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I graduated with a Ph.D. degree from the Department of Computer Science at
The University of Texas at Austin.
The title of my dissertation is "A Modular Language for Describing Actions". My
supervisor was Professor Vladimir
Lifschitz. I was part of Texas Action Group at
Austin, a group of researchers working on logic-based artificial
intelligence. |
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| Education |
- Ph.D. in Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin,
December 2009, GPA 3.77.
- M.S. in Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin, August
2002, GPA 3.81.
- M.S. in Physics, Peking University, China, July 1998, GPA 86/100.
- B.S. in Physics, Tsinghua University, China, July 1995, GPA 85/100.
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| Selected Course Work |
Programming Languages, Operating Systems,
Computer Systems Architecture, Compilers,
VLSI, Computer Graphics,
Numerical Analysis, Parallel Programming,
System Modeling, Real-Time Systems,
Hardware Verification, Database Management,
Communication Networks,
Secure Network Protocols, Artificial Intelligence,
Mathematical Logic, Answer Set Programming,
Combinatorics and Graph Theory. |
| Research Interests |
Logic-based artificial intelligence, commonsense
knowledge and reasoning, nonmonotonic reasoning, planning, logic
programming, ontologies, natural language processing, semantic web. |
| Research Experience |
- Designing a modular action description language MAD.
Action description languages are formalisms used for describing actions
and changes in the area of commonsense reasoning, a sub-area of Artificial Intelligence. Every action
domain has to be described from scratch using earlier action description languages. This action description
language MAD is among the first formal action description languages that provide reusability. Similar to
using classes in object-oriented programming, action domains can be described in MAD with "importing"
other modules which are either user-defined or from a general-purpose library for knowledge about actions.
Therefore actions and changes can be described more concisely and more commonsensically
using MAD than using earlier action description languages.
- Defining formal semantics based on first-order logic for action
descriptions with variables.
This semantics avoids a direct reference to grounding ("populating
variables''). It generalizes a family of expressive action description languages beyond propositional logic for the
first time, thus it adds more power to represent knowledge about actions. The semantics of action
description language MAD is defined using this approach.
- Building a prototype of a general-purpose database of knowledge
about actions using the language MAD.
- Detecting irrelevant part of action descriptions and more efficiently generating
more ''economical'' plans for certain planning problems.
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| Publications and Presentations |
- W. Ren, "A Modular Language for
Describing Actions'', PhD Dissertation, 2009.
- V. Lifschitz and W. Ren, "The Semantics of
Variables in Action Descriptions'', in Proceedings of the
Twenty-Second National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 2007. Pages 1025-1030.
- V. Lifschitz and W. Ren, "Variables in Action Descriptions: Merging C+ with
ADL'', in Working Notes of the 8th International Symposium on
Logical Formalizations of Commonsense Reasoning (as part of the AAAI
Spring Symposium Series), 2007. Pages 83-88.
- S. T. Erdogan, P. Ferraris, V. Lifschitz and W. Ren, "Why the Monkey Needs the Box: a Serious Look at a Toy
Domain'', in Working Notes of the 7th IJCAI International
Workshop on Nonmonotonic Reasoning, Action and Change, 2007. Pages 57-63.
- V. Lifschitz and W. Ren, "A
Modular Action Description Language'', in Proceedings of the
Twenty-First National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 2006.
Pages 853-859.
- V. Lifschitz and W. Ren, "Towards a Modular Action Description Language'', in
Working Notes of AAAI Spring Symposium on Formalizing and Compiling
Background Knowledge and Its Applications to Knowledge Representation
and Question Answering, 2006. Pages 33-43.
- V. Lifschitz and W. Ren, "Irrelevant Actions in Plan Generation (extended
abstract)'', in Proceedings of the 9th Ibero-American Workshops
on Artificial Intelligence, 2004. Pages 71-78.
- Presentation on "Irrelevant Actions and Fluents in Plan Generation'',
the first Texas Action Group (TAG) meeting, New Mexico State University,
August, 2003.
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| Teaching Experience |
Teaching assistant in the
Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin.
- Courses and working period: Generic Programming and the STL (1 semester); Automata Theory (5 semesters);
Programming Languages for undergraduates (4 semesters); Programming
Languages for graduates (1 semester).
- Responsibilities: Giving lectures on problem solving sessions;
leading discussions; holding office hours; grading homeworks, projects
and exams; heading a TA group (for undergraduate Programming Language
course).
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| Awards and Honors |
- Travel Scholarship Award, Department of Computer Science, The
University of Texas at Austin, Fall 2004, Spring and Summer 2006, Spring and Summer 2007.
- Scholarship, Department of Computer Science, The University of
Texas at Austin, Fall 2005 and Fall 2006.
- Teaching Assistant Commendation, Department of Computer Science,
The University of Texas at Austin, 2002.
- Academic Excellence Scholarship Award, Department of Physics,
Tsinghua University, 1993.
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| Activities and Hobbies |
- Member, Association for the Advancement of Artificial
Intelligence (AAAI).
- Organizer, weekly graduate students Tea Time, Department of
Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin, 2002.
- Competitive bridge playing. Won 4th place in NAP-C at North
American Bridge Championships, March 2005.
- Puzzle solving, clock and watch repairing, travel, baseball.
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| References |
- Vladimir Lifschitz, Professor
Department of Computer
Science, The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
C0500, Austin, TX 78712-0233
E-mail: vl[at]cs.utexas.edu Phone:
(512) 471-9564; Fax: (512) 471-8885.
- Bruce Porter, Professor and Chair
Department of Computer
Science, The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
C0500, Austin, TX 78712-0233
E-mail: porter[at]cs.utexas.edu Phone:
(512) 471-9565; Fax: (512) 471-8885.
- Elaine Rich, Senior Lecturer
Department of Computer
Science, The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
C0500, Austin, TX 78712-0233
E-mail: ear[at]cs.utexas.edu Phone:
(512) 471-9706; Fax: (512) 471-8885.
- Michael Gelfond, Professor
Department of Computer
Science, Texas Tech University
College of Engineering, Box 43104,
Lubbock, TX 79409
E-mail: mgelfond[at]cs.ttu.edu Phone:
(806) 742-3527; Fax: (806) 742-3519.
- Joohyung Lee, Assistant Professor
Department of
Computer Science and Engineering,
Ira A. Fulton School of
Engineering, Arizona State University
699 South Mill Avenue #574,
Tempe, AZ 85281-8809
E-mail: joolee[at]asu.edu Phone:
(480) 727-7765; Fax: (480) 965-2751.
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| Contact |
Phone: 512-905-7692 (cell)
408-940-6698 (home)
E-mail: wanwanren[at]gmail.com
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This page was last modified on December 16, 2009. |
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