Faculty Research & Focus Areas
Faculty News & Research Highlights
NSF Grant to Study How Humans Interact With Artificial Intelligence
Roee Shraga, assistant professor of computer science and data science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), has received $175,000 from the National Science Foundation to scrutinize the human aspects of data discovery and integration. The research project aims to explore the critical role of human involvement in data preparation processes to identify and address biases that automated systems may fail to detect.
Seyed Zekavat Leads $1.1 Million Project to Develop System That Will Create Soil Moisture Maps for Farmers
Seyed (Reza) Zekavat and a team of researchers are bringing together drones, ground-penetrating radar, and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to develop a low-cost system that will rapidly map root-zone soil moisture levels on large farms and help farmers irrigate more efficiently.
Professor Paffenroth Receives a 3-Year Grant to Develop Data Science Driven Approaches for Chemical Identification
Prof. Paffenroth, Core Data Science Faculty Member and Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences, and his Data Science PhD student Cate Dunham recently received a $1,000,000 over 3-year project with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the US Army DEVCOM-SC to develop state-of-the-art methods to develop deep neural networks for the generation of synthetic chemical signatures.
DS Professor Yanhua Li Recognized by WPI
Yanhua Li has been awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in the Department of Computer Science. Li is a data science expert who joined the faculty in 2015 and focuses his research on spatial-temporal data science and artificial intelligence with applications in smart cities. He has led or supported research funded with $8.1 million. As a principal investigator, he has secured $4.6 million from industry and the NSF, including prestigious NSF CAREER and CRII awards. Li has taught a range of undergraduate to graduate courses and developed a new course in reinforcement learning, a type of machine learning concerned with how intelligent agents take actions to maximize the notion of cumulative reward.
Help Nonprofits Find Resources and Talent, and Create Community Connections
Seeking to support the efforts of nonprofits to match resources and assets with client demand and operational needs, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has received a four-year, $1,849,994 award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to design and implement a new algorithm-based community “collective ecosystem” tool that nonprofit organizations can use to find and share resources—such as event space, transportation for supplies, donations for clients, or even a staff member experienced in grant writing or a volunteer lawyer to review documents.
WPI Mathematician Creates Chemical Sensors For Army Soldiers
WORCESTER, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — A WPI mathematician is working with the U.S. Army to develop tiny, wearable chemical sensors that help them detect harmful chemicals quickly.
WBZ NewsRadio's Laurie Kirby spoke with Randy Paffenroth, an associate professor of mathematical sciences, computer science, and data science at WPI, about the project, on which he served as principal investigator.
Professor Lane Harrison to Support Data Visualization Studies with NSF Grant
Whether it’s polling numbers or voter turnout displays on a news website, public health COVID-19 vaccine messaging, or artificial intelligence interfaces, how data visualizations are presented can inform and influence important, and often critical, decisions.
Determining whether those presentations are effective—whether people got the message—takes time and an empirical approach. Associate Computer Science Professor Lane Harrison hopes to speed up that process by putting better tools into the hands of researchers who study the graphical representation of information using charts, graphs, animations, or maps.
AI and Fairness:
When it comes to fairness, artificial intelligence (AI) is imperfect.
But Elke Rundensteiner, William Smith Dean's Professor in the Department of Computer Science and founding director of the Data Science program at WPI, and her students are developing a way to address this problem with algorithms that help ensure fairness in aggregated rankings that impact people in profound ways. The work has been supported by a grant of nearly $500,000 from the National Science Foundation.
WPI Researchers Awarded $2 Million Grant to Use Science to Combat Wildlife Trafficking
WPI will partner with researchers from Florida International University and the University of Maryland on the four-year, $2 million grant. For Kyumin Lee, professor of computer science, and Renata Konrad, a professor in The Business School at WPI, the new grant represents an evolution of work they started in 2020 to use a mix of artificial intelligence, physical tools, and supply chain, financial, and social media data to deter illegal wildlife trade.
Faculty Profiles
