INFORMS Open Forum

Another Purdue Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellowship project

  • 1.  Another Purdue Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellowship project

    Posted 10-20-2018 23:16

    Dr. Nan Kong (INFORMS Member), Biomedical Engineering, Purdue, and Dr. Daisuke Kihara, Computer Science and Biological Sciences, Purdue, are seeking one postdoctoral research scientist, to work together on exciting research in the area of crowdsourcing-based data mining with applications in biomedicine.  We are seeking a highly qualified individual with expertise in data science applied to healthcare, and in particular, to health-related big data integration. Areas of emphasis include deep learning, explainable artificial intelligence, causal inference, predictive analytics, transportability of causal and statistical relationships, as well as multi-agent control. Research experience in the area psychometrics is high appreciated. Candidates must hold a Ph.D. in operations research, statistics, computer science and engineering, computational psychology, or a related field.

    The applications shall be submitted to compete for a Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellowship at Purdue, https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/Research/GilbrethFellowships.

    Project Description

    Human agents have remarkable capability to learn a large variety of concepts, often with few examples, whereas current data-mining algorithms require thousands of data points and struggle with problems such as ambiguity, validity, overfitting etc. However, well-trained human agents may be expensive. On the other hand, initially less competent human agents may have the desire to improve themselves on acquiring sufficient knowledge and drawing subsequent inferences. We will investigate the consensus problem of multi-agent hybrid systems with diverse knowledge discovery capacities under a crowdsourcing framework. Combining numerical and symbolic data mining methods remains challenging. Additionally, even though a crowdsourcing framework is easily achievable from the viewpoint of information technology infrastructure, scaling up the networked control system for hybrid knowledge discovery remains challenging. For the above two challenges, we will explore the combination of numerical and symbolic data mining and the use of domain knowledge for improving the performances. We will also study the operations management aspect for the scaling-up that intends to balance efficiency of knowledge discovery and spending on crowdsourcing the necessary tasks. Moreover, we will use organizational psychology to study effective ways of improving workforce commitment. We will conduct proof-of-concept studies in healthcare and biology. 

    About the Fellowships

    The Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellowships at Purdue Engineering are awarded in memory of Dr. Lillian Moller Gilbreth, Professor at Purdue from 1935-1948. A world renowned pioneer in the application of psychology to industrial engineering, Dr. Gilbreth's work epitomized interdisciplinary research and broader impact on industry and society.  

    The goal of the Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at Purdue Engineering is to attract and prepare outstanding individuals with recently awarded PhDs for a career in engineering academia through interdisciplinary research, training, and professional development.

    The Lillian Gilbreth Postdoctoral Fellows are selected not only for their outstanding scholarly achievements and proposed innovative interdisciplinary research but also for their potential for broader impact on industry and society. They undertake research with faculty mentors in different fields and participate in professional development activities tailored to their chosen path in academia.

    For more information, please email Nan Kong, nkong@purdue.edu and Daisuke Kihara, dkihara@purdue.edu. Dr. Kong will be present at the upcoming INFORMS Annual Conference and he will be happy to meet with whoever is interested.



    ------------------------------
    Nan Kong
    Associate Professor
    Purdue University
    West Lafayette IN
    ------------------------------