Debasis MitraAssociate ProfessorDepartment of Computer Sciences Florida Institute of Technology Melbourne, Florida |
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E-mail: dmitra 'at' cs.fit 'dot' edu
Office: EC 251, Phone: (321)674-8763 / 7737, Fax: (321)674-7046
Office Hours: Tuesday and Wednesday 2-4 pm, or by appointment only
NOTE TO THE PROSPECITVE STUDENTS TO FIT: Please forward any routine inquiry on admissions to cs-admit 'at' fit.edu, and NOT to me. Thanks.
Academic Background |
My Story |
Research Interests |
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Teaching Activities |
Vita/ Publications |
Other Activities |
Academic Background
- Ph.D. Computer Science, 1994
Center for Advanced Computer
Studies,
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
- Ph.D. Physics, 1984
Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur
- M.Sc. Physics, 1977
My Story
Learning about the laws of nature has always facinated me. So I started my higher education studying physics. I did my first Ph.D. on mathematical physics, working on Lorentz Groups. While pursuing my Ph.D. at IIT I was hired by one of the largest companies, Oil and Natural Gas Commission, in India, my home country. I worked as an exploration geophysicist there, on areas like petroleum geology, onshore and offshore field geophysics, and yes, a lot of data processing. I fell in love with the art of programming and became overwhelmed with the idea that the computers could be 'programmed' to think. At this point in my career I decided that I have had enough in oil business and should learn about computers and artificial intelligence more seriously. I joined the University of Louisiana at Lafayette as a graduate student in computer science. 'Time' became once again my area of investigation, as it was during my past graduate study in physics. This time I looked into it from the computational point of view - how to reason with it. After completing my second Ph.D. I have decided to teach computer science while continuing my journey of delving more and more into 'space' and 'time.' So, here I am!Current Research Interests
Presnetation on Spatio-temporal Constraint-based Reasoning (STR)
Spatio-temporal Reasoning
Reasoning with space and time is what we do all the time. Yet it is one of the hard tasks for a computer to do. In this area of research we try to develop efficient algorithms which could not only accomplish this job, but do it under incomplete information. Temporal constraints are temporal relations between temporal entities, like events or properties. Input temporal constraints need to be propagated to check if they are consistent with respect to each other. Works on temporal reasoning are being extended toward reasoning with space also. This work started with an NSF CAREER award.Click here for the relevant web-page.
My talk on 9/14/01 at the FIT CS seminar is here.
Another talk on my research overview at the FIT Ph.D students' seminar is
here.
A talk presented by Florent Launay on 9/6/02 on a joint work with me is
here.
We are also forming a Center for Compuatation and Intellgence (CCI).
Bio-informatics
I have recently started working on this area.
Relevant site.
The class web page is here.
Interested student volunteers are welcome.
The general areas we have been looking into are on Protein strcuture prediction
problem, strcuture comparison problem, and system biology.
Physics related
I am involved with one of the High Energy Physics Labs at FIT and some of their projects.Some interest in Computational Creativity.
Some papers.
Some Past/Dormant Projects
Temporal Databases and Multi-dimensional Databases
Traditional database management systems developers have rarely paid any particular attention to the dependence of data on time. But many of the data sets that we handle routinely evolve through time. Paying special attention to this aspect could enhance our data handling capability significantly. I am involved with developing some models for time series data that are typically handled by the scientific comunity. Often such data have dependence on not only time but on space or other type of 'dimensions.' This type of data-handling process needs a mechanism which involves multiple dimensions. In this area of research we build models for them.Expert System Architecure for Rocket Engine Numerical Simulator (ESA-RENS)
This is a NASA Lewis Engineering Research Center funded project for developing an object-oriented architecture for the interface module of simulation systems of liquid propellant rocket engines. The goal is to free the user from the burden of knowing the simulation package's architecure. Possibilities of putting some "intelligence" to the executive module is also envisioned.Adaptive Scheduling for Heterogeneous Computation
An alternative platform to supercomputers for high performance computation is a network of desktop workstations of different varieties. A goal in such parallel processing is to utilize a huge amount of wasted aggregate CPU time of these workstations. But this type of parallelization involves a good amount of intelligence in system management - to be performed at the run time. One of such problems is in having a scheduler which adapts to the varying performance of the available machiens vis a vis the programs to be run on those machines. This project is looking into the problem of adaptive scheduling. It was a collaborative project with (and partially supported by) the NSF Engineering Research Center at the Mississippi State University.Plant-identification Expert Systems
An expert system is a codification of a human expert's heuristic knowledge for the purpose of decision making in a relevant domain. Developing expert systems for small domains is fun. In this project some of my students have been developing expert systems for identifying plants from their visible features. Such systems can be used in different domains, e.g., for environmental decision making processes, or in museums for teaching people about their local flora. We also experiment with different techniques for coding the rules, e.g., relational databases, and decision-tree implementation etc. Please see this paper for some ideas related to the project.My vita /publications, in MS Word (January 2007)
Teaching Activities
Graduate Level Courses
Design and Analysis of Algorithms
(CSE 5211/4081)This is a core area in computer science. In this subject one learns about different broad classifications of algorithms. One also learns how to analyze the time-complexity of an algorithm. In addition, the theoretical issues of complexity of compuattional problems are looked into in this course.
The course home page.
Computational Molecular Biology
(CSE 5400/4510)We are introducing some issuse and algorithms used in the area of bio-computing. Check here for more information.
Constraint Reasoning
(CSE 5692)Constraints are relations between some variables restricting the values that the variables can take with respect to each other. A good amount theoretical knowledge has been obtained in the last few decades of research and an almost infinite amount of untapped application possibilities exist. We will study some of the important papers in the area of constraint-based reasoning with emphasis on some specialized topics like scheduling, and temporal reasoning. Students will also be involved in presenting their research and projects done in the course.
Visit here for some more information.
Formal Languages and Automata Theory
(CSE 5210)Basic concepts of machines for accepting classes of strings comprising "languages." Their powers limitations, hierarchy, etc. Class web page.
Past Graduate Offerings
Artificial Intelligence
In this elective students are given an overview of different issues involved in designing intelligent systems. The course spans from the core areas of artificial intelligence, like search algorithms and logic, to the current grand-challenge areas within AI, like diagnosis.The course home page.
Topics in Temporal Databases
In this course we take a look into different data models for representing data that has temporal dependence. We look into temporal data from different angles: how to extend relational model in order to handle such data, other independent modeling techniques, physical strorage issues etc. The course home page.Internet-based distance education courses
These courses were offered at JSU via the Internet, jointly with the Northeast Parallel Architecture Center (NPAC) of the Syracuse University as a part of the DoD HPC Modernization project.Undergraduate Level Courses
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
In this course students are introduced to the methods and techniques applied in order to write smart programs. Students also get exposed to non-procedural languages like lisp and prolog, and to an expert systems-shell CLIPS.
Principles of Databases
(CSE 4080)Students learn: Motivations of using databases rather than file management systems for storing data; Data modeling techniques; Relational data model; Relational algebra; Relational quesries, SQL, Designing a database using ER diagrams; Hands on experience with a relational database management system; Normalization; Transaction processing; Some advanced concepts (ACM modules on Information Management is being followed).
Course web page.
Formal Languages and Automata Theory
Students love to call it FLAT! Basic concepts of machines for accepting classes of strings comprising "languages." Their powers limitations, hierarchy, etc. Class web page.Principles of Compiler Construction
Students are exposed to different components of a compiler. Underlying theoretical foundations needed to develop lexical anlyzers and parsers are studied. Students get hands on experience with programming in lex and yacc.Senior Design Projects
Professional Memberships
Association of Computing MachineriesIEEE Computer Society
American Association of Artificial Intelligence
International Society for Applied Intelligence (not active now)
Society of Physics Students
Association of Exploration Geophysicists (India)
Other Activities
Peer review activities
Program Committee member / reviewer of the Annual IEA/AIE international conferences, the Annual FLAIRS international conferences, the TIME international conferences, the European AI conferences (ECAI), Applied Intelligence journal, ...
Informal Science Education
Science is not just a package of information. It is a way of viewing things. In a modern society it is necessary that people of different ages and from different walks of life get a chance to feel the joy of discovery. I am interested in contributing toward this direction.
Disclaimer:
I am not the DEBASIS MITRA who works at the Bell Lab on the area of Distributed Processing.Florida Institute of Technology is not responsible for any information contained here, and I am not responsible for any information one could access from the links on this web page.