Andres Mendez-Vazquez Ph.D

Computer and Information Science and Engineering

University of Florida

#
#

Home

Biographical Sketch

Postdoctoral Research

Dissertation

Teaching

Presentations

Publications

Curriculum Vitae

Research Statement

Interesting Links and Stuff

Contact Information
CSE Bldg. Rm 459
P.O. Box 116120
University of Florida
Gainesville, Fl 32611 USA

Phone: (352) 392-2863
Cell: (352) 514-4912
Fax: (352) 392-1220
Email: amendez- AT cise DOT ufl DOT edu


PDF Link

CURRICULUM VITAE

Contact Information


Name: Andres Mendez-Vazquez   
Address: Department of Computer and Information   
  Science and Engineering   
  University of Florida   
  P.O. Box 116120   
  Gainesville, FL, 32611-6120, USA   
Telephone: (352)-514-4912   
E-mail: amendez-@cise.ufl.edu   
URL: http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~amendez-   


Education

May 2008    Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Engineering
     University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

   Dissertation Adviser: Paul D. Gader Ph.D.
   Dissertation Title: Information Fusion and Sparsity Promotion Using Choquet Integrals



December 2002    Master of Sciences in Computer and Information Sciences
     University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA



January 1999    Bachelor of Mathematics
     University of Yucatan, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico

   Thesis Adviser: Maria Concepcion Fuentes Florencia Ph.D.
   Thesis Title: L-Fuzzy Sets: An introduction



Research Experience


Fall 2002-Present  Graduate Research Assistant, Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), University of Florida under Professor Paul D. Gader.

  • Developed and implemented a Minimum Classification Error fusion training algorithm using Sugeno measures and Choquet integral based on gradient decent optimization.
  • Developed and implemented Sparsity Promoting Markov Chain Monte Carlo fusion training algorithms for general fuzzy measures, Choquet integral and Gaussian distributions.
  • Developed and implemented Sparsity Promoting Markov Chain Monte Carlo Minimum Classification Error fusion training algorithms for Sparsity Promotion for general fuzzy measures, Choquet integral and Logistic Regression.
  • Participated in the development of a multi-sensor and hyperspectral fusion framework for application to wide area landmine detection in the project ``Science of Land Target Spectral Signatures,'' U. S. Army Research Office Cooperative Agreement Number DAAD19-02-2-0012.
  • Assisting in writing final report for the project ``Science of Land Target Spectral Signatures.''
  • Participated in the development of decision level fusion algorithms, testing software and final report for landmine detection for the project ``Feature-Based Methods for Landmine Detection with Ground Penetrating Radar,'' U. S. Army Research Office Cooperative Agreement Number DAAD19-02-2-0012.
  • Assisted in the preparation of presentations for sponsored research review meetings.
  • Coordinated the Seminar presentations for the landmine research group Fall 2002-Summer 2004.
  • Assisting in the design of information fusion algorithms in the project ``Optimized Multi-algorithm Systems for Detecting Explosive Objects Using Robust Clustering and Choquet Integration,'' National Science Foundation grant CBET-0730484.



Summer 2002-Fall 2002  Graduate Research Assistant, Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), University of Florida under Professor Mark Schmalz.

  • Participated in the implementation of a 3D reconstruction algorithm using level sets.
  • Research techniques for concealment of vehicles.
  • Assisted in the preparation of presentations for sponsored research review meetings.
  • Assited in the preparation of progress reports.

Research Publications

Refereed Journal Articles

  • A. Mendez-Vazquez, P. D. Gader, J. M. Keller, and K. Chamberlin, ``Minimum classification error training for Choquet integrals with applications to landmine detection,'' January 2007, to be published in IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, available online.

Refereed Conference Articles

  • A. Mendez-Vazquez and P. D. Gader, ``Maximum a Posteriori EM MCE Logistic LASSO for Learning Fuzzy Measures,'' in IEEE World Congress in Computational intelligence June 1-6, 2008, Hong Kong, China.
  • A. Mendez-Vazquez and P. D. Gader, ``Sparsity promotion models for the Choquet integral'' in the proceedings the First IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computational Intelligence (FOCI'07), 1-5 April 2007, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
  • P. Gader, A. Mendez-Vasquez, K. Chamberlin, J. Bolton, and A. Zare, ``Multi-sensor and algorithm fusion with the Choquet integral: applications to landmine detection,'' in 2004 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2004. IGARSS'04. Proceedings, vol. 3, September 2004, pp. 1605-1608.

Conference Papers

  • M. A. Schatten, P. D. Gader, J. Bolton, A. Zare, and A. Mendez-Vasquez, ``Sensor fusion for airborne landmine detection,'' in Proceedings of SPIE Volume: 6217, Detection and Remediation Technologies for Mines and Minelike Targets XI, May 2006.
  • P. Gader, L. Wen-Hsiung, and A. Mendez-Vazquez, ``Continuous Choquet integrals with respect to random sets with applications to landmine detection,'' in IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems, Budapest, Hungary, 25-29 July 2004, pp. 523-528 vol. 1.

Refereed Conference Article Submitted

  • A. Mendez-Vazquez and P. D. Gader, ``Learning Fuzzy Measure Parameters by Logistic LASSO'', IEEE NAFIPS 2008, New York, New York, May 19-22, 2008, USA.

Journal Article Submitted

  • Hichem Frigui, Lijun Zhang, Paul Gader, Joseph N. Wilson, K.C. Ho, Andres Mendez-Vazquez, ``A Large-Scale Evaluation of Several Fusion Algorithms for Landmine Detection and Discrimination,'' Information Fusion, Special issue in Information Fusion, Elsevier.

Journal Article in Preparation for IEEE Transactions in Fuzzy Systems

  • A. Mendez-Vazquez and P. D. Gader, ``A Family of Sampling Algorithms for Learning Fuzzy Measures,'' IEEE Transactions in Fuzzy Systems.

Teaching Experience


Fall 2003  Seminar Lecturer, Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), University of Florida. Seminar ``An introduction to Measure Theory''.

  • Taught a weekly 1-hour seminar in measure theory to study its use in fuzzy measure integration.


Spring 2002  Substitute Teaching Assistant, COP 3530 Data Structures and Algorithms.

  • Taught a weekly 1-hour class homework discussion session; held a weekly 2-hour office hours; supervised quizzes and exams; graded homeworks and exams.


Spring 2002  Grader, COP 3530 Data Structures and Algorithms.

  • Graded homeworks, quizzes and exams; held a 2-hour office hours.


Fall 2001-Spring 2002  Teaching Assistant, CDA 3101 Introduction to Computer Organization.

  • Taught a weekly 1-hour class homework discussion session; supervised quizzes and exams; held a weekly 3-hour office hours; assisted in test preparation; graded homeworks and exams.


Fall 2000-Spring 2001  Grader, COT 3100 Applications of Discrete Structures.

  • Graded homeworks, quizzes and exams; held a 1-hour office hours to answer homework questions.


Spring 1998  Teacher, Physics and Algebra.

  • Met with students upon request; taught a weekly 3-hour help session; ran a training session for the local Mathematics Olympiad.



Web-Published Materials

  • Dissertation ``Information Fusion and Sparsity Promotion Using Choquet Integrals.''
  • Seminar slides in MCMC and sampling methods.
  • Seminar slides in Dempster-Schaffer Belief theory.
  • Notes in Choquet integral Theory.


Other Professional Experiences & Skills


Leadership Positions

  • Treasurer, ASCIE: Association of Graduate Students in Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), University of Florida, Fall 2006-Spring 2007.
    • Founding officer, participated in the creation and initial organization of the association.
    • Actively participated in planning and running organizational events.
  • Benton Engineering Council Representative, Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Department's representative to the Benton Engineering Council, University of Florida, Fall 2006-Spring 2007.
  • Graduate Student Council Representative, Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Department's representative to the Graduate Student Council, University of Florida, Fall 2007-Spring 2008.
  • Volunteer and Organizer in the CISE-ACM-ASCIE career fair Fall 2007-Spring 2008.


Language Skills

  • Spanish-native speaker.
  • English-fluent speaker and read/write with proficiency.


Major areas of research interest

Choquet integral theory, fuzzy set theory, fuzzy measure theory, statistical methods for machine learning, optimization methods, stochastic processes theory and information fusion theory.



References

  • Paul D. Gader, Ph.D.

    Professor

    Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering

    University of Florida-P.O. Box 116120

    Gainesville, FL 32611-6120 USA

    CSE Building Room E356

    Office Phone: (352) 392-1526

    Email: pgader@cise.ufl.edu

  • James M. Keller, Ph.D.

    Professor

    University of Missouri-Columbia

    Columbia, MO 65211-2060

    Email: KellerJ@missouri.edu

  • Gerhard X. Ritter, Ph.D.

    Professor Emeritus

    Department of Mathematics

    Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering

    University of Florida-P.O. Box 116120

    Gainesville, FL 32611-6120 USA

    CSE Building Room E364

    Office Phone: (352) 392-1536

    Email: ritter@cise.ufl.edu

  • Joseph N. Wilson, Ph.D.

    Assistant Professor

    Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering

    University of Florida-P.O. Box 116120

    Gainesville, FL 32611-6120 USA

    CSE Building Room E358

    Office Phone: (352) 392-1360

    Email: jnw@cise.ufl.edu

  • Mark Schmalz, Ph.D.

    Associated Scientist

    Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering

    University of Florida-P.O. Box 116120

    Gainesville, FL 32611-6120 USA

    CSE Building Room E446

    Office Phone: (352) 392-6831

    Email: mssz@cise.ufl.edu