Haym Hirsh

Born in Hollywood, CA, on what is now L. Ron Hubbard Way, three miles from the Hollywood Sign, Haym Hirsh spent the first quarter-century of his life in California, receiving his BS degree in 1983 from the Mathematics and Computer Science departments at UCLA and his MS in 1985 and PhD in 1989 from the Computer Science Department at Stanford University. Unhappy with the weather, he moved to Pittsburgh when he found a way to spend his final year at Stanford at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. The following year he achieved his life-long dream of living in New Jersey by joining the faculty of the Computer Science Department at Rutgers University. As part of his never-ending spiritual quest, he has also spent time as visiting faculty at the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University in Fall 1995, the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Laboratory for Computer Science at MIT in Fall 1997, the Information Systems Department at the Stern School of Business at NYU in Fall 2000 and Spring 2001, and the Sloan School of Management and the Center for Collective Intelligence at MIT in the Fall of 2010 and Spring of 2011. From 2003 to 2006 he served as Chair of the Rutgers Computer Science Department, and from 2006 to 2010 he served as Director of the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems at the National Science Foundation. When he is not teaching courses or conducting research, he writes silly biographies with lots of gratuitous pointers to other web pages. (You can also see a more stodgy short bio or a long-winded formal CV.)

Research Interests

Artificial intelligence, data mining, information retrieval, machine learning.
Collective intelligence, crowdsourcing, human computation, social computing.

Teaching

Spring 2012: CS 442: Social Computing and Collective Intelligence

Rutgers CS graduate admissions are handled by a central committee that makes decisions for the entire department. Individual faculty do not accept students directly into their research groups. Please consult the department's web page on graduate admissions for further information on how to apply.

As happy as I am to learn about people who are interested in what I do and who would like to conduct graduate research with me, sending me an email will not improve your chances of getting admitted to the Rutgers CS graduate program. Indeed, after more than two decades at Rutgers I have never taken on a student as a result of such email. The same holds true for requests for internships. Unfortunately, given the large number of such messages that I receive I am generally unable to reply to emails of this sort.

If you have been accepted to our graduate program, or if you are already enrolled, feel free to contact me regarding research opportunities. I also do occasionally take on Rutgers undergraduate interns if they have sufficiently strong academic records, and I would be happy to hear from you if you have such interests. My active research interests are centered on human computation, crowdsourcing, social computing, collective intelligence, and related topics.

Publications

• Google Scholar Page for Haym Hirsh

• Full List of Publications
  • Information Retrieval and Human-Computer Interaction
    • Text Retrieval, Text Classification, and Text Mining
    • Recommender Systems
    • Web Applications
    • Human-Computer Interaction
    • Wireless Information Access
  • Science and Engineering
    • Engineering Design
    • Computational Biology
    • Other Topics
  • Foundations
    • Description Logics
    • Version Spaces
    • Genetic Algorithms
    • Small Disjuncts
    • Learning from Sequential Data
    • Explanation-Based Learning
    • Other Topics
  • Edited Works

• Popular papers:
  • Chumki Basu, Haym Hirsh, and William W. Cohen (AAAI98):
    Recommendation as Classification: Using Social and Content-Based Information in Recommendation.
  • William W. Cohen, Alex Borgida, and Haym Hirsh (AAAI92):
    Computing Least Common Subsumers in Description Logics.
  • Brian D. Davison and Haym Hirsh (AAAI98/ICML98 workshop):
    Predicting Sequences of User Actions.
    Predicting the Future: AI Approaches to Time Series Analysis.
  • Ronen Feldman and Haym Hirsh (KDD96):
    Mining Associations in Text in the Presence of Background Knowledge.
  • Haym Hirsh (AAAI92):
    Polynomial-Time Learning with Version Spaces.
  • Gary M. Weiss and Haym Hirsh (KDD98):
    Learning to Predict Rare Events in Event Sequences.

Graduate Students

• Sergiu Goschin

Graduated Students (14 PhD Advisees, 34 Descendants)

• Arunava Banerjee (2001):
  Dissertation: The Phase-Space Dynamics of Systems of Spiking Neurons.
  Current position: Associate Professor, Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, University of Florida
  Students
  • Ami Greenberg (PhD 2008)
  • Santhosh Kodipaka (PhD 2009)
  • Ritwik Kumar (PhD 2009): Research Staff Member, IBM Research - Almaden
  • Hailong Meng (PhD 2006): Computational Analyst, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
  • Nathan VanderKraats (PhD 2009)
• Chumki Basu (2002):
  Dissertation: Recommendation as Classification and Recommendation as Matching: Two Information-Centered Approaches to Recommendation
  Current position: Program Manager, IBM Research, Bangalore
• Brian Davison (2002):
  Dissertation: The Design and Evaluation of Web Prefetching and Caching Techniques
  Current position: Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Lehigh University, PA
  Students:
  • Lan Nie (PhD 2008): Software Engineer, Google
  • Baoning Wu (PhD 2007): Search Quality Scientist, Snap.com
• Vipul Kashyap (1997):
  Dissertation: Information Brokering over Heterogeneous Digital Data - A Metadata-based Approach.
  Current position: Senior Medical Informatician, Partners HealthCare System
• Daniel Kudenko (1998):
  Dissertation: Feature Generation for Sequence Categorization.
  Current position: Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, University of York, U.K.
  Students:
  • Heather Barber (PhD 2008: "Generator of Adaptive Dilemma-based Interactive Narratives"): CICS Explorer FV Engineer, IBM - Southampton, UK
  • Matthew Grounds (PhD 2007: "Scaling-up Reinforcement Learning using Parallelization and Symbolic Planning"): Headstrong Games
  • Marek Grzes (PhD 2010: "Improving Exploration in Reinforcement Learning through Domain Knowledge and Parameter Analysis"): Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Canada
  • Rania Hodhod (PhD 2010): Assistant Professor, Ain Shams University, Egypt
  • Spiros Kapetanakis (PhD 2004: "Independent Learning of Coordination in Cooperative Single-Stage Games"): Software Developer, Eton Park
  • Zoe Lock (PhD 2005, "Performance and Flexibility of Stereotype-based User Models"): Technology Strategy Board (UK)
  • Enda Ridge (PhD 2008: "Design of Experiments for the Tuning of Optimisation Algorithms"): Ernst and Young
  • Arturo Servin (PhD 2009: "Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Intrusion Detection"): Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry, Uruguay
  • I-Hsien (Derrick) Ting (PhD 2007: "Closing the KDD loop to Improve Website Design"): Assistant Professor, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan
• David Loewenstern (1999):
  Dissertation: Sequence Classification Learning using Methods Derived from Entropy Estimation.
  Current position: Advisory Software Engineer, IBM Research
• David Lubinsky (1993):
  Dissertation: Analysis of Bivariate Splits and Consistent Split Criteria in Dichotomous Classification Trees.
  Current position: Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa; Founder and Managing Director, OPSI Systems
  Students:
  • Mohamed Aboulgasem Arteimi (PhD, 2000): Dean, Arab College of Technology; Head, Computer Engineering Department, 7th of April University; President, Libyan Association for AI
• Sofus Macskassy (2003):
  Dissertation: New Techniques in Information Filtering.
  Current position: Senior Research Scientist, USC Information Sciences Institute
• Chris Mesterharm (2007):
  Dissertation: Improving On-Line Learning.
  Current Position: Research Scientist, Rutgers University
• Steve Norton (1995):
  Dissertation: Classifier Induction from Imperfect Data as Reasoning Under Uncertainty.
  Currenet position: Vice President, Investment Technology Group, Inc.
• Lorien Pratt (1993):
  Dissertation: Transferring Previously Learned Back-Propagation Neural Networks to New Learning Tasks.
  Current position: CTO, Quatellia
• Khaled Rasheed (1998):
  Dissertation: GADO: A Genetic Algorithm for Continuous Design Optimization.
  Current position: Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Georgia
  Students:
  • Boseon Beyon (PhD 2009: "Enhancing the Quality of High Dimensional Noisy Data for Classification and Regression Problems")
  • Bo Qian (PhD 2006: "Intelligent Financial Market Prediction"): Associate Director/Senior Develolper, Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets
  • Liang Shi (PhD 2008: "Adaptive Surrogate-Assisted Evolution"): Software Development Engineer, Microsoft Corporation
• Gary Weiss (2003):
  Dissertation: The Effect of Small Disjuncts and Class Distribution on Decision Tree Learning.
  Current position: Assistant Professor, Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Fordham University
• Sarah Zelikovitz (2002):
  Dissertation: Using Background Knowledge to Improve Text Classification.
  Current position: Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, College of Staten Island

• My advisor: Bruce Buchanan
  (b. July 7, 1940, St. Louis)
  (Ph.D. Philosophy, Michigan State University, 1966: "Logics of Scientific Discovery")
• Buchanan's advisor: Gerald Massey
  (b. Feb 11, 1934, Wauseon, Ohio)
  (Ph.D. Philosophy, Princeton University, 1964: "The Philosophy of Space ")
• Massey's advisor: Carl Gustav Hempel
  (b. Jan. 8, 1905, Oranienburg, Germany; d. 1997, Princeton, NJ)
  (Philosophy, Berlin, 1934: "Beitrage zur logischen analyse des wahrscheinlichkeitsbegriffs")
  (Hempel worked with Reichenbach until Reichenbach was forced to leave Germany in 1933; his final year at Erlangen was spent under the supervision of Wolfgang Kohler and Nicolai Hartmann.)
• Hempel's advisor: Hans Reichenbach
  (b. Sept. 26, 1891, Hamburg, Germany; d. April 9, 1953, Los Angeles, CA)
  (Philosophy, Erlangen, 1915: "Der Begriff der Wahrscheinlichkeit fur die mathematische Darstellung der Wirklichkeit")
• Reichenbach's two advisors:
  
  • Paul Hensel
    (Dr. phil., Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg, 1885: "Uber die Beziehung des reinen Ich bei Fichte zur Einheit der Apperception bei Kant")
    Please email me if you know anything about him
    
  • Max Noether
    (b. September 24, 1844, Mannheim, Baden, Germany; d. December 13, 1921, Erlangen, Germany)
    (Dr. phil. Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Heidelberg, 1868)
    Based on information I received from Hans Reichenbach's widow, I had previously listed the second advisor as Emmy Noether. I've recently learned that this did not match up with Reichenbach's dissertation's signature page, which has Max Noether's signature.
• Noether's two advisors:
  
  • Ludwig Otto Hesse
    (b. April 22, 1811, Kvnigsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia); d. August 4, 1874, Munich, Germany)
    (Dr. phil. Universitat Kvnigsberg 1840: "De octo punctis intersectionis trium superficium secundi ordinis")
  • Gustav Robert Kirchhoff
    (b. March 12, 1824, Kvnigsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia); d. October 17, 1887, Berlin, Germany)
    (Dr. phil. Universitat Konigsberg 1847: "De criteriis quibus cognoscatur an aequatio quinti gradus irreductibilis algebraice resolvi posset / De parallaxi stellae Argelandriae")
    Kirchhoff's advisor was also Otto Hesse
• Hesse's advisor: Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi
  (b. December 10, 1804, Potsdam, Prussia; d. February 18, 1851, Berlin, Germany)
  (Ph.D. Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, 1825: "Disquisitiones Analyticae de Fractionibus Simplicibus")
• Jacobi's advisor: Enno Heeren Dirksen
  (Ph.D. Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen, 1820: "Historiae progressuum instrumentorum mensurae angulorum accuratiori interserventium inde a Tob. Meyeri temporibus ad umbratione non de artificio multiplicationis")
  
• His two advisors:
  
  • Friedrich Anton Justus Thibaut
    (b. January 4, 1772, Hameln, Hanover; d. March 28, 1840, Heidelberg)
    (Dr. phil. Christian-Albrechts-Universitat zu Kiel, 1796: "De genuina iuris personarum et rerum indole, veroque huius divisionis pretio")
    (Advisor unknown)
  • Johann Tobias Meyer d.J.
    (b. February 17, 1723, Marbach, Wurttemberg, Germany; d. February 20, 1762, Gottingen, Germany)
    (Ph.D. Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen, 1773: "Tetragonometriae specimen I")
• Meyer's advisor: Abraham Gotthelf Kaestner
  (b. Sept 27, 1719, Leipzig, Germany; d. June 20, 1800, in Gottingen, Germany)
  (Ph.D. Universitat Leipzig, 1739: "Theoria radicum in aequationibus")
• Kaestner's advisor: Christian A. Hausen
  (b. 1693, d. 1743)
  (Dr. phil. Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1713: "De corpore scissuris figurisque non cruetando ductu")
• Hausen's advisor: Johann Christoph Wichmannshausen
  (Ph.D. Universitat Leipzig, 1685: "Disputationem Moralem De Divortiis Secundum Jus Naturae")
• Wichmannshausen's advisor: Otto Mencken
  (Ph.D. Universitat Leipzig, 1668: "Thomae Hobbesii Epicureismum historice delineatum sistit")

Other Personal Links

• The Wit and Wisdom of Haym Hirsh. (Yes, it's intentional.)
• Haym Hirsh: An Alternative View
• Amazon's CAPTCHA's commentary on the Mechanical Turk usage agreement
• The family
  • November 2011
  • February 2007
• My wife, Lisa, has a technical staffing and consulting company, Safari Technical Staffing. Check it out!
• 1984: The oldest presence I could find of myself on the Internet. (Since it's not clear from the link, it is from the (Rubik's) Cube Lover's email list.)
• 1994: The oldest Web page I could find that I had authored.
• Erdös number: ≤3
  (Paul Erdös to Frank Hsu to Gary Weiss to Haym Hirsh)
  (My Rutgers colleagues Andras Hajnal, Janos Komlos, Mike Saks, Mario Szegedy, and Endre Szemeredi all have Erdös number 1)
• Bacon number:
  • 2: It's a bit of a stretch: My childhood home appeared (in the distance) in an episode of Chips, and I was in the house at the time it was filmed. Erik Estrada was in Chips, and he was in "We Married Margo" with Kevin Bacon.
  • 4: Also a stretch, but no houses are involved: I was on a panel at MIT with David Ferrucci (IBM), which you can find on YouTube. He was on Jeopardy! with Alex Trebek. Trebek was in the Charlie's Angels movie with Sam Rockwell. Rockwell was in Frost/Nixon with Kevin Bacon.

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  No animals were harmed in the creation of this web page.
  This Web site was brought to you by the letter H.

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  Last update: 9 April 2012