and mission-driven product work.

I am a PhD student in machine learning with a focus on tensor networks, distributed computing, and scaling inference for probabilistic models. In parallel, I co-founded Kiron Open Higher Education and spent more than a decade building modern web products across the stack for startups, research groups, and mission-driven organizations, with a strong personal drive toward social impact and public-interest technology.

Tensor networksScalable probabilistic inferenceDistributed computingML systems
Portrait of Christoph Staudt

PhD Student, ML Systems Researcher, Founder, and Full-Stack Engineer

Germany

Recognition

Awards that span research and public-interest entrepreneurship

Research award2025

ASPLOS 2025 / EuroSys 2025 Contest on Intra-Operator Parallelism for Distributed Deep Learning

ASPLOS / EuroSys

Awarded for systems-oriented work on high-performance intra-operator parallelism in distributed deep learning, aligning with my research on scalable execution and ML infrastructure.

Research award2014-2020

Scholarship

Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes

Supported by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation in recognition of academic excellence and interdisciplinary promise.

Impact award2016

German Gruenderpreis

Kiron Open Higher Education

Recognition for building Kiron into a high-impact education initiative widening access to university-level learning for refugees and underserved communities.

What I work on

A practice shaped by research depth, software craft, and social impact

My work sits between theoretical computer science, machine learning systems, and the realities of building software people can rely on. I enjoy going deep on hard research questions, but I care just as much about turning ideas into robust tools, usable web applications, and products that hold up in practice.

That combination also shapes how I lead and collaborate. Beyond research and engineering, I am motivated to create systems that are rigorous, useful, and capable of generating real social impact.

Featured publications

Selected papers with an emphasis on first-author work

See the full research page
NeurIPS2025

Exploiting Dynamic Sparsity in Einsum

Christoph Staudt, Mark Blacher, Tim Hoffmann, Kaspar Kasche, Olaf Beyersdorff, Joachim Giesen

First authorEinsumSparse tensorsML systems

Introduces a hybrid einsum execution strategy that switches tensor representations based on evolving sparsity, outperforming static dense or sparse approaches on benchmark workloads.

SEA2024

Improved Cut Strategy for Tensor Network Contraction Orders

Christoph Staudt, Mark Blacher, Julien Klaus, Farin Lippmann, Joachim Giesen

First authorTensor networksOptimizationPlanning

Presents a new graph-cut strategy for tensor-network contraction planning that reduces floating-point cost and avoids expensive runtime hyperparameter tuning.

NeurIPS2024

Einsum Benchmark: Enabling the Development of Next-Generation Tensor Execution Engines

Mark Blacher, Christoph Staudt, Julien Klaus, Maurice Wenig, Niklas Merk, Alexander Breuer, Max Engel, Sören Laue, Joachim Giesen

BenchmarkingToolingML systems

Introduces an open benchmark suite, generators, and converters for evaluating tensor execution engines on a broader and more realistic range of einsum workloads.

Engineering and impact

Selected work across nonprofit leadership, research tooling, and client delivery

Open the engineering page
Impact

Kiron Open Higher Education

Technical co-founder of the edtech nonprofit building digital pathways into higher education and the job market for refugees and underserved communities.

Led platform architecture and product development for a mission-driven organization operating at meaningful social scale.

Product strategyWeb architectureFull-stack engineeringEducation tech
Research tools

Einsum.org and TI2 Group Web Tooling

Designed and built the public web tools, benchmarks, and research-facing interfaces for the TI2 research group.

Turned research software into accessible public-facing tooling that supports exploration, communication, and reproducibility.

TypeScriptReactAstroData visualizationResearch tooling
Consulting

Freelance Full-Stack Engineering

Builds web applications, APIs, and data-heavy systems for product teams that need hands-on senior implementation across frontend and backend.

Combines startup execution speed with research discipline, covering architecture, implementation, and delivery.

LaravelNode.jsTypeScriptReactGraphQLRESTPostgreSQL
15+ Years building products
Research, nonprofit, freelance Tracks combined
ML systems and high-impact software Focus today