Justin A. Boyan
Massachusetts Institute of Email: jboyan@arc.nasa.gov
Technology
Web: http://ic.arc.nasa.gov/people/jboyan
Artificial Intelligence Lab
Phone: (617)-253-8005
545 Technology Square
NE43-753 Fax: (617)-253-7781
Cambridge, MA 02139
Summary
I am an applications-oriented machine learning researcher with strong
mathematical skills, strong implementation skills, and significant
entrepreneurial experience. My research focuses on creating efficient
algorithms that use data to improve decision-making, with application to
large-scale problems in optimization, control, scheduling, transportation
planning, data mining and information retrieval.
I am currently a Visiting Scientist at the MIT AI Lab, on assignment from my
position as a research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center.
Research Projects / Systems Developed
2000- Adaptive Control of NASA Life Support Systems
Developing learning-based controllers for life-support
systems. These systems regulate the levels of air, water, food and
energy for long-duration crew support in space. The associated
control problems are dynamic, nonstationary, and safety-sensitive,
requiring novel active-learning techniques. Work with Jeff
Schneider, Leslie Kaelbling, and David Kortenkamp, in progress.
2000 Internet Auction Trading Strategies
Participated in the ICMAS-2000 Trading Agent Competition (TAC). This
contest involved programming a travel agent to buy and sell airline
tickets, hotel rooms, and entertainment tickets in 28 simultaneous
Internet auctions, so as to construct profitable travel packages at
minimum cost. Our entry included innovations in real-time resource
allocation, pricing of single resources given combinatorial
utilities, and risk mitigation. Work with Amy Greenwald.
Results: winner (out of 25) in preliminary round; co-winner (out of
12) in finals.
1999- Optimal Route Planning Under Time-Dependent Uncertainty
Developed new representations and solutions for time-sensitive
stochastic planning problems. Applications to telescope experiment
scheduling and multimodal transportation planning. Work with Michael
Littman and Mike Mitzenmacher, in progress. [2] [1] [19]
1996- Learning Evaluation Functions for Global Optimization
Combined dynamic programming, function approximation and local
search techniques into an algorithm that automatically constructs
high-quality evaluation functions for fast combinatorial
optimization. Applications to VLSI design, medical robotics,
satisfiability, Bayes net structure-finding, geographic
visualization, and information retrieval. Ph.D. thesis work. [18]
[3] [20] [6] [8] [10] [13] [21]
1994- Scaling Up Reinforcement Learning / Value Function Approximation
Developed new algorithms for Value Function Approximation, solving
large-scale high-dimensional control and scheduling problems with
approximate dynamic programming. Work with Andrew Moore. [5] [7]
[14] [15] [21] [22]
1996 Information Retrieval / Web Indexing / Machine Learning
Developed LASER, a machine-learning-based search engine for the
World Wide Web. Using non-intrusive feedback gathered from system
users doing Web searches, it optimizes its retrieval function so as
to provide better page rankings. Work with Dayne Freitag and
Thorsten Joachims. [12]
1995-96 Anonymizing Proxy System for the World Wide Web
Developed the Anonymizer, a custom proxy server that enables Web
users to visit sites without revealing personal information such as
their email address and Internet hostname. In April 1997, the system
was sold to Infonex, Inc. and made available to the public at
www.anonymizer.com. [9]
Sample of media coverage:
* USA Today, 6/4/96
* PC Magazine Internet User Site of the Day, 6/13/96
* US News and World Report, 6/17/96
* Washington Post, 6/26/96
* Scientific American, 10/96
* New York Times, 1/13/97
* Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 4/14/97
1995-96 Internet Privacy Demonstration
Image Created a script to demonstrate how Internet users may reveal
personal information to every web site they visit. This script won a
Netscape "Bugs Bounty" award in January 1996 and was featured for
several years on the home page of the Center for Democracy and
Technology. [9]
1993-94 Reinforcement Learning for Network Routing / Multi-Agent Learning
Invented Q-routing, a parallel distributed reinforcement-learning
algorithm for routing packet traffic in a computer network. The
routing tables adapt to varying network topologies and traffic
loads. This study has been followed up by at least five separate
groups of researchers. Work with Michael Littman. [16] [17]
1992-93 Artificial Neural Network algorithms
Designed and tested extensions to cascading and modular neural
network architectures. Work with Frank Fallside, Tony Robinson and
Scott Fahlman. [27]
1992-94 Self-Learning Backgammon Software
Wrote software combining temporal-difference learning and modular
neural networks in order to train, from scratch, an expert-level
computer backgammon player. Image [27]
* Developed the neural network brains for MVP Backgammon, a PC
program being marketed as Shareware since fall 1995 (with Marc
Ringuette). MVP-BG was nominated by the Shareware Industry
Awards Foundation as one of the five best Shareware
entertainment products of 1996.
* AST International Games Olympiad, London, August 1992. My
modular neural net-based program, MAESTRO, placed second in the
backgammon competition.
1993- Web site design
* HTML: Living Green in Pittsburgh page, Japan travel diary
* JavaScript: "SNARK" web search interface -- named "JavaScript
of the Month" by Boardwatch Magazine, June 1996
* Java: Interactive Electoral Map -- this applet is now installed
at U.S.News & World Report Online
1986-95 Sole proprietor, BOYAN Communications
Authored BOYAN Communications, a best-selling PC modem
program. Maintained, documented, and marketed (via Shareware and
mail-order distribution) four major versions of the software over a
ten-year life cycle.
* U.S. Copyright # TX 2 144 115
* Software reviewed in over 100 publications, including:
* Tampa Tribune, 3/8/87
* PC Week, 6/2/87
* Government Computing News, 6/20/87
* Terminal Intelligence, 10/87
* PC Magazine, 10/27/87
* Micro Cornucopia, Nov-Dec 1987
* International User Group, 11/87
* InfoWorld, 12/7/87
* Washington Post, 12/28/87
* Public Software Library, "The Best of 1987", 1/88
* Image PC Magazine, "The Best of 1987", 1/12/88
* Uptime! Magazine on Disk, Vol. 1, #7
* Victoria PC Users Association, 3/88
* California Computer News, 5/88
* PC World, 5/88
* Chicago Sun-Times, 6/88
* University of Chicago Chronicle, 6/9/88
* PC Magazine, 7/88
* PC World, "The Best of Shareware", 8/88
* Your Computer, 10/88
* University of Chicago Magazine, Fall 1988
* Baltimore Sun Magazine, 1/29/89
* Memphis PC Users Group, 3/89
* Home Computing, "Editor's Pick", 6/89
* PC Resource, 6/89
* PC World, 8/89
* New York Times, 9/3/89
* Shareware Magazine, "Best Picks in Shareware", Sept-Oct 1989
* PC Elite (England), "Program of the Month", 1/90
* Time Magazine, 5/14/90, 5/21/90
* The Computer Paper, 5/90
* PC Resource, 8/90
* Shareware Magazine, 9/90
* Computer World, 10/31/90
* PC Magazine, 12/17/91
Public presentations/demonstrations:
* Capital PC Users Group (National Institutes of Health,
Bethesda, MD)
* Baltimore Users Group (Timonium Elem. School, Timonium, MD)
* Columbia-Baltimore PC Users Group (JHU Applied Physics Lab,
Columbia, MD)
* Radio interview, AM-1290 (Wichita Falls, TX)
Version 4F, translated into French (with Maurice Periard), released
1990
Chronology / Awards
o Image NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA. Research Scientist,
September 1998-present.
o Visiting Scientist, MIT AI Lab, January 2000-present.
o Group affiliation at Ames: Autonomy and Robotics Area, Computational
Sciences Division
o Co-winner, ICMAS-2000 Trading Agent Competition, July 2000
o Best Paper Award, ICML-99 conference, June 1999 [5]
o NASA Ames Spotlight Award, April 1999
o Image Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. Ph.D., Computer
Science, August 1998; Image M.S., May 1995.
o Research interests: machine learning, especially reinforcement
learning; function approximation and neural networks; applications
to optimization problems in robotic, industrial, medical,
information-retrieval, and game domains.
o Dissertation: "Learning Evaluation Functions for Global
Optimization" [20]
o Thesis committee: Andrew Moore (co-chair), Scott Fahlman (co-chair),
Tom Mitchell, Tom Dietterich (Oregon State University)
o Outstanding Paper Award, AAAI-98 conference, July 1998 [6]
o NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program Fellowship, 1996-98
o Pennsylvania Space Grant Fellowship, 1995
o National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship,
1992-95
o National Science Foundation Fellowship, 1991 (declined)
o Elected to Sigma Xi, 1995
o First place tie, CMU Programming Contest, September 1994
o NIPS Foundation travel grants: 1993, 1994, 1995
o Coursework:
o Machine Learning (Mitchell/Blum/Furst)
o Artificial Intelligence (Carbonell/Veloso)
o Algorithms (Furst)
o Computer Systems (Gross)
o Programming Languages (Reynolds)
o Math Fundamentals for Robotics (Erdmann)
o Operating Systems (Johnson)
o Statistical Inference (Junker)
o German 1 (Brockmann)
o Image University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. Image M.Phil., Computer
Speech and Language Processing, August 1992.
o Thesis: "Modular Neural Networks for Learning Context-Dependent Game
Strategies" [27]
o Term papers: "Connectionist Approaches to Large-Vocabulary Speech
Recognition"; "User Models in Natural Language Dialogue"
o Advisors: Frank Fallside and Tony Robinson
o Churchill Scholarship, awarded to ten U.S. students annually for
scientific studies at Cambridge, 1991-92
o Selected coursework:
o Hidden Markov Models (Pulman)
o Digital Signal Processing (Niranjan)
o Psycholinguistics (Cutler)
o Neural Networks (Fallside)
o Image University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. Image B.S. with General Honors,
Mathematics, June 1991.
o Cumulative undergraduate GPA: 3.93 / 4.00
o Paul R. Cohen Memorial Prize, awarded to the graduating senior who
has achieved the highest academic record in mathematics, 1991
o Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, 1990
o Dean's List, 1987-88, 88-89, 89-90, 90-91
o Mensa Education & Research Foundation Scholarship, 1991
o State Farm Foundation Exceptional Student Fellowship, 1991
o Time Magazine College Achievement Award, 1990
o University of Chicago College Honors Scholarship (merit-based
half-tuition scholarship), 1987-91
o Image Oakland Mills High School, Columbia, MD. Image May 1987.
o Valedictorian.
o Cumulative GPA: 4.0
o Maryland Math League: First place in 1986-87 individual competition
o Independent research project: "Computer Simulations of Brownian
Motion"
o Supervisor: David Thirumalai, Institute for Physical Science and
Technology, University of Maryland
o First place overall, physical sciences, Baltimore Science Fair, 1987
o Third place grand award, physics division, International Science and
Engineering Fair, San Juan, PR, 1987
o Computer Team -- Captain, grades 10-12
o First place, First Maryland Computer Bowl, 1986
o First place, Second Maryland Computer Bowl, 1987
o Le Grand Concours (National French Exam):
o Third place nationally (out of 14,000 students), Level 3, 1986
o Third place in Maryland region, Level 5, 1987
o National Merit Scholar, 1987
Professional Activities / Teaching
2000-2003 Editorial Board, Machine Learning Journal
2000 Co-organizer, AAAI-2000 Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for
Web Search
2000 Organizer, MIT Statistical AI Reading Group
1999 Organizer, Workshop on Statistical Machine Learning for
Large-Scale Optimization, Stockholm, Sweden
I co-organized this IJCAI workshop with Wray Buntine. An edited
version of the proceedings will appear in Neural Computing
Surveys. [18]
1999 Judge, Siemens Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition,
Princeton, NJ
1998 Judge, Santa Clara Valley Science and Engineering Fair, San Jose,
CA
1998 Invited speaker, Symposium on Applications of Reinforcement
Learning, Stanford University
I was one of fifteen invited speakers at this symposium.
1997 Invited speaker, NSF/CNPq Joint Workshop on Intelligent Robotic
Agents, Porto Alegre, Brazil
1996 Invited speaker, NSF Reinforcement Learning workshop, Harper's
Ferry, WV
I was one of three graduate students invited to participate in
this national workshop.
1995 Organizer, Workshop on Value Function Approximation, Tahoe City,
CA
I co-organized this Machine Learning Conference workshop with
Andrew Moore and Rich Sutton.
1995 Teaching Assistant, How to Think (Like a Computer Scientist)
Instructor: Rudich.
This is an undergraduate discrete mathematics course, but with an
unusual emphasis on developing the thought processes involved in
problem-solving, instead of just presenting techniques and
answers.
1993 Teaching Assistant, Artificial Neural Networks (graduate course)
Instructors: Touretzky, Waibel, Fahlman, and Pomerleau.
Duties included: lecturing, preparing homework assignments
(competitive learning, backpropagation, reinforcement learning),
supervising class projects, and grading.
1992-1997 Organizer, CMU Reinforcement Learning Group
I coordinated weekly talks, inviting speakers from both inside and
outside CMU.
1993- Paper Referee:
* American Association for Artificial Intelligence conference
(1998, 2000)
* Artificial Intelligence Journal (2000)
* International Conference on Machine Learning (1993, 2000)
* International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence
(1995, 1997)
* IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks (1998)
* International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics
and Automation in Space (1999)
* Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (1994, 1998,
1999)
* Machine Learning Journal (1993, 1994, 1997, 1999)
* Neural Computation (1997)
* Neural Networks (1994)
* Neural Information Processing Systems conference (1993, 1994,
1998, 1999)
1986-93 Mathematics teacher, Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented
Youth residential summer program Image
I attended the CTY program for three years as a teenager, and
returned to it on the instructional staff for many summers
afterward. As an instructor, I guided classes of 15-20 bright
students through an intensive, individually-paced mathematics
course: in three weeks, a typical CTY student masters an amount of
material which would otherwise be covered over 1-2 years of high
school. I also presented a wide range of fun extra topics, such as
number theory, the Cantor set and infinity, and recursive
functions. In 1991, I initiated the use of Mathematica in the
precalculus classroom.
* Instructor: Lancaster site, 1993, 91, 89, 88; Norton, MA
site, 1990
* Teaching assistant: Geneva, Switzerland site, 1989;
Lancaster, PA site, 1987, 86
Refereed Publications
[1] Boyan, J. A. and M. Mitzenmacher. "Improved Results for Route Planning
in Stochastic Transportation Networks." Accepted to the 12th Annual
Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA), 2001.
[2] Boyan, J. A. and M. L. Littman. "Exact Solutions to Time-Dependent
MDPs." To appear in Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems
(NIPS). MIT Press, 2001.
(Selected for oral presentation.)
[3] Boyan, J. A. and A. W. Moore. "Learning Evaluation Functions to Improve
Local Search." Journal of Machine Learning Research, to appear, 2000.
[4] Boyan, J. A. "Technical Update: Least-Squares Temporal Difference
Learning." Machine Learning Journal, to appear, 2000.
[5] Boyan, J. A. "Least-Squares Temporal Difference Learning." In Bratko,
I., and Dzeroski, S., eds., Machine Learning: Proceedings of the
Sixteenth International Conference (ICML), 1999.
(Selected as ICML-99 Best Paper. One of 152 submissions received this
honor.)
[6] Boyan, J. A. and A. W. Moore. "Learning Evaluation Functions for Global
Optimization and Boolean Satisfiability." Fifteenth National Conference
on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 1998.
(Selected as an AAAI-98 Outstanding Paper. Three of 475 submissions
received this honor.)
[7] Schneider, J. G., J. A. Boyan and A. W. Moore. "Value Function Based
Production Scheduling." Machine Learning: Proceedings of the Fifteenth
International Conference (ICML), 1998. Also presented at Symposium on
Applications of Reinforcement Learning, Stanford, March 1998.
[8] Moore, A. W., J. G. Schneider, J. A. Boyan and M. S. Lee. "Q2:
Memory-Based Active Learning for Optimizing Noisy Continuous
Functions." Machine Learning: Proceedings of the Fifteenth
International Conference (ICML), 1998.
[9] Boyan, J. A. "The Anonymizer: Protecting User Privacy on the Web."
Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine, 4 (9), September 1997.
[10] Boyan, J. A. and A. W. Moore. "Using Prediction to Improve
Combinatorial Optimization Search." Sixth International Workshop on
Artificial Intelligence and Statistics (AISTATS), 1997.
[11] Boyan, J. A. "Value Function Approximation Applied to Combinatorial
Optimization." Second International Conference on Computational
Intelligence and Neuroscience (ICCIN), Research Triangle Park, NC,
1997.
[12] Boyan, J. A., D. Freitag and T. Joachims. "A Machine Learning
Architecture for Optimizing Web Search Engines." Proceedings of the
AAAI workshop on Internet-Based Information Systems, AAAI Technical
Report WS-96-06, 1996.
[13] Boyan, J. A. "A Reinforcement Learning Framework for Combinatorial
Optimization." (student abstract) Thirteenth National Conference on
Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 1996.
[14] Boyan, J. A. and A. W. Moore. "Learning Evaluation Functions for Large
Acyclic Domains." In L. Saitta (ed.), Machine Learning: Proceedings of
the Thirteenth International Conference (ICML). Morgan Kaufmann, 1996.
[15] Boyan, J. A., and A. W. Moore, "Generalization in Reinforcement
Learning: Safely Approximating the Value Function." In Tesauro, G.,
D. S. Touretzky, and T. K. Leen (eds.), Advances in Neural Information
Processing Systems 7 (NIPS). MIT Press, 1995.
(Selected for oral presentation. Approximately 30 out of 500
submissions received this honor.)
[16] Boyan, J. A., and M. L. Littman, "Packet routing in dynamically
changing networks: A reinforcement learning approach." In Cowan, J. D.,
Tesauro, G., and Alspector, J. (eds.), Advances in Neural Information
Processing Systems 6 (NIPS). Morgan Kaufmann, 1994.
[17] Littman, M. L. and J. A. Boyan. "A Distributed Reinforcement Learning
Scheme for Network Routing." In Alspector, J., Goodman, R., and Brown,
T. X. (eds.), Proceedings of the International Workshop on Applications
of Neural Networks to Telecommunications, October 1993. Also appeared
as: Carnegie Mellon Technical Report CMU-CS-93-165.
Unrefereed Publications/Talks
[18] Boyan, J. A. and W. L. Buntine, eds. "Statistical Machine Learning for
Large-Scale Optimization." Neural Computing Surveys 3, 2000.
[19] Boyan, J. A. and M. L. Littman. "Representations and Algorithms for
Time-Dependent MDPs." Presented at the workshop on "Beyond MDPs",
UAI-2000.
[20] Boyan, J. A. "Learning Evaluation Functions for Global Optimization."
Ph.D. thesis, Carnegie Mellon University, August 1998. (U.S. Copyright
# TX4 309 277.) Also appeared as: Carnegie Mellon Technical Report
CMU-CS-98-152.
Oral defense given at CMU, May 1998. Also presented at Stanford
University, UC Berkeley, AT&T Labs, SRI International, NASA Ames
Research Center, Compaq CRL, MERL, Microsoft Research, i2 Research, and
NEC Research.
[21] Boyan, J. A. "Learning Evaluation Functions." Ph.D. Thesis Proposal,
CMU, June 1996.
[22] Boyan, J. A., A. W. Moore, and R. S. Sutton, Editors. "Proceedings of
the Workshop on Value Function Approximation, Machine Learning
Conference 1995." Carnegie Mellon Technical Report CMU-CS-95-206.
[23] Boyan, J. A. "Active Learning for Optimal Control in Acyclic Domains."
In Proceedings of AAAI Symposium on Active Learning, Autumn 1995.
[24] Boyan, J. A. "Two Algorithms for Robust VFA By Working Backwards."
Presented at ML95 workshop on Value Function Approximation, July 1995.
[25] Boyan, J. A. "Safely Approximating the Value Function." Presented at
Action Learning workshop, MIT, March 1995. Similar talks given at Brown
University and the University of Massachusetts, 1995, and Stanford
University, 1994.
[26] Boyan, J. A. "MAESTRO 1.0: A Modular Neural Network for Learning
Context-Dependent Backgammon Strategies by Self-Play." Presented at the
Fourth International Conference on Computer Games, London, August 1992.
[27] Boyan, J. A. "Modular Neural Networks for Learning Context-Dependent
Game Strategies." Master's thesis, Department of Engineering and
Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 1992.
Hobbies
o Politics and social activism
o Leader, CMU for Clinton/Gore, Fall 1992.
Led a 200-member campus group in voter registration, leaflet
distribution, and other election activities.
o Active in Fall 1994 election. (See my Political Infopage.)
o Member, Environmental Concerns Organization, University of Chicago,
1988-90.
Helped introduce campus-wide recycling to the university.
(See also my Living Green in Pittsburgh page.)
o Piano -- rock, jazz and improv
o Keyboard player for an oft-renamed rock band, Painted Mice / All
Fall Down / The Broken, 1993-94.
o Piano/keyboard accompanist for Off-Off-Campus, an improvisational
comedy troupe, 1989-90
o Pianist, Peabody Conservatory Jazz Ensemble, 1984-85
o Tennis and squash
o Backgammon
o Cambridge University Backgammon Society, 1991-92. Ladder champion,
Michaelmas term and Lent term.
o Ultimate Frisbee
Skills
o Natural languages: French (reading, writing, speaking), German (reading)
o Computer languages: C, C++, Java, Perl, LISP, Mathematica, etc.