AI Expert Tapped by National Science Foundation

Hector Muñoz-Avila, associate professor of computer science and engineering, has begun a two-year rotation as program director in the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering. He will head the Robust Intelligence Cluster, making recommendations on funding proposals and helping shape the nation’s direction in science, engineering and education.

Muñoz-Avila is a pioneer in the new field of goal-driven autonomy. He applies case-based reasoning and other artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to intelligent systems, enabling them to sift through thousands of stimuli and data points, and to pinpoint unusual patterns or anomalies. These systems learn from their experiences and mistakes and take corrective action without human intervention.

At Lehigh, Muñoz-Avila works with structural engineers to predict when bridges will fail, with electrical engineers to integrate the components needed to generate energy from ocean waves, and with psychologists to develop computational models that represent semantic interference and other phenomena that occur inside the brain. He spent last spring at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology studying the application of AI to deep-sea oil-drilling rigs.