Wheeler Ruml

Picture of Wheeler Ruml as of 2009 Greetings!

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of New Hampshire. Before joining UNH in 2007, I managed the Embedded Reasoning Area and was a member of the research staff at the Palo Alto Research Center (formerly Xerox PARC). I received my PhD from Harvard University in 2002. A full CV is available here, although it might not be current.

Research Interests

My main research is in artificial intelligence, although I also have interests in robotics, cognitive science, operations research, and information visualization. Very broadly, my goal is to understand how to build autonomous systems - for example, how to decide what a robot should do next. I'm also interested in learning from natural examples, such as human cognition. My current focus is on methods for combinatorial optimization, heuristic search, and planning. In particular, I am interested in solving problems quickly (rational time-bounded decision-making) and in how on-line learning can inform optimization algorithms. I also enjoy experimental algorithmics.

Almost all of my papers are available on-line. Please help yourself!

I'm always happy to collaborate with people inside and outside of UNH on topics involving my research interests. Just send me email to set up a time to talk. If you are at UNH, you might want to check out the UNH AI Group wiki and join the group.

If you are considering applying to UNH for graduate school or an internship, please consult my information for prospective students.

Advertising

I'm on the editorial board of the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research. I encourage you to submit your research to open access journals that serve the public interest by disseminating peer-reviewed science freely to all.

Sven Koenig, Rong Zhou, and I organized the International Symposium on Combinatorial Search (SoCS-09), which continues the tradition started by STAIR-08 but with a broader scope. Check out the website and submit to the next iteration!

David Furcy, Sven Koenig, Rong Zhou, and I organized the International Symposium on Search Techniques in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (STAIR-08).

Ian Miguel and I organized the Seventh International Symposium on Abstraction, Reformulation, and Approximation (SARA-07).

Frank Hutter and I organized the AAAI-06 Workshop on Learning for Search.

Current Teaching

Fall 2010: CS 759/859 Algorithms.

Spring 2010: CS 730/730W/830 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (website).

Fall 2009: CS 980 Combinatorial Search and Heuristic Optimization (website).

If you're looking for an informal way to learn about AI, feel free to drop in at the UNH AI Group meetings.

Contact Information

UNH Computer Science
Kingsbury Hall
33 Academic Way
Durham, NH 03824 USA
Wheeler Ruml's UNH email address
Skype is also an option, but confirm with me first to ensure I'm signed in.
If you have my old 415 mobile number, add 188-115-2391 to get my new 603 one.

UNH CS on Google Maps.

If you're on campus, my office is Kingsbury W233. My official office hours for the fall semester have not yet been set, but feel free to email me to set up an appointment.

If you're not on campus but wish you were, this webcam might give a sense of current conditions. (UNH facilities usually keeps it pointed to their most recent construction project.) Here's another UNH webcam and a nearby UNH weather observing station.

Personal

Here is a list of things I would recommend.

In the distant past, I toyed with the idea of having a separate personal web page.

My last name is pronounced `RUM-uhl' (rhymes with `pummel').