Dr. Biplav Srivastava

I am a Professor of Computer Science at the AI Institute at University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA where I direct the AI for Society (AI4S) group.

Research Interests 

I am currently working on promoting goal-oriented, ethical, human-machine collaboration using learning and reasoning. My research spans AI theory, usability and applications, with the central aim of building next generation collaborative assistants. This is elaborated in a research statement (Sep 2019). Just in the past decade, I have been involved with building innovative systems for decision support in domains as diverse as governance (IJCAI 2016, AI Magazine 2023), astronomy (AAAI 2018 best demo award), water (AAAI 2018), smart room (ICAPS 2018 demo runner up, IJCAI 2018), career planning (commercial product), market intelligence (AAAI 2020 deployed AI award), dialogs for information retrieval (ICAPS 2021), fairness assessment (AAAI 2021),  computer games (AAAI 2022), generalized planning (IJCAI 2023), information spread in opinion networks (AAAI 2024 best demo award), transportation, set recommendation (teaming (AAAI 2024 deployed AI award), meals) and health. We have created intellectual property including 200+ technical papers (with 6500+ citations) and patents (75+ US issued). I have interacted with commercial customers, universities and governments, represented institution at standard bodies, and assisted business leaders at highest levels with technical issues. 

Background 

Previously, I was at IBM for two decades in the roles of a Research Scientist (at IBM Research; 18 years), Distinguished Data Scientist (at Chief Analytics Office; 2 years) and Master Inventor. In my 25+ years work experience,  I have done research in Artificial Intelligence, Services Computing and Sustainability, mostly at IBM Research, as well as lead in commercial, deadline-oriented, software development organizations in both India and US. I have been recognized as an ACM Distinguished Scientist (Dec 2014),  AAAI Senior Member (Feb 2020), IEEE Senior Member (December 2018), ACM Distinguished Speaker*(September 2013-2019),  an IBM Master Inventor (Nov2019, Nov 2014 & Nov 2011, each for 3-year terms), and ACM Senior Member (August 2012). In Feb 2020, I was selected as one of the twelve 2020-2021 Leshner Leadership Institute Public Engagement Fellows by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) with a focus on Artificial Intelligence (announcement; 2020-2021 AAAS Leshner Fellows for short). Details about the Leshner program is here.

Call for Collaboration

I am looking for enthusiastic and curious students who are not only sharp but also have social intelligence to confidently work with others. They may be at PhD and Post-doc levels,  or exceptional undergrads, to work on exciting problems in AI. A few topics are in AI theory (neuro-symbolic methods, planning, large language models (LLMs)), AI usability (trusted AI, collaborative assistants), and applications to smart city (elections, water, traffic, health) and finance.  Interested students are requested to fill the interest form and drop me an email. Finally, I am always keen to collaborate with innovative companies and public sector to accelerate technology adoption. 

By Technology

• AI (Analytics) – Learning, Reasoning, Representation, Ethics, Constraints, Scheduling

  • Machine Learning – deep learning, adversarial attacks, bias, classification, clustering, recommendation; ML Tools: Tensorflow/ Tensorboard, Keras, scikit-learn, Weka

  • Reasoning – planning, scheduling, parameter tuning, preferences, satisfiability

  • Representation – ontology modeling, evolution, extraction from text, semantic web services

• Data - Semantic Web, Open and Big Data, Provenance, Data Mining, Information Extraction, Sensors;

• Business Integration – Web Computing Models, Asset Reuse, Service Delivery Optimization, Business Processes;

By Industry 

Smart City (including Elections, Water, Transportation), Health, Finance, Airlines, Telecommunication, Retail

Information Available

Go to research (papers, patents, tools), teaching, communication (talks, technical blogs, client interactions, professional activities, opinions and research ideas for community) and resume. 

Personal Note

I am involved in a privately funded non-governmental organization doing public service in India detailed here.