Larry M. Stephens  
 

Professor
Larry M. Stephens

Research Interests | Biography | Publications | Contact Information |  Resume

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

CONTACT INFORMATION


Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Swearingen Engineering Center, Room 3A45
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
E-mail: stephens at sc "dot" edu
Phone: (803) 777-2895
Fax: (803) 777-3767

RESEARCH INTERESTS

To exploit fully the potential of computers for information processing, knowledge must be encoded into computers. Dr. Stephens' research interests include knowledge representation, ontologies, distributed problem solving, and expert system technology. He collaborated with the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation on Cyc, a large-scale knowledge representation system. His recent research involves the reconciliation of separately developed ontologies, agent-based supply chain management, classification of semantic relations for large knowledge bases, multiagent robotic systems, mediators for information agents in healthcare systems, and coordination parameters for interacting systems of multiagent teams.

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Stephens was granted a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of South Carolina in 1968 and received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 1974 and 1977, respectively. He is currently Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Carolina and a member of the Center for Information Technology. Prior to his academic career, he served for four years as a U.S. Naval officer assigned to Naval Reactors Program, Washington, DC. There he was responsible for technical coordination in the manufacture and operational aspects of reactor components for nuclear-powered submarines and surface ships.

From 1988 to 1989 he was on leave as a consultant to the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) in Austin, Texas. At MCC he conducted research on distributed knowledge-based systems, reasoning architectures for synthesis tasks, and plausible inferencing based on the properties of semantic relations. While at MCC, he did extensive work with the Cyc common-sense reasoning project. His current research interests include the fundamentals of knowledge representation, design of ontologies, and information retrieval from heterogeneous information sources. His previous research includes design and microprogramming of a multicomputer system and computer graphics. Dr. Stephens is a senior member of IEEE, and member of Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, Phi Beta Kappa, and AAAI.

PUBLICATIONS


Exploiting Expertise through Knowledge Networks
(with M. N. Huhns), IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 3, no. 6, November-December 1999, pp. 89-90.

Personal Ontologies
(with M. N. Huhns), IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 3, no. 5, September-October 1999, pp. 85-87.

Multiagent Systems and Societies of Agents
(with M. N. Huhns), Chapter 2 in Multiagent Systems, G. Weiss (ed.), MIT Press, 1998.

Using A Domain-Knowledge Ontology as a Semantic Gateway among Information Resources
(with M. L. Dowell and R. D. Bonnell), in Readings in Agents, M. N. Huhns and M. P. Singh (eds.), Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1998, pp. 255-260.

Principles for Organizing Semantic Relations in Large Knowledge Bases
(with Y. F. Chen), IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, vol. 8, no. 3, June 1996, pp. 492-496.

SWAMI: An Autonomous Mobile Robot for Inspection of Nuclear Waste Storage Facilities
(with R. D. Fulbright), Autonomous Robots, vol. 2., 1995, pp. 225-235.

MAGE: Additions to the AGE Algorithm for Learning in Multi-Agent Systems
(with M. L. Dowell), in Proceedings Second International Working Conference on Cooperating Knowledge-Based Systems, University of Keele, June 1994, pp. 195-210.

Classification of Multiagent Systems
(with R. D. Fulbright), USC Technical Report ECE 06-94-02, June 1994.

Declarative Representations of Multiagent Systems
(with M. P. Singh and M. N. Huhns), IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, vol. 5, no. 5, August 1992, pp 721-739.

A Two-Tiered Approach for Organizing Slots in Large Knowledge Bases
(with Y. F. Chen), Proceedings of the 3rd ASIS SIG/CR Classification Research Workshop American Society for Information Science, Pittsburgh, PA, October, 1992.

Plausible Inferencing Using Extended Composition
(with M. N. Huhns), Proceedings of the 11th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Detroit, MI, August 1989, pp. 1420-1425.

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