Prof. Ofer Shir

Ofer Shir
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Principal Investigator
Research Group Leader
PhD
Phone
972-4-6489923

Lab Website

Full CV (PDF)
Research Interests:

Computational Intelligence, Experimental Optimization, Statistical Learning, Theory of Randomized Search Heuristics, Quantum ML

Quote
You are the outcome of 3.8 billion years of evolutionary success. Act like it.

The advent of modern laboratory and field experiments, as well as of computerized systems, enables researchers to control experiments and analyze their big-data in high-speed rates. Yet, algorithmic design of intelligent experiments for optimization and learning of prescribed objectives may constitute the next level. Very little is known today about the general usefulness of optimization heuristics and statistical learning methods in laboratory experiments, about their strengths and weaknesses when compared to traditional Design-of-Experiments approaches, or about any kind of guidelines which approach to prefer, depending upon the dimensionality of the search-space, the levels of uncertainty and the number of available trials.

We are interested in learning and optimization questions related to systems within the Natural Sciences. In particular, Operational Research and Machine Learning aspects of experimental domains, that is, practical physical- and life-sciences problems whose computerized models are unavailable or too expensive to be executed, and thus necessitate real-world experiments toward the end of their global optimization. Our research interests encompass in general the following topics:

  • AI-Driven Scientific Research and Algorithmically-Guided Experimentation
  • Artificial General Intelligence, Deep Learning, Self-Supervised Learning
  • Combinatorial Optimization (White/Grey/Black-box, including physical systems in the lab)
  • Quantum Computing
     

Our current activities include Experimental Combinatorial Optimization (with Dr. Dan Gamrasni and Dr. Or Shahar), Multi-Objective Mixed-Integer Quadratic Models (with Prof. Michael Emmerich), Effective Detection of Foliage Diseases in Vineyards (with Dr. Rakefet Sharon), and Deep Learning of Enzymes' Functionality (with Dr. Livnat Jurnou and Dr. Itai Sharon).

CV

Education

2008-2010 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Princeton University, USA
2008 Ph.D., Computer Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands
2004 M.Sc., Computer Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands
2003 B.Sc., Physics and Computer Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Academic and research positions

2022-2023 Visiting Associate Professor, Faculty of Mathematics, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
2020- Associate Professor, Computer Science Department, Tel-Hai College
2013- Principal Investigator, MIGAL-Galilee Research Institute

Previously

2019-2022 Head, Computer Science Department, Tel-Hai College
2012-2020 Lecturer and Senior Lecturer, Computer Science Department, Tel-Hai College
2010-2013, Research Staff Member, IBM-Research

Funding
  1. [M.O.S.T.] An innovative AI-driven approach for the development of environmentally-friendly postharvest volatile fungicides (with Dr. Gamrasni/Migal)
  2. [M.O.A.G.] Innovative AI-driven approach for the development of postharvest protocols (with Dr. Gamrasni/Migal)
  3. [Migal-internal] Automated identification of enzymes with desirable traits for agriculture use in extreme climate conditions using machine learning (with Dr. I. Sharon and Dr. Afriat-Jurnou)

Scientific Publications

Niche Radius Adaptation with Asymmetric Sharing.

van der Goes, V., Shir, O.M., Bäck, T.
In Parallel Problem Solving from Nature - PPSN X. Volume 5199 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science. ,2008, Ed. ,Springer , Pages 195?204
2008

Conceptual Designs in Laser Pulse Shaping Obtained by Niching in Evolution Strategies.

Shir, O.M., Emmerich, M., Bäck, T., Vrakking, M.J.
In Evolutionary and Deterministic Methods for Design, Optimization and Control. A Series of Handbooks on Theory and Engineering Applications of Computational Methods ,2008, CIMNE Ed. ,CIMNE , Pages 152?157
2008

Niching in Derandomized Evolution Strategies and its Applications in Quantum Control: A Journey from Organic Diversity to Conceptual Quantum Designs.

Shir, O.M.
Natural Computing Group, LIACS, Faculty of Science, Leiden University Netherlands ,2008
2008

Control of Quantum Dynamics by Optimized Measurements.

Shuang, F., Zhou, M., Pechen, A., Wu, R., Shir, O.M., Rabitz, H.
Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics) 2008 Volume 78 Issue 6 Pages 063422
2008

On the Diversity of Multiple Optimal Controls for Quantum Systems

Shir, O.M., Beltrani, V., Bäck, T., Rabitz, H., Vrakking, M.J.
Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics 2008 Volume 41 Issue 7
2008

Evolutionary Algorithms for Real-World Applications [Application Notes].

Bäck, T., Emmerich, M., Shir, O.M.
Computational Intelligence Magazine IEEE 2008 Volume 3 Issue 1 Pages 64?67
2008

On the Evolution of Laser Pulses under a Dynamic Quantum Control Environment.

Shir, O.M., Bäck, T., Rabitz, H., Vrakking, M.J.
In Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (WCCICEC) ,2008, Ed. ,IEEE Computational Intelligence Society , Pages 2127?2134
2008

Self-Adaptive Niching CMA-ES with Mahalanobis Metric.

Shir, O.M., Emmerich, M., Bäck, T.
In Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC) ,2007, IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Ed. ,IEEE , Pages
2007

Classification of Cell Fates with Support Vector Machine Learning.

Shir, O.M., Raz, V., Dirks, R.W., Bäck, T.
In Evolutionary Computation,Machine Learning and Data Mining in Bioinformatics. EvoBIO 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science ,2007, Marchiori E., Moore J.H., Rajapakse J.C. Ed. ,Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Pages 258?269
2007

The Application of Evolutionary Multi-Criteria Optimization to Dynamic Molecular Alignment.

Shir, O.M., Emmerich, M., Bäck, T., Vrakking, M.J.
Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC), IEEE Computational Intelligence Society 2007 Pages 4108?4115
2007

Gaining Insight into Laser Pulse Shaping by Evolution Strategies.

Shir, O.M., Kok, J.N., Vrakking, M.J., Bäck, T.
In Bio-inspired Modeling of Cognitive Tasks. IWINAC 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science ,2007, Mira J., Álvarez J.R. Ed. ,Springer Berlin, Heidelberg, Pages 467?477
2007

The Second Harmonic Generation Case Study as a Gateway for ES to Quantum Control Problems.

Shir, O.M., Bäck, T.
In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO-2007, ,2007, ACM Press Ed. ,ACM Press New York, NY, USA, Pages 713?721
2007

On the Scalability of Evolution Strategies in the Optimization of Dynamic Molecular Alignment.

Shir, O.M., Vrakking, M.J., Bäck, T.
In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO-2007 ,2007, ACM Press Ed. ,ACM Press New York, NY, USA, Pages 2266?2266
2007

Performance Analysis of Niching Algorithms Based on Derandomized ES Variants.

Shir, O.M., Bäck, T.
In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO-2007 ,2007, ACM Press Ed. ,ACM Press New York, NY, USA, Pages 705?712
2007

Evolutionary Algorithms in the Optimization of Dynamic Molecular Alignment.

Siedschlag, C., Shir, O.M., Bäck, T., Vrakking, M.J.J.
Evolutionary Computation 2006 Volume 264 Pages 511-518
2006

Learning the Complete-Basis-Functions Parameterization for the Optimization of Dynamic Molecular Alignment by ES.

Shir, O.M., Kok, J.N., Bäck, T., Vrakking, M.J.
In Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning ? IDEAL 2006. IDEAL 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science ,2006, Corchado E., Yin H., Botti V., Fyfe C. Ed. ,Springer Berlin, Heidelberg, Pages 410?418
2006

Niche Radius Adaptation in the CMA-ES Niching Algorithm.

Shir, O.M., Bäck, T.
In Parallel Problem Solving from Nature - PPSN IX. Lecture Notes in Computer Science ,2006, Runarsson T.P., Beyer HG., Burke E., Merelo-Guervós J.J., Whitley L.D., Yao X. Ed. ,Springer Berlin, Heidelberg, Pages 142?151
2006

The Complete-Basis-Functions Parameterization in ES and its Application to Laser Pulse Shaping.

Shir, O.M., Siedschlag, C., Bäck, T., Vrakking, M.J.
In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO-2006, ,, ACM Press Ed. ,ACM Press New York, NY, USA,, Pages 1769?1776
2006

Niching in Evolution Strategies and its Application to Laser Pulse Shaping.

Shir, O.M., Siedschlag, C., Bäck, T., Vrakking, M.J.
In Proceeding EA'05 Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Artificial Evolution ,2006, Springer Ed. ,Springer Berlin, Heidelberg, Pages 85?96
2006

Evolutionary Algorithms in the Optimization of Dynamic Molecular Alignment

Shir, O.M., Siedschlag, C., Bäck, T., Vrakking, M.J.
In Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence ,2006, IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Ed. ,IEEE , Pages 9817?9824
2006

Niching in Evolution Strategies

Shir, O.M., Bäck, T.
In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO-2005, ,2005, ACM Ed. ,ACM Press New York, NY, USA, Pages 915?916
2005

Dynamic Niching in Evolution Strategies with Covariance Matrix Adaptation.

Shir, O.M., Bäck, T.
In Proceedings of the 2005 Congress on Evolutionary Computation CEC-2005 ,2005, IEEE Ed. ,IEEE Press Piscataway, NJ, USA, Pages 2584?2591
2005

Performance Analysis of Derandomized Evolution Strategies in Quantum Control Experiments.

Shir, O.M., Roslund, J., Bäck, T., Rabitz, H.

Review of "Christian Blum and Günther R. Raidl: Hybrid metaheuristics ? powerful tools for optimization"

Shir, O.M.
Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines Volume 19 Issue 1-2 Pages 309-311