Roman Garnett, assistant professor at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, will build new algorithms for a method known as active machine learning that will accelerate extracting knowledge from big data with a five-year, $497,693 CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The awards support junior faculty who model the role of teacher-scholar through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organization. One-third of current McKelvey Engineering faculty have received the award.
In some situations, analyzing new data requires expensive processes such as running a simulation on a supercomputer or having a human perform analysis in a lab. With active machine learning, scientists can automatically and adaptively design experiments to make the best use of limited resources. Active machine learning can be considered an automated approach to the scientific method.