Oct. 10, 1996-Vol28n07: Shapiro named Computer Science chair

Shapiro named Computer Science chair

By ELLEN GOLDBAUM
News Services Editor

Stuart C. Shapiro, professor of computer science at UB, has been named chair of the Department of Computer Science. A member of the UB faculty since 1977, Shapiro served as chair of the department from 1984-90 and as acting chair from 1978-79.

A fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, Shapiro also is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He has served as chair of the Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence of the Association for Computing Machinery.

His research interests include cognitive science, computational linguistics, knowledge representation, reasoning, semantic networks, belief systems, natural language understanding and generation, expert systems and logic programming.

Shapiro has developed a computerized knowledge representation and reasoning system, called SNePS, the Semantic Network Processing System. The computerized agent his group is designing, CASSIE (Cognitive Agent of the SNePS System-an Intelligent Entity), communicates in natural language and is able to perform reasoning tasks. Purpose of the research is to build a model of how competence in natural language that is on a par with human ability can be achieved.

Shapiro, who is affiliated with the UB Center for Cognitive Science, is working with Amherst Systems and NASA to build a robot controlled by the CASSIE software.

The author of more than 100 technical articles, papers and presentations, Shapiro has published four books, including "The Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence" (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1987), which was named Best New Book in Technology and Engineering in 1987 by the Association of American Publishers Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division. It also was named Outstanding Reference Source of 1989 by the American Library Association-Reference Book Bulletin.

Shapiro has served as a consultant for the Rand Corporation and for Analysis and Simulation, Inc., and has been an external fellow in the University of Rochester's Cognitive Science Program.