All News Updates:

• We (with Cynthia Rudin and Alexander Volfovsky) got a new "Fairness in AI" NSF award in collaboration with Amazon for the research in the AME Lab for causal inference. Many thanks to NSF and Amazon!


• Our third paper on hypothetical what-if and how-to reasoning using causality is accepted in the second round of SIGMOD 2022!


• Two papers on explaining wrong database queries with generalized instances, and showing formal learnability for selectivity functions for range queries, are accepted to SIGMOD 2022! Congrats Zhengjie, Amir, Xiao, Yuxi, and Haibo!


• We have a new Foundations and Trends in Databases article (with Boris Glavic and Alexandra Meliou): 'Trends in Explanations: Understanding and Debugging Data-driven Systems'!


• Two papers on explaining database queries with augmented provenance, and properties of inconsistency measures in noisy databases, accepted to SIGMOD 2021! Congrats Zhengjie and all collaborators!


• FLAME paper on large scale causal analysis accepted to JMLR! Congrats Tianyu, Marco, and team!


• Aggregated Deletion Propagation paper accepted to PVLDB 2020-21, Vol 14! Congrats Xiao, Shawn, and Shweta!


• We (Jun Yang, Kristin Stephens-Martinez, and I) received a new NSF IIS grant: "III: Small: Helping Novices Learn and Debug Relational Queries", on our HNRQ project based on our preliminary work I-Rex and RATest. Thanks, NSF!


• I am serving as a Demonstration Track PC Co-Chair of ICDE 2021. Please consider submitting your demonstration!


• I am co-organizing VLDB 2020 virtual Round Tables on (1) Women in Databases, (2) Provenance and Explanations, both with wonderful panels of experts. Please consider attending these events!


• Two demos accepted to VLDB 2020: I-Rex (to help learn, debug, and teach SQL queries) and MuSe (rule-based data repair from SIGMOD'20)! Congrats Zhengjie, Tiangang, Alex, Kevin, Amir, and Yihao!
  We are already using our RATest system (paper, demo, video) for Relational Algebra in our database courses at Duke and hope to use I-Rex soon for SQL!


• Causal inference using adaptive hyperboxes accepted to UAI 2020! Congrats Marco and Vittorio!


• Three papers on semantics of rule-based data repair, causal relational learning, and computation of local sensitivity accepted to SIGMOD 2020! Congrats Amir, Harsh, Yuchao, and all collaborators!


• Causal inference for networks paper accepted to AISTATS 2020! Congrats Usaid, Marco, Vittorio!


• Participated in three amazing workshops and a panel on Big Data and AI/ML in 2019!
  • DBAI@Santa Cruz, Chile, November 2019: Emerging Challenges in Database and AI Research (slides available)
  • On Big Data and ML for NIA@National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C., October 2019: Social Science Modeling for Big Data in the World of Machine Learning for the National Institute on Aging
  • FutureOfWork@NII Shonan, Japan, September 2019: Human-in-the-loop Big Data and AI: Connecting Theories and Practices for a Better Future of Work
  • Panel@VLDB19, August 2019: Opportunities for data-management research in the era of horizontal AI/ML (slides available)


• Two demos accepted to VLDB 2019 on explaining query answers: LensXPlain (using provenance) and CAPE (beyond provenance)! Congrats Zhengjie, Andrew, and collaborators!


• Matching with Instrumental Variables in causal analysis accepted to UAI 2019! Congrats Usaid, Yameng, and Marco!


• Three papers on explaining query answers, explaining wrong queries, and explaining contention in shared clusters accepted to SIGMOD 2019! Congrats Zhengjie, Prajakta, and all collaborators!


• Optimal Dynamic Almost Matching Exactly (DAME) for Causal inference accepted to AISTATS 2019!


• I am co-chairing 11th International Workshop on Theory and Practice of Provenance (TAPP 2019) with Thomas Moyer.
  Deadline: Feb 28, 2019 (abstract submission on Feb 21, 2019). Please consider submitting a paper!


• Potential Postdocs: Duke database group has multiple postdoc positions. Send me an email for more information.


• Thanks to NIH for our grant on matching methods for causal inference (big data and networks)! It is a collaborative project with Profs. Allison Aiello (UNC Chapel Hill, Global Public Health), Cynthia Rudin (Duke Computer Science), and Alexander Volfovsky (Duke Statistical Science).


• Thanks to NSF for my second NSF grant on causal analysis for big data! It is a collaborative project with Profs. Lise Getoor (UCSC) and Dan Suciu (UW).


• Thanks to NSF for funding my FIREFly project with an NSF CAREER Award!


• Stratos Idreos and I are organizing the ICDE 2017 Ph.D. symposium. The program is now finalized and includes a keynote by Prof. Magdalena Balazinska
  and a panel "Doing a good Ph.D. and getting a job too"! We are delighted to have Profs. Amol Deshpande, Arun Kumar, Alexandros Labrinidis, and Peter Triantafillou as our panelists!


• The call for Student Travel Award application of SIGMOD 2017 has been posted here. The application deadline is March 25, 2017. If you are a student interested in attending SIGMOD/PODS 2017, apply soon!


• Potential students: I am looking for new Ph.D. students. If you are interested in databases(theory/applications), and have a strong academic record and/or research experience,
  you can send me an email with your CV. If you are not a graduate student at Duke, you need to apply here, and mention my name in your application.