My research aims to help people make decisions in complex situations. In applying operations research/management science, artificial intelligence, and human-computer interaction to practical problems, my aim is to assist (not replace) the human decision maker in planning and combinatorial optimization problems. Motivated by important challenges we find in the real world, I want to understand and model the problems, develop theories and methodologies, and apply them to design and deploy usable tools to help solve the problems.

Problem modelling
Decision analysis
Optimization methods
Knowledge representation
Data mining and machine learning

Monday : 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Wednesday : 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Friday : 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM

2004
Imperial College London
London,  United Kingdom.
Ph.D. in Optimization

2009  -    Present
American University of Beirut
Beirut, Lebanon
Assistant Professor
Business Information and Decision Systems track

Find my research interests and publications at www.aub.edu.lb/~nysmith

2006  -    2009
Stanford University
Stanford, CA, United States
Visiting Lecturer

2004  -    2004
Imperial College London
London, United Kingdom
Postdoctoral Research Associate

2004  -    Present
SRI International
Menlo Park, CA, United States
Research Scientist

2009 - 2009.
SRI International. Menlo Park, CA, United States.
Provided study of technical feasibility of a technology concept, and recommendations for technology providers, for a client in the financial sector.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

1. Bui, H and Yorke-Smith, N  (2010)  'Efficient Variable Elimination for Semi-Structured Simple Temporal Networks with Continuous Domains',  Knowledge Engineering Review

2. Weber, J and Yorke-Smith, N  (2009)  'Designing for Usability of an Adaptive Time Management Assistant',  AI Magazine , 30:4

3. Yorke-Smith, N and Gervet, C  (2009)  'Certainty Closure: Reliable Constraint Reasoning with Uncertain Data',  ACM Transactions on Computational Logic , 10:1, 3:1-3:41

4. Peintner, B, Viappiani, P and Yorke-Smith, N  (2008)  'Preferences in Interactive Systems: Technical Challenges and Case Studies',  AI Magazine , 29:4, 13-24

5. Rossi, F, Venable, B and Yorke-Smith, N  (2006)  'Uncertainty in Soft Temporal Constraint Problems: A General Framework and Controllability Algorithms for the Fuzzy Case',  Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research , 27:0, 617-674

6. Riera, D and Yorke-Smith, N  (2002)  'An Improved Hybrid Model for the Generic Hoist Scheduling Problem',  Annals of Operations Research , 115:0, 173-191

Other Intellectual Contributions