I work at the intersection of computer science, AI, and economics, with a focus on solving practical problems using stochastic optimization and machine learning.
I'm an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, with a joint appointment in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). At Maryland, I am also formally affiliated with the Applied Mathematics & Statistics, and Scientific Computation (AMSC) program, as well as the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory (HCIL). Previously, I was a Ph.D. student in computer science at Carnegie Mellon, lead developer of the US nationwide kidney exchange program, and lead developer of a better way to deal with TV advertisements (currently in the pilot phase with two of the nation's largest MSOs).
I have published in Science magazine and been interviewed by Scientific American and CNN. My work with the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center on kidney exchange won the 2014 HPCWire "Best Data-Intensive Application" supercomputing award (tied with IBM Watson). A project to which I contributed was covered by Popular Science, and featured in the journal Nature. Coverage of a book I co-authored on data mining and counter-terrorism appeared in Fast Company. My Erdös number is 3.
My research is currently supported by an NSF CAREER award, as well as DARPA SI3-CMD and NIH R01 grants, and generous gifts from industry partners such as Google. Previously, I was supported by a Facebook Fellowship (2015–2017), Siebel Scholarship (class of 2016), and an NDSEG Fellowship (2012–2015).
Note to prospective PhD students: The CS department at the University of Maryland admits students to the department itself, not to an individual advisor. However, I will do my best to respond to inquiry emails.
This semester, I will be at AAAI (Jan@Honolulu), Google (Feb@MTV), University of Glasgow (Apr@Scotland), Facebook (??@MPK), AAMAS (May@Montreal), CED (June@Budapest).
If you are around these places, feel free to get in touch! john@cs.umd.edu
I apply optimization and AI/ML to real-world problems in healthcare, marketing, and counter-terrorism.
I am available as a consultant, and have worked with a variety of clients in industry and government.
Interested in gorilla social hierarchies? Or how to programatically distract a human child? So am I!