Department of Mathematical Sciences
Discrete Math Seminar
Tuesday, September 30th, 2025
4:00PM-4:50PM
Olin Hall 126
Speaker: Stefano Lia, Department of Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, Umea University, Umea, Sweden
Title: Some combinatorial and coding theoretic problems in DNA data storage
Abstract: As the volume of data produced daily grows at an accelerating rate, our storage capacity struggles to keep pace. DNA data storage is emerging as a promising solution for long-term, high-capacity data storage and retrieval. Among its bold claims is the ability to fit “all internet data in a shoebox.” However, several challenges must be addressed before this becomes a reality. A key challenge in DNA data storage is the random access coverage depth problem, which seeks to minimize the number of sequencing reads required to retrieve specific information from the storage system. This quantity can be modelled as a random variable, determined by the properties of the code used for data encoding. This problem imposes novel criteria for code selection, distinct from those typically studied in classical coding theory, and presents new mathematical challenges. In this talk, we will briefly introduce DNA data storage and the mathematical aspects of the random access coverage depth problem.