WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Dec. 5, 2008 - Brent Heeringa, assistant professor of computer science at Williams College, has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant in the amount $200,063 for his work on "Models and Methods for Information Organization."
Heeringa's research focuses on three specific problems related to human-friendly organization of Internet information: optimal and approximation algorithms for information organization, dynamic models of information organization, and new models for categorical data. These are briefly explained below.
Heeringa will develop new optimal and approximation algorithms to organize hierarchical data like directory structures and websites. Hierarchical data is organized into a tree-like structure, where each data item has a single "parent" and zero or more distinct "children." Additionally, the optimal and approximation algorithms work on highly-constrained hierarchies. Heeringa's project includes a new optimization criterion called deliberation cost that characterizes a search path in terms of the number of choices along a path, as opposed to just the length of a search path.
Dynamic models of information organization define new models in dynamic, real-time settings, crucial for dealing with trends in data. Maintaining certain properties of the data, such as optimal search cost and constraint satisfaction, are also being investigated.
New models for categorical data are crucial to organizing and presenting information for human search, given the prominence of tagged data available on the Internet.
"A central goal when organizing and presenting information is creating a system where the desired information is quick and easy to find," said Heeringa. "Extending this criterion to human traversable organizations means arranging data so that the organizational structure is intuitive and the search is efficient." Heeringa will offer a new tutorial at Williams College on advanced algorithms, in addition to incorporating this research into his other computer science courses.
Heeringa, who has taught at the college since 2006, is teaching Theory of Computation this fall. He has also taught courses on Algorithm Design and Analysis and Digital Communication and Computation.
His work has been published in the International Journal on Intelligent Data Analysis, and other peer-review conferences, the most recent being Proceedings of the 11th International Workshop on Approximation Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization Problems. Heeringa received his B.A. from University of Minnesota-Morris in 1999 and his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 2006. His dissertation, titled "Improving Access to Organized Information," introduced new models for making information in hierarchical organizations more accessible to users. Heeringa received the Chancellor's Award, Allen W. Edson Award, and Scholar of the College distinction from the University of Minnesota-Morris.
Williams College is consistently ranked one of the nation's top liberal arts colleges. The college's 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in this research. Students' educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student's financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted. Founded in 1793, it is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college is located in Williamstown, Mass. To visit the college on the Internet: http://www.williams.edu>www.williams.edu