Shlomo Zilberstein (Hebrew: שלמה זילברשטיין; born 1960) is an Israeli-American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus ( ...

. He is a Professor of Computer Science and Associate Dean for Research and Engagement in the College of Information and Computer Sciences at the

University of Massachusetts, Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

. He graduated with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four ye ...

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

from

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology ( he, הטכניון – מכון טכנולוגי לישראל) is a public research university located in Haifa, Israel. Established in 1912 under the dominion of the Ottoman Empire, the Technio ...

in 1982, and received a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

from

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

in 1993, advised by Stuart J. Russell. He is known for his contributions to

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

anytime algorithm In computer science, an anytime algorithm is an algorithm that can return a valid solution to a problem even if it is interrupted before it ends. The algorithm is expected to find better and better solutions the longer it keeps running. Most algor ...

multi-agent systems A multi-agent system (MAS or "self-organized system") is a computerized system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents.Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Jang, I.; Arvin, F.; Lanzon, A.,A Decentralized Cluster Formation Containment Framework fo ...

, and

automated planning and scheduling Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

algorithms, notably within the context of Markov decision processes (MDPs), Partially Observable MDPs (POMDPs), and Decentralized POMDPs (Dec-POMDPs).

Research

His research is in the area of

, specifically

automated planning Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

, in addition to

decision theory Decision theory (or the theory of choice; not to be confused with choice theory) is a branch of applied probability theory concerned with the theory of making decisions based on assigning probabilities to various factors and assigning numerical ...

, reasoning under uncertainty, heuristic search, automated coordination and communication, and

reinforcement learning Reinforcement learning (RL) is an area of machine learning concerned with how intelligent agents ought to take actions in an environment in order to maximize the notion of cumulative reward. Reinforcement learning is one of three basic machine ...

. He directs the Resource-Bounded Reasoning Laboratory at the

. In 2002, Daniel S. Bernstein, Robert Givan,

Neil Immerman Neil Immerman (born 24 November 1953, Manhasset, New York) is an American theoretical computer scientist, a professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

, and Shlomo Zilberstein introduced the Decentralized

POMDP A partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) is a generalization of a Markov decision process (MDP). A POMDP models an agent decision process in which it is assumed that the system dynamics are determined by an MDP, but the agent cannot ...

which extends the widely used single-agent

model to a

multi-agent A multi-agent system (MAS or "self-organized system") is a computerized system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents.Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Jang, I.; Arvin, F.; Lanzon, A.,A Decentralized Cluster Formation Containment Framework fo ...

scenario ( Dec-POMDP). He has also developed AI algorithms for semi-autonomous systems with potential applications to semi-autonomous cars.

Service and awards

He served as editor-in-chief of the

Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research The ''Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research'' (''JAIR'') is an open access peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in all areas of artificial intelligence. History It was established in 1993 as one of the first scientific journa ...

and associate editor of the Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. Additionally, he served as chair of the conference committee for both the Twenty-Ninth and Thirtieth

AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence The AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is one of the leading international academic conference in artificial intelligence held annually. Along with ICML, NeurIPS and ICLR, it is one of the primary conferences of high impact in mac ...

. The

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

awarded Dr. Zilberstein with the RIA, CAREER, and ITR awards. He was elected as a

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is an international scientific society devoted to promote research in, and responsible use of, artificial intelligence. AAAI also aims to increase public understanding of artif ...

in 2011 and of the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...

ACM Names 71 Fellows for Computing Advances that are Driving Innovation
/ref> in 2021.

Selected publications

* * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

Dr. Zilberstein's Academic Website

Resource-Bounded Reasoning Laboratory website

Decentralized Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (Dec-POMDP) overview, description, and publications within the field
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zilberstein, Shlomo 1960 births Living people Artificial intelligence researchers Technion – Israel Institute of Technology alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence