
Co-Founder and CTO, Optimal
Intellect
Maintainer, CVXPY
[email protected]
Bio
I am a maintainer and Technical Steering Council member for CVXPY and CVXPYlayers.
I did my PhD at Stanford University with Professors Stephen Boyd and Emmanuel Candès. I was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP).
During my PhD, I interned at Amazon Supply Chain Optimization Technologies (SCOT) and Gridmatic. In undergrad, I interned at Apple working on embedded systems and scientific computing and at HP working on data infrastructure.
While at Stanford, I was the instructor for the summer offering of EE364a/CME364a, Stanford’s optimization course; as the instructor I revised the class content and lecture slides for the first time in over two decades. The new slides are available here. In other quarters, I was Head TA for EE364a/CME364a and Engr108, an introductory linear algebra course. As an undergrad, I was the sole TA for EECS219A, Berkeley’s graduate numerical simulation and modeling class.
For part of my PhD, I was a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley working with Riley Murray, Professor Michael Mahoney, and Professor Jim Demmel on randomized numerical linear algebra as part of the BALLISTIC Project.
Prior to attending Stanford, I was a Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholar at UC Berkeley where I earned a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). I worked with Professor Jaijeet Roychowdhury on system theory and numerical methods.
Publications
- Q. Healey, P. Nobel, S. Boyd. Differentiating Through a Quadratic Cone Program. arXiv:2508.17522 [math.OC]
- P. Nobel, A. Rozenshtein, C. Sharma. Unbundling AI Openness. Wisconsin Law Review (forthcoming). 2026. SSRN
- Y. Chen, D. Tse, P. Nobel, P. Goulart, S. Boyd. CuClarabel: GPU Acceleration for a Conic Optimization Solver. arXiv:2412.19027 [math.OC]
- P. Nobel, A. Rozenshtein, C. Sharma. Open-Access AI: Lessons From Open-Source Software. The Lawfare Institute. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/open-access-ai--lessons-from-open-source-software
- P. Nobel, D. LeJeune, E. Candès. RandALO: Out-of-sample Risk Estimation in No Time Flat. arXiv:2409.09781 [math.ST]
- T. Marcucci, P. Nobel, R. Tedrake, S. Boyd. Fast Path Planning Through Large Collections of Safe Boxes. IEEE Transactions on Robotics. 2024. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10612232
- J. Sun, Y. Jiang, J. Qiu, P. Nobel, M. Kochenderfer, M. Schwager. Conformal Prediction for Uncertainty-Aware Planning with Diffusion Dynamics Model. NeurIPS 2023. https://neurips.cc/virtual/2023/poster/71449
- P. Nobel, E. Candès, S. Boyd. Tractable Evaluation of Stein’s Unbiased Risk Estimate for Convex Regularizers. IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSP.2023.3323046
- P. Nobel, A. Agrawal, S. Boyd. Computing Tighter Bounds on the n-Queens Constant via Newton’s Method. Optimization Letters 17, 1229–1240 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11590-022-01933-2
- T. Wang, L. Wu, P. Nobel, and J. Roychowdhury. Solving Combinatorial Optimisation Problems Using Oscillator Based Ising Machines. Natural Computing 20, 287–306 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11047-021-09845-3
- [Invited Paper] T. Wang, L. Wu, P. Nobel, and J. Roychowdhury. Solving Combinatorial Optimisation Problems Using Oscillator Based Ising Machines. Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation (UCNC), August 2020.
- P. Nobel.
auto_diff: An Automatic Differentiation Package for Python, SpringSim’20, May 2020. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3408207.3408219
Miscellaneous Other Writings
I occasionally did significant writing for the UC Berkeley Model UN. That work is provided below:
- Conference on the Laws of War for the Cyber Era Background Guide
- Excerpts addressing power grid infrastructure from Group of Latin American and Carribean Countries: 2020 Background Guide
- US Senate: Data Privacy Background Guide
I also have written quick-reference theorem lists for a couple classes at Berkeley. Other people have told me they’re useful. I make no guarantees about the absence or presence of typos.