Dr. Mukesh Dalal, Principal Scientist at Charles River and Principal Investigator, receives a four-year $2.8 million grant from DARPA to build a virtual data scientist assistant, named Eve, to aid in solving real-world analytical problems.
Charles River Analytics Inc., developer of intelligent systems solutions, has announced a contract awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) to build a virtual data scientist assistant, named Eve, to aid in solving real-world analytical problems. As part of DARPA’s Data-Driven Discovery of Models, or D3M, program, Charles River will lead a team on the Eve effort that includes Oregon State University & Win-Vector, LLS. The four-year contract is valued over $2.8 million.
In the D3M program, DARPA seeks to simplify the complex process of building models by creating software to bridge the data science expertise gap. Virtual data scientist assistants like Eve aim to help with machine learning tasks, and alleviate the shortage of data scientists needed for data-driven solutions now and in the coming years.
“A lack of qualified data scientists is preventing organizations from gaining the full benefits from data analytics and machine learning,†explained Dr. Mukesh Dalal, Principal Scientist at Charles River and Principal Investigator on the effort. “Eve will allow non-data scientists, such as retail marketers, to get significant value out of their data sets and make high-quality business-critical predictions.â€
In the Eve effort, Charles River is fusing data-and knowledge-driven approaches for building representation formalisms and developing artificial intelligence-based search methods for planning and optimizing complex pipelines, incorporating data analytics and machine learning operators. Eve’s capabilities will enable subject matter experts to solve complex analytical and learning problems, without requiring assistance from data scientists.
Eve complements Charles River research and development in the Model Analyst's Toolkit, a software tool to analyze and validate scientific theories and models using real-world data.
About Mukesh Dalal
Dr. Mukesh Dalal is Principal Scientist in the Decision Management division at Charles River Analytics Inc. Dalal’s research centers on artificial intelligence, machine learning (including deep and reinforcement) and reasoning, big data analytics, probabilistic modeling and optimization, and decision making, with applications including cybersecurity, preventive health maintenance, hyper-personalized recommendation systems, and digital transformation.
Prior to joining Charles River Analytics, Dalal was Chief Scientist at BAE Systems (Burlington). He has also co-founded two technology startups. Additionally, he was the chief architect and chief scientist at WebTrends (Portland), a senior member of technical staff at i2 Technologies (Dallas), and an assistant professor at Columbia University (New York). He has been granted over ten patents, with several more filed and pending; has published over 35 peer-reviewed technical papers; and has given several invited talks. Dalal received a PhD and MS from Rutgers University, and a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, all in computer science.
Dalal resides in Carlisle, MA with his wife and three children.