Specializations

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Machine Learning
  • Information Science

Courses

  • IMT 569 - Capstone I: Project Preparation
  • IMT 576 - Foundations Of Strategic And Managerial Business Intelligence

Biography

Dr. Steven Gustafson is an experienced computer scientist specializing in applied artificial intelligence solutions. With a career dedicated to leveraging data and information systems for better decision-making, Steven has made significant contributions across diverse areas and organizations.

As an R&D scientist and leader for 10 years with General Electric in New York, Steven developed innovative solutions utilizing big data systems, social network analysis, natural language processing, and knowledge graphs. His work spanned multiple industries, including open source intelligence, finance, aviation, power generation, marketing, and business intelligence.

Steven’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to Seattle, where he has spent 8 years advising, leading and co-founding startups. As a Chief Scientist and Chief Technology Officer at 3 different startups, he developed AI services for a knowledge graph platform, an AI-driven thematic investing solution, and a research tool to connect information with evidence from trusted knowledge sources. Today, Steven continues to advise and consult on applying AI technology in both startups and industry.

Steven is passionate about education and mentoring. He has held positions as a guest faculty or advisor for computer and information science courses and capstone projects at several institutions, including the University of Washington, UC Berkeley, and Union College in Schenectady NY. Steven has also delivered several invited talks, including at the University of Newcastle, the Birmingham City University, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and at several corporations.

Steven holds BS and MS degrees in Computer Science from Kansas State University and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Nottingham. His PhD research earned him recognition as one of the “AI’s 10 to Watch” by IEEE Intelligence Systems in 2006, the first year the award was given. Steven has over 50 peer reviewed publications and 12 patents, and currently serves on several conference and journal editorial boards.

Education

  • Ph D, Computer Science, University of Nottingham
  • MS, Computer Science, Kansas State University
  • BS, Computer Science, Kansas State University

Awards

  • AI 10 to Watch - IEEE Intelligent Systems Magazine, 2006
  • Best Paper - European Conference on Genetic Programming, 2006
  • Best Paper - European Conference on Genetic Programming, 2005
  • Best Poster - European Conference on Genetic Programming, 2002

Publications and Contributions

  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    Architecting AI will improve AI Ethics (2022)
    Journal of AI, Robotics & Workplace Automation, 1(4) Author: Steven Gustafson
  • Conference Paper
    SDRL: Interpretable and Data-efficient Deep Reinforcement Learning Leveraging Symbolic Planning (2019)
    33rd AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Authors: D Lyu, F Yang, B Liu, Steven Gustafson
  • Conference Paper
    A Practical Incremental Learning Framework For Sparse Entity Extraction (2018)
    COLING 2018 Authors: H S Al-Olimat, Steven Gustafson, J Mackay, K Thirunarayan, A Sheth
  • Conference Paper
    PEORL: Integrating Symbolic Planning and Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Robust Decision-Making (2018)
    IJCAI Authors: F. Yang , D Lyu, B Liu, Steven Gustafson
  • Conference Paper
    Program Search for Machine Learning Pipelines Leveraging Symbolic Planning and Reinforcement Learning (2018)
    Genetic Programming Theory and Practice XVI Authors: F Yang, Steven Gustafson, A Elkholy, D Lyu, B Liu
  • Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
    Program Search for Machine Learning Pipelines Leveraging Symbolic Planning and Reinforcement Learning (2018)
    Genetic Programming Theory and Practice XVI Authors: Fangkai Yang, Steven Gustafson, Alexander Elkholy, Daoming Lyu, Bo Liu
  • Conference Paper
    A machine learning approach to quantifying noise in medical images (2016)
    Proc. SPIE 9791, Medical Imaging 2016: Digital Pathology Authors: A Chowdhury, C J Sevinsky, B Yener, K S Aggour, Steven Gustafson
  • Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
    Assisting Asset Model Development with Evolutionary Augmentation (2016)
    Genetic Programming Theory and Practice XIV Authors: Steven Gustafson, Arun Subramaniyan, Aisha Yousuf
  • Conference Paper
    Feedback-Driven Radiology Exam Report Retrieval with Semantics (2015)
    Proceedings of IEEE International Conference in Healthcare Informatics (ICHI) Authors: S Lalithsena, K Tari, A von Reden, B Wilson, B J Kolowitz, J Kalafut, Steven Gustafson, A Sheth
  • Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
    Genetic Programming for Data Science: Lessons Learned (2015)
    Genetic Programming Theory and Practice Authors: Steven Gustafson, R. Narasiman, R. Palla, A. Yousuf
  • Conference Paper
    Semantics for Big Data Access & Integration: Improving Industrial Equipment Design through Increased Data Usability (2015)
    Proceedings of IEEE Big Data Conference, Industry and Government Program Authors: J Williams, P Cuddihy, J McHugh, K Aggour, A Menon, Steven Gustafson, T Healy
  • Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
    Semantics: Revolutionary Breakthrough or Just Another Way of Doing the Same Things? (2015)
    Semantic Web - Implications for Technologies and Business Practices Authors: A. Crapo, Steven Gustafson
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    Web of Things (2014)
    Computing Now, Computing Now, 7(3) Authors: Steven Gustafson, A. Sheth
  • Conference Paper
    A Natural Language Processing and Semantic-Based System for Contract Analysis (2013)
    Proceedings of IEEE 25th International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence Authors: D Yang, L Tari, Steven Gustafson
  • Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
    Extracting and Measuring Relationship Strength in Social Networks (2012)
    Social Networking and Community Behavior Modeling: Qualitative and Quantitative Measures Authors: Steven Gustafson, A. Moitra
  • Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
    Ego-centric Network Sampling in Viral Marketing Applications (2010)
    Mining and Analyzing Social Networks, Studies in Computational Intelligence, 288(Unknown Issue) Authors: H. Ma, Steven Gustafson, A. Moitra, D. Bracewell
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines: Ten Years of Reviews (2010)
    Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines, 11(3-4), pp. 321-338 Authors: W. Langdon, Steven Gustafson
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    Open issues in genetic programming (2010)
    Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines, 11(3-4), pp. 339-363 Authors: M. O’Neil, L. Vanneschi, Steven Gustafson, W. Banzhaf
  • Conference Paper
    WISDOM from Light-Weight Information Retrieval (2010)
    IEEE Second International Conference on Social Computing, pp. 347-354 Authors: D Bracewell, Steven Gustafson, A Moitra , G Steuben
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    A Note on Creating Networks from Social Network Data (2009)
    CONNECTIONS, 29(2), pp. 77-84 Authors: Steven Gustafson, H. Ma , A. Moitra
  • Conference Paper
    Ego-centric Network Sampling in Viral Marketing Applications (2009)
    Proceedings of International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, pp. 777-782 Authors: H Ma, Steven Gustafson, A Moitra, D Bracewell
  • Book Editor, Scholarly
    Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Genetic Programming (2009)
    Springer Authors: Leonardo Vanneschi, Steven Gustafson, Alberto Moraglio , Ivanoe Falco , Marc Ebner
  • Conference Paper
    Using Crossover Based Similarity Measure to Improve Genetic Programming Generalization Ability (2009)
    Proceedings of the 11th Annual Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, pp. 1139-1146 Authors: L Vanneschi, Steven Gustafson
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    Crossover-based Tree Distance in Genetic Programming (2008)
    IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 12(4), pp. 506-524 Authors: Steven Gustafson, L. Vanneschi
  • Book Editor, Scholarly
    Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Genetic Programming (2008)
    Springer Authors: M. O'Neill, L. Vanneschi, Steven Gustafson, A.I. Esparcia Alcazar
  • Book Editor, Scholarly
    Systems Self-Assembly: multidisciplinary snapshots (2008)
    Studies in Multidisciplinarity Authors: N. Krasnogor, Steven Gustafson, D. Pelta, J.L. Verdegay
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    Issues in the scaling of multi-robot systems for general problem solving (2006)
    Autonomous Robots, 20(2), pp. 125-136 Authors: Steven Gustafson, D A Gustafson
  • Book Editor, Scholarly
    Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Genetic Programming (2006)
    Springer Authors: M. Tomassini, P. Collet, M. Ebner, Steven Gustafson, A. Ekart
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    The Speciating Island Model: An Alternative Parallel Evolutionary Algorithm (2006)
    Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing Authors: Steven Gustafson, E K Burke
  • Conference Paper
    Using Subtree Crossover Distance to Investigate Genetic Programming Dynamics (2006)
    Proceedings of the 9th European Conference on Genetic Programming Authors: L Vanneschi, Steven Gustafson, G Mauri
  • Conference Paper
    A Family of Conceptual Problems in the Automated Design of Systems Self-Assembly (2005)
    Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Foundations of Nanoscience Conference Authors: N Krasnogor , Steven Gustafson
  • Conference Paper
    A Niche for Parallel Islands Models: Outliers and Local Search (2005)
    Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Parallel BioInspired Algorithms Authors: Steven Gustafson, E. K. Burke
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines: Five years of Reviews (2005)
    Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines, 6(2), pp. 221-228 Authors: W. B Langdon, Steven Gustafson
  • Conference Paper
    On Improving Genetic Programming for Symbolic Regression (2005)
    Proceedings of the Congress on Evolutionary Computation Authors: Steven Gustafson, E K Burke, N Krasnogor
  • Conference Paper
    Operator-Based Distance for Genetic Programming: Subtree Crossover Distance (2005)
    Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on Genetic Programming Authors: Steven Gustafson, L. Vanneschi
  • Conference Paper
    Scaling issues with robot search and tagging (2005)
    Robosphere 2004: Self-Sustaining Robotic Systems, NASA Ames Research Center Authors: Steven Gustafson, D Gustafson
  • Conference Paper
    The Tree-String Problem: An Artificial Domain for Structure and Content Search (2005)
    Proceedings of the 8th European Conference on Genetic Programming Authors: Steven Gustafson, E K Burke, N Krasnogor
  • Conference Paper
    A Data Structure for Improved GP Analysis via Efficient Computation and Visualisation of Population Measures (2004)
    Proceedings of the European Conference on Genetic Programming Authors: A Ekart, Steven Gustafson
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    A Study on the use of ``Self-Generation'' in Memetic Algorithms (2004)
    Journal of Natural Computing, 3(1), pp. 53-76 Authors: N. Krasnogor, Steven Gustafson
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    Diversity in Genetic Programming: An Analysis of Measures and Correlation with Fitness (2004)
    IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation Authors: E. Burke, Steven Gustafson, G. Kendall
  • Journal Article, Professional Journal
    Problem Difficulty and Code Growth in Genetic Programming (2004)
    Journal of Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines Authors: Steven Gustafson, A. Ekart , E. Burke , G. Kendall
  • Conference Paper
    Sampling of Unique Structures and Behaviours in Genetic Programming (2004)
    Authors: Steven Gustafson, E Burke, G Kendall
  • Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
    Self-Assembling of Local Searchers in Memetic Algorithms (2004)
    Recent Advances in Memetic Algorithms and Related Search Technologies, Springer Series of Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, 166(Unknown Issue), pp. 229-257 Authors: N. Krasnogor, Steven Gustafson
  • Conference Paper
    Is Increasing Diversity in Genetic Programming Beneficial? An Analysis of the Effects on Fitness (2003)
    Proceedings of the Congress on Evolutionary Computation Authors: E Burke, Steven Gustafson, G Kendall, N Krasnogor
  • Conference Paper
    Ramped Half -n-Half Bias in GP (2003)
    Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Authors: E Burke, Steven Gustafson, G Kendall
  • Conference Paper
    The Local Searcher as a Supplier of Building Blocks in Self Generating Memetic Algorithms (2003)
    Proceedings of the Bird of a Feather Workshops, Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Authors: N Krasnogor, Steven Gustafson
  • Conference Paper
    A Puzzle to Challenge Genetic Programming (2002)
    Proceedings of the European Conference on Genetic Programming Authors: E Burke, Steven Gustafson, G Kendall
  • Conference Paper
    A Survey and Analysis of Diversity Measures in Genetic Programming (2002)
    Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Authors: E. Burke, Steven Gustafson, G. Kendall
  • Conference Paper
    Advanced Population Diversity Measures in Genetic Programming (2002)
    Proceedings of Parallel Problem Solving from Nature Conference Authors: E. Burke, Steven Gustafson, G. Kendall , N. Krasnogor
  • Conference Paper
    Genetic Programming And Multi-agent Layered Learning By Reinforcements (2002)
    Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Authors: W Hsu, Steven Gustafson
  • Conference Paper
    Is Genetic Programming a Suitable Research Direction for Timetabling? (2002)
    Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling Authors: E Burke, Steven Gustafson, G Kendall
  • Conference Paper
    Towards Truly ``memetic'' Memetic Algorithms (2002)
    Authors: N Krasnogor, Steven Gustafson
  • Conference Paper
    Genetic Programming for Layered Learning of Multi-agent Tasks (2001)
    Late-Breaking Papers of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Authors: W Hsu, Steven Gustafson
  • Conference Paper
    Layered learning in genetic programming for a co-operative robot soccer problem (2001)
    Proceedings of European Conference on Genetic Programming Authors: Steven Gustafson, W Hsu
  • Conference Paper
    Genetic Algorithms for Reformulation of Large Scale KDD Problems with Many Irrelevant Attributes (2000)
    Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Authors: W Hsu, Y Cheng, H Guo, Steven Gustafson
  • Conference Paper
    Genetic programming for strategy learning in soccer playing agents: A KDD-based architecture (2000)
    GECCO Graduate Student Workshop Authors: Steven Gustafson, W H Hsu

Presentations

  • Innovative Applications of AI (2024)
    Analytics Vidhya‘s Data Science - Virtual
  • Architecting for Success with AI (2023)
    RAISE, Birmingham City University - Birmingham, United Kingdom
  • Architecting AI for Success in Industry (2022)
    School of Computer Science at Birmingham City University - Birmingham, United Kingdom
  • Industrial Data Science (2022)
    iSchool, University of Washington - Seattle, WA
  • New Data Science Skills (2022)
    Annual Recruiting Fair, at the University of North Carolina National Consortium Data Science - Chapel Hill, NC
  • Connecting the Dots with Knowledge and Data to Enable Analogical Reasoning (2021)
    Knowledge Graph Conference, Columbia University - New York, NY
  • Future of Data Science (2021)
    Annual NSF South Big Data Hub All-Hands Meeting - Virtual
  • AutoML for Decision Optimization (2019)
    Global AI Conference - Seattle, WA
  • Computational Knowledge Layer (2019)
    Knowledge Graph Conference, Columbia University - New York, NY
  • Startup Data Science (2019)
    Insight Data Science Institute - Seattle, WA
  • AI in the Real World: A Conversation with Steven Gustafson (2016)
    Data & Society Research Institute - New York, NY
  • The Future of AI (2016)
    SPI's Global Annual Customer Advisory Meeting, World Trade Center - New York, New York
  • Industrial Big Data (2015)
    NSF Northeast Big Data Region Innovation Hubs Workshop - Massachusetts
  • Leveraging AI on Data to Get Smarter Faster (2015)
    Smart Data Conference - San Jose, CA
  • Big Industrial Internet Data: Connecting and Optimizing at New Scales (2014)
    Strata Conference - Santa Clara, CA
  • Federation of Earth Science Information Partners Workshop on Research Priorities for the Science Data Enterprise (2014)
    Washington, DC
  • Industrial Knowledge Organization: Capturing and Leveraging Knowledge from Text (2013)
    Text Analytics World - San Francisco, CA
  • Internet of Things (2013)
    IEEE/WIC/ACM International Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technologies Conference - Atlanta, GA