Research Areas
Collaborative Filtering, Information Filtering and Retrieval, Applications of Internet Technology, Human Computer Interaction

Research Description
We are all affected by information overload. We are overloaded by email and documents that may contain important information, tasks that must be done, and context that must not be forgotten, among many other things. The goal of my work is to develop software tools that reduce the negative impacts of information overload and assist us in deciding the most profitable way we can spend our limited attention. In my work, I seek to combine knowledge from a broad set of Computer Science subfields, including human-computer interaction, machine learning, information retrieval, and databases. My recent research has focused on improving collaborative filtering technology and applying it in new and innovative applications. Collaborative filtering pools the efforts of a community of people to discover information of value and discard un-useful information for each member of that community.

Applications of Research
Almost every community experiences information overload, and collaborative filtering-based recommender systems can help discover the valuable information and discard the useless information. My research work has been licensed to Net Perceptions Inc., and is used in numerous web/e-commerce sites.

Recent Research Collaborations & Projects

1. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). KI-LEARN: "Knowledge-Intensive Learning Methods for Knowledge-Rich/Data-Poor Domains," (with Thomas Dietterich, Bruce D'Ambrosio, and Prasad Tadepalli) 2003-2004, $486,000
2. National Science Foundation MKIDS, "Capturing, Reusing, and Leveraging Knowledge from Human Task Processes," (with Thomas Dietterich) 2003-2005, $443,123
3. National Science Foundation CAREER, "Collaborative Knowledge Spaces for Filtering Information," 02/01/02–01/31/07, $375,000
4. Intel Information Technology Research and Development Council, "TaskTracer for Studies of Multitasking at Intel," 7/1/2004-9/30/2004, $10,000
5. National Science Foundation, "Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Supplement to CAREER: Collaborative Knowledge Spaces for Filtering Information," 2004-2005, $6,000
6. National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Supplement to CAREER, "Collaborative Knowledge Spaces for Filtering Information," 2003-2004, $12,000
7. National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Supplement to CAREER, "Collaborative Knowledge Spaces for Filtering Information," 2002-2003, $12,000
8. National Science Foundation EIA # 0224012 CISE Research Resources, "Instrumentation for Experimental Research in Machine Learning, Collaborative Filtering, and Virtual Environments," (with Thomas Dietterich and Ron Metoyer) 9/1/2002-8/31/2003, $50,000 (with match of $44,319 from Oregon State University)