Kathryn Blackmond Laskey

Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research, MS 4A6

George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030 USA
Room 2214 Nguyen Engineering Building
(703) 993-1644 (voice)
(703) 993-1521 (fax)
klaskey@gmu.edu

Publications Courses

Academic CV

Some of my Many Roles:

Professor Emerita of Systems Engineering and Operations Research at George Mason University
Founding Director and Director Emerita of GMU's Center for Resilient and Sustainable Community
Associate Director of GMU's Center of Excellence in Command, Control, Communications, Computing and Intelligence (C4I Center)
Mother of four and grandmother of three

My Research Program:

My broad research interest is the use of information technology to support better inference and decision making. Within this broad area, I have worked on the application of decision theory to intelligent decision and inference support systems. I have worked on understanding the proper role of normative, behavioral, and computational theories in the modeling and support of decision making. My main areas of interest include:

Knowledge representations for reasoning about uncertain phenomena
Construction of problem-specific probability and decision models from a generic knowledge base
Development of a large knowledge base for reasoning about the behavior of military units using background knowledge and incoming intelligence reports
Methods for combining expert knowledge and data to learn both structure and parameters of probability models

Some recent papers and presentations are available online.

My Role as an Educator:

I teach courses in systems engineering, decision theory, and decision support systems. Education is a lifelong process of bringing out an individual's unique potential. Although the ultimate responsibility and the ultimate reward lie with the student , a teacher can do much to facilitate or to repress a student's joy in learning and willingness to stretch beyond the horizons of his or her current knowledge and worldview. My primary objective in teaching is to spark in students the excitement I feel a bout the subject matter. I aim to give students the basic knowledge and the confidence they need to be able to follow their curiousity where it leads them. Information about courses I teach is available online.

My Educational Background:

I received a BS in Mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh, a Masters in Mathematics from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in Statistics and Public Affairs from Carnegie Mellon University.