David Schaffer, Research Fellow
Philips Research Briarcliff, USA

David has been with Philips Research since 1985. His PhD dissertation opened the door for multi-objective optimization with evolutionary computation. His expertise in genetic algorithms, artificial intelligence and machine learning has been applied to various fields, such as the design of multiplierless digital filters, and optimization of fast-throughput assembly machines for electronic components for Philips Assembleon. He has also worked on personal profiling, for TV show recommenders.

Since 2002 he has moved into medical applications where he devised a method for feature subset selection and applied it to molecular diagnostic pattern discovery. Then he moved to modeling the dynamics of inflammation and launched a project to produce a clinical decision support (CDS) system for sepsis, which could potentially save thousands of lives a year. This project is currently in joint development with Immunetrics Inc. Most recently he has been working with a team that explores the potential of a CDS for dementia.

He has published more than five dozen papers and has been responsible for more than 30 US patents being granted on industrial printing. In 1995 he was given an Extraordinary Technical Achievement Award and in 2007 the Silver Medal Award for Innovation at Philips Research. From 2002 through 2004 he co-founded and led the New York Complexity Symposium. He serves on the editorial board of the Evolutionary Computing Journal, the steering committee for the biannual conference series Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization (EMO), and was one of the founding members of the International Society for Genetic Algorithms (since expanded to become the Special Interest Group SIGEVO in the Association of Computing Machinery). He has served on program committees for many evolutionary computation conferences over the years.

He holds a visiting Research Faculty position in the Department of Bioengineering at Binghamton University.