CIS Professor S. Brahnam recognized in NYC with best theory paper award

This month, we are pleased to recognize Dr. S. Berlin Brahnam of the Computer Information Systems Department. Brahnam received the Best Contribution to Theory award at the April, 2013 Northeast Decision Sciences Institute (NEDSI) conference in New York City, New York.  The award recognizes her paper “Heterogeneous ensembles for the missing feature problem,” co-authored by Dr.’s Loris Nanni, Nicola Lazzarini, and Carlo Fantozzi.

Brahnam and her co-authors — all with the University of Padua, Italy — worked on this particular project for about 18 months, but it wasn’t their first collaboration. This group has worked together before on similar topics in bioinformatics, but Brahnam has worked the most with Nanni despite the fact they’ve never actually met in person. Their collaborations have been completely online via e-mail.  They have never used Skype or other types of visual synchronous communication.  “We are very fortunate to have a working relationship and collaborative environment online,” says Brahnam.

For this award winning paper, the primary focus is the use of state-of-the-art machine algorithms, specifically ensembles, to handle missing data in datasets.  The abstract for this paper can be read online HERE. Dr. Brahnam plans to continue doing research in bioinformatics with this group, others, and on her own.  To see a complete list of her previous works in this and other areas, see the research section of her professional website.