burr @ la specula in florence italy

burr settles.

Ph.D. Candidate, Computer Sciences
Armadillo Enthusiast
6775 Medical Sciences Center
1300 University Avenue
Madison, Wisconsin 53706

bsettles@cs.wisc.edu
608-265-6868 | vox
608-265-7916 | fax

research interests.

Machine learning, natural language processing, and bioinformatics. In particular, efficient active learning and multiple-instance learning approaches to facilitate real-world applications in information extraction, information retrieval, and data mining from social and biological networks.

I expect to defend my Ph.D. in December 2008. My advisor is Mark Craven

software & data.

AMIL: Active Multiple-Instance Library. An open-source framework for multiple-instance (MI) learning, and MI active learning in particular.

ABNER: A Biomedical Named Entity Recognizer. An open-source information extraction tool which identifies proteins and other entities of biomedical significance from free text using a linear-chain conditional random field (CRF). ABNER works stand-alone or as a Java API.

publications.

Click here for related work and citations...

teaching.

In Summer 2008, I am teaching the Computational Biology & Biostatistics course for UW-Madison's ISB Summer Research Program.

In Summer 2003, I taught CS 540: Artificial Intelligence.

From 2000-2002, I served as teaching assistant for several courses including Compilers, Computer Architecture, Java Programming, and Computer Graphics & Web Design.

miscellany.

I have a separate, personal website at burrsettles.com.

I am a co-founder of FAWM.ORG, an online community for musicians of all stripes, and annual songwriting challenge (to write 14 new songs each February). I am an avid musician myself, proficient at several instruments and known to tour and perform internationally when time allows.

Misellaneous "webtoys" that use simple statistical NLP in fun ways:

I am also a big fan of wordplay, especially anagrams.
(Alas, adorable clownery is iffy. A gag's appal, mon ami!)