William Hsu

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Johns Hopkins University

University Professor

artificial intelligence, computer science, tolkien, star wars, java, bayesian networks, grant writing

Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Hyperion, Endymion, Jack the Bodiless, Diamond Mask, Ender's Game

The Joy Luck Club, Mr. Holland's Opus

Sarah McLachlan, Rosanne Cash, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, REM, Dido, Josh Groban

Lost, Stargate: Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, What I Like About You

My name is William H. Hsu (#35377; #34913;). I am an associate professor (since June, 2005) in the Department of Computing and Information Sciences (CIS) at Kansas State University (K-State) in Manhattan, KS, where I have been a faculty member since July, 1999. In the summer of 1998, I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science (DCS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Before that, I was at The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore, MD, where I earned a dual B.S. degree in CS and Mathematical Sciences and a master's degree in CS, graduating in 1993. I am an alum of Severn School in Severna Park, MD (Class of 1989). Last but not least, I was in the CTY program at Hopkins back in 1986-1987.

I work on problems in machine learning, probabilistic reasoning, time series analysis, information visualization, and data mining. My research interests include artificial neural networks (ANNs), genetic and evolutionary computation (GEC), and graphical models of probability such as Bayesian networks ("belief networks"), with applications to commercial decision support and bioinformatics. Our open-source software package Bayesian Networks in Java (BNJ) is used by people at over 50 research institutions. See my research lab page (http://www.kddresearch.org) for papers and resources.

I teach the following courses at KSU: CIS 560, Database Systems (every spring), CIS 690, Implementation of High-Performance Data Mining Systems (summer, given sufficient demand), CIS 490/730, Principles of Artifcial Intelligence (every other fall), CIS 732, Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition (every fall), CIS 636/736, Computer Graphics (every spring), CIS 830, Topics in Artificial Intelligence (every other spring).

I am also a J.R.R. Tolkien and Star Wars fan, and a Tolkien Eccentric Unusual Nut Case (TEUNC).

I have accounts on MySpace, Facebook , LiveJournal (LJ), Friendster, Orkut, and Greate stJournal (GJ), but I am most active on LJ and GJ.

Feel free to add me to your friends list, but please post a comment in my LiveJournal or e-mail me to let me know, especially if you wish to be added to my list.