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Editors:

Joseph Cummings
Charles Dizard

Informatics Today is a publication of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Biomedical Informatics

The University of Pittsburgh is an affirmative action, equal opportunity institution. Published in cooperation with the Department of University Marketing Communications.

UMC65727-1008

Featured Alumni

Q&A with Weng-Keen Wong, PhD
2005, Post Doctoral Research Fellow
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Oregon State University

Question: What have you been doing since completing your postdoctoral fellowship at Pitt?
Answer: After completing my fellowship at Pitt, I started as an assistant professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Oregon State University.

Question: What are your most memorable experiences from your days at Pitt?
Answer: My most memorable experiences were interacting with the graduate students, staff, and faculty at the Center for Biomedical Informatics. I particularly enjoyed working with Greg Cooper, who was my postdoctoral advisor.

Question: How did your training and education benefit your career?
Answer: Under Greg Cooper, I learned a great deal about applying Bayesian networks and Bayesian statistics to problems in disease outbreak detection. I am now using these same concepts to help solve ecological problems such as species distribution mapping.

Question: What is your role on the faculty of Oregon State University?
Answer: Apart from teaching courses, I am also involved in research. Generally speaking, my research interests are in machine learning and data mining. Currently, I am investigating the following research areas:

1. Enduser debugging of machine learning programs: How can end users, who know nothing about machine learning, correct machine learning programs such as spam filters and intelligent desktop assistants that adapt themselves to the end user's behavior?
2. Species distribution mapping: Can we develop accurate predictive models for the presence of a species in a geographic location? How does climate change affect species distributions?
3. Learning from demonstration: Can a machine learning algorithm learn a complex task by watching a rich, informative demonstration from an expert?

Question: What advice would you give to current fellows in the training program?
Answer: Don't forget to get out of the lab once in a while.

Question: Anything about your personal life you would like to share?
Answer: I'm a big fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Let's go Pens!