Prof. David Jensen (University of Massachusetts Amherst) - "Empirical Research in Machine Learning: Perspectives and Strategies"

David Jensen is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He directs the Knowledge Discovery Laboratory. From 1991 to 1995, he served as an analyst with the Office of Technology Assessment, an agency of the United States Congress. His current research focuses on empirical methods for studying AI systems, particularly those that exploit causal and mechanistic inference methods. He regularly serves on program committees for several conferences, including the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems, the International Conference on Machine Learning, and the Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence. He served on Defense Science Study Group (2006-2007), DARPA's Information Science and Technology Group (2007-2012), and the Computing Community Consortium (2022-present). He received outstanding teaching awards from the UMass College of Natural Sciences in 2011 and from the College of Information and Computer Sciences in 2022. In 2017, one of his papers received the IEEE INFOCOM Test of Time Paper Award.