To see me, send me email, or visit my Office Hours. If an email to me goes
unanswered for a couple days, please repeat it.
I received my computer science Ph.D. from MIT in 1996, working with David McAllester.
My research is in several areas: machine planning, machine learning,
knowledge representation, stochastic modelling, and automated
reasoning. I also have recent work applying these techniques to the
control of computer communications networks. I have previously
published in the areas of automated reasoning, formal methods, type
inference, programming languages, and logic in computer
science.
Graduate students interested in PhD and/or MS research projects in any
area of artificial intelligence are encouraged to contact me by email
for an appointment to discuss possibilities. From time to time I have
RA funding available for suitable PhD level projects (and in some
cases for MS thesis projects). Undergraduates with strong interest in
artificial intelligence research are encouraged to visit my office
hours to inquire about research opportunities.
My PhD thesis was on developing fast (polynomial-time) inference
procedures that are effective in undecidable domains---this topic
spans many subareas of artificial intelligence and has a wide range of
applications. The application discussed in my thesis is the task of
inferring properties of computer programs in highly expressive
property langauges when limited to polynomial-time methods, and I
presented a program capable of rapidly inferring the functionality and
correctness of simple sorting programs.
Education
B.S. Mathematics & B.S. Biology, 1987
Stanford University
M.S. Computer Science, 1987
Stanford University
Ph.D. Computer Science, 1996
Massachussetts Institute of Technology
Publications
Some Talk Slides
Acknowledgement: much of the research reported above was supported by
NSF grants 9977981-IIS, 0093100-IIS, and 0098089-ECS.
Bob Givan
