Hojjat Ghaderi

Department of Computer Science, Bahen Centre for IT
University of Toronto
40 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 2E4, Canada

E-mail:  hojjat cs[dot]toronto[dot]edu
WWW: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hojjat/


News: As of Jan 2012, I joined Two Sigma Investments in NYC. If you are one of my friends and looking for an exciting job in NYC please see here.


I am a MITACS Elevate Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto. I am a member of the Database Research Group under Prof. Renee Miller. My current area of research is Data-centric Workflow Management, Business Intelligence (BI), and Business Process Modeling, Monitoring and Management (BPM). In collaboration with Dr. Rick Hull at IBM TJ Watson Research Center, I am developing an artifact-centric abstraction layer to better monitor and query business processes behaviors.
As part of my Mitacs Elevate Industrial Postdoctoral Fellowship, I have also completed several professional development training programs including project management, communications, networking, and business etiquette.

I finished my Ph.D. in September 2010 at the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto under Prof.  Hector Levesque and Prof. Yves Lespérance working on a logical formalization of coordination and joint ability in multi-agent systems. I have been a member of the Knowledge Representation and Cognitive Robotics groups since 2000 and did my Master's degree with the late Prof. Raymond Reiter  in 2002 on efficient reasoning in the stochastic situation calculus. 

Over the past 10 years, I have been working on a wide range of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computer Science topics including knowledge representation and reasoning, multiagent systems, game theory, reasoning about action and change, planning and decision making, constraint satisfaction problems, machine learning, probabilistic reasoning, commonsense reasoning, cognitive robotics, semantic inference on large knowledge bases (SILK), declarative workflow management, and service oriented technologies for business process modeling and monitoring.

In addition to being an avid course instructor teaching a variety of computer science courses during my PhD studies, I collaborated as research consultant with SRI International. I was fortunate to be part of a team of renowned R&D leaders and professors in Knowledge Representation and Reasoning who worked on Halo Advanced Research (HalAR) program defining the technical and strategic direction of multi-staged Halo project.


Academic Service


Recent Publications and Presentations


Teaching

Teaching and learning go hand in hand. It is a dance, which if well executed, can be inspiring and rewarding, all at same time. I believe in creating an atmosphere where students feel comfortable taking part in the discussion and sharing their views. I also believe that technology plays an important role in actively engaging the students in the learning process. In support of this motto, I have been a strong proponent of using innovative technologies (e.g. course management software, CodeLab, and iClikcer) inside and outside of the classroom to make the lectures more accessible, fun and engaging, to perform quick evaluation, and to obtain feedback on retention of the knowledge. I have enjoyed interacting with students of various backgrounds in two universities, teaching a variety of computer science courses (some with 100+ students) at CS, ECE, and MIE departments.

 


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