Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) areas study computing methods for automated analysis, prediction, and decision-making using data. Recent breakthroughs in AI and ML have resulted in a number of high-impact applications including speech recognition, machine translation, and expert game playing agents. Researchers at WSU are working on both fundamental AI and ML problems motivated from real-world problems, and also perform applied research in application areas including smart homes, smart health, cyber security, design automation, high-performance computing, power systems, agriculture, robotics, and software engineering.

Key Topics

  • AI-Driven Adaptive Experimental Design for Science and Engineering Domains:
    How can scientists and engineers use AI methods to select expensive experiments under resource budget to optimize complex design spaces? We are pursuing high-impact application areas including electronic design automation, materials science, chemistry, drug and vaccine design.
  • AI Methods to Detect Anomalies:
    How can AI systems detect anomalous situations? How can this capability improve with feedback from human analysts that use these systems in the field? We are pursuing several applications including cyber security, software testing, and smart grid management.
  • Novel Optimization Methods for Robust and Accelerated Machine Learning:
    How can we exploit the structure of the optimization problem to efficiently learn models that are robust to out of distribution data including adversarial scenarios? How can we theoretically analyze the efficiency and safety of these algorithms? We are exploring these questions motivated by multiple application domains including computer vision, natural language processing, and mobile health.
  • Edge AI:
    How can we efficiently deploy AI methods on resource-constrained edge platforms? We are exploring a variety of hardware and software co-design methods toward this goal for diverse edge applications including robotics, mobile health, and self-driving cars.
  • AI Methods for Smart Environments:
    We are developing new AI methods to create smart environments for hospitals, apartments, airports, workplaces, and other common settings that can act as intelligent agents to enhance health care, resource management, security, and convenience. Research in smart environments has the potential to aid those who are physically or cognitively restricted through advanced technologies in AI and ML. WSU is a leader in AI enabled smart homes and mobile health. Specific research in this direction includes data collection with low-power wireless sensor networks; and development of a remote body monitoring system that autonomously detects and reports critical changes in patient health to medical experts in real time.

Faculty