Wheeler Ruml

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, operations research, information visualization, and cognitive science. Very broadly, my goal is to understand how to build autonomous systems - for example, how a robot should decide what to do next. I'm also interested in learning from natural examples, such as human cognition. My current focus is on methods for heuristic search, planning, and combinatorial optimization. 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, along with overview talks. 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

Ethan Burns and Jordan Thayer have written a nice scriptable plotting program. I like it better than gnuplot!

Jordan has some nice visualizations of heuristic search, suitable for classroom use.

The International Symposium on Combinatorial Search (SoCS) provides a forum for research on combinatorial search and heuristic optimization. While AI is heavily represented, work from robotics, CP, OR, and algorithms is very welcome.

The Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research serves the public interest by disseminating rigorously peer-reviewed science freely to all. Here's a list of open access journals.

Current Teaching

Spring 2012:	CS 730/730W/830 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
	CS 931 (formerly 980) Combinatorial Search and Heuristic Optimization

Fall 2011:	CS 758/858 Algorithms

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

Email: myfourletterlastname at cs.unh.edu

Phone: +1-603-862-2683
Fax: +1-603-862-3493 (shared, so please use a cover page and let me know that you sent something)
Mobile: If you have my old 415 mobile number, add 188-115-2391 to get my new 603 one.

Skype is also an option, but please confirm with me first to ensure that I'm signed in.

Postal mail, express mail, couriers:
UNH Computer Science
Kingsbury Hall
33 Academic Way
Durham, NH 03824-2619 USA

UNH CS on Google Maps.

If you're on campus, my office is Kingsbury W233. My official office hours for Spring 2012 are Thursdays 10:30-11:30am, but feel free to email me to arrange a time!

If you're not on campus but wish you were, the UNH Alumni Association operates a controllable webcam. UNH facilities runs another webcam (usually pointed at their most recent construction project). Here's a third 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.

If you're looking for a harpsichord or early piano, you might contact my father-in-law, David Sutherland.

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