The guiding theme of my research is to find computationally efficient methods that enable new discoveries and applications. My approach often involves deep inquiry into an application area to formulate new computational problems and coming up with new algorithmic approaches to address them. Over the past two decades I have been working in the areas of computational structural biology, immunology, and robotics. Though seemingly disparate, my work in these areas is tied together by novel algorithmic approaches in machine learning and discrete optimization. Our contributions have been published in the leading venues in their respective application areas and have been recognized with awards (IEEE CSB 2003, IEEE BroadNets 2007, ICRA 2016). We are also grateful for NIH and NSF support for our research.