• Indian-American received Amazon award to study machine learning systems

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    Indian-American received  Amazon award to study machine learning systems

    The tool designed by Prabhakar would be utilized to minimize disruptive changes to the user experience of...


    Digital Desk: Pavithra Prabhakar, an Indian-American computer science professor at Kansas State University, has been awarded an Amazon Research award to design a tool that reduces negative user experiences.


    Prabhakar, the Peggy and Gary Edwards chair in engineering, was one of 74 recipients of the Amazon prizes, which included an unlimited grant, access to more than 300 Amazon public datasets, and Amazon Web Services' artificial intelligence and machine learning services and tools.


    The tool designed by Prabhakar would be utilized to minimize disruptive changes to the user experience of machine learning-based software systems as the product is refined and retrained over time.


    "The project's general goal is to automatically characterize how much two versions of machine learning-based systems are similar or different," Prabhakar said.


    She added that, despite the fact that these systems are continuously retrained to attain improved performance, it does not always translate to a better user experience.


    "This can be mitigated by equipping the design team with an automated tool that could highlight where and by how much the systems changed between different versions, thereby aiding the team in making decisions regarding the acceptability of the changes from a user experience perspective," Prabhakar explained.


    According to a news release from Kansas State University, the automated tool will help design teams in making crucial decisions regarding enhancing user experience of machine learning-based intelligent software systems.


    Prabhakar received a doctorate in computer science and a master's degree in applied mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, followed by a postdoctoral study at the California Institute of Technology's Center for the Mathematics of Information.


    According to a news release from Kansas State University, the automated tool will help design teams in making crucial decisions regarding enhancing user experience of machine learning-based intelligent software systems.


    Prabhakar received a doctorate in computer science and a master's degree in applied mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, followed by a postdoctoral study at the California Institute of Technology's Center for the Mathematics of Information.


    She was appointed a Michelle Munson-Serban Simu Keystone research scholar and received the Carl R Ice College of Engineering's dean's award for research excellence.


    Prabhakar's research has received several major honours, including the NSF CAREER award, the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, and the European Union's Marie Curie Career Integration Grant.