Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 22:02:15 GMT Server: NCSA/1.5.2 Last-modified: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 13:43:41 GMT Content-type: text/html Content-length: 6052 Robert St. Amant (stamant@csc.ncsu.edu) Robert St. Amant
Department of Computer Science
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695

I'm an assistant professor in the computer science department at North Carolina State University.

My work is a blend of human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence. I'm interested in building intelligent tools--actually, intelligent assistants--for complex tasks. My dissertation dealt with a system called Aide, an assistant for intelligent data exploration. Aide helps a user to identify and describe interesting patterns in a dataset through interactive exploration. Data exploration is difficult: though a statistical package may take over the burden of computation, still the user must sift through an enormous number of potential patterns and relationships, deciding which procedures are appropriate, and relying on cues in the data and knowledge of external context to guide the process. This domain is a good example of a problem for which the most effective solution involves a collaboration between the user and the system. I'm currently extending the ideas developed for Aide into other domains: browsing through the World Wide Web, evaluating and repairing complex plans, and constructing user interface dialogs.


My research interests have me splitting my time between human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, and statistics.

Human-computer interaction:
I teach a graduate level course in human-computer interaction. Some of my students are very sharp--you can see the results of one of their weekly assignments online. I've also become involved with the ACM SIGCHI Educational Resource Development Group, working to identify educational resources geared toward HCI.

Artificial intelligence:
I served on the program committee for the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-96) and I'm currently on the program committee for the Second International Conference on Intelligent Data Analysis (IDA-97). If you're interested in AI planners, I've put together a reasonably comprehensive planning resources page.

Statistics:
I'm an associate editor for the Journal of Statistical Software. I also work with people at SAS Institute (who provided part of the funding for my position, in a relatively unusual university/industry partnership.) Here are some useful statistics pages on the Web.


I received a Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1996 from the University of Massachusetts, where I worked in the Experimental Knowledge Systems Laboratory. My thesis advisor was Paul Cohen, and my committee included Vic Lesser and Arny Rosenberg. My undergraduate days were spent in the Computer Science department at the Johns Hopkins University.


Here are a few of my publications: