Up & Comer
Name:
Zaruhi R. Mnatsakanyan
Age: 34
Position: Leads research in decision support and
data fusion for the Homeland Protection Business Area at
Johns Hopkins Applied
Physics Laboratory
Stats: MS '94 in automated control systems; MS '96
in computer science; and PhD '00 in computer science and
machinery engineering, all from the State Engineering
University of Armenia
Scouting report: Says Jose Latimer, who oversees the
business area Mnatsakanyan supports at APL, "She brings an
integration of several classical cultures —
engineering, statistics, mathematics, information sciences,
and operations research — and has figured out how to
integrate and maximize each into advances in areas such as
data fusion, pattern recognition, machine learning, and
automated decision making. An accomplished chess player,
she has that strategic 'end-game' kind of thinking. She can
quickly understand problems in fields outside of her own,
and adapt technology to solve them."
Research: She is developing an early-detection
system for epidemic and pandemic flu. She uses vast amounts
of data — from insurance companies, emergency rooms,
and military communities — to develop algorithms that
will teach computers to differentiate between a statistical
anomaly and a real outbreak. "The computer systems we're
building now are just bringing us more data; they don't
help us make decisions. So we're trying to solve that
problem with more knowledge- and perception-based
systems."
On reading philosophy: "Especially with the type of
work I do, which is very close to the human-thinking
process, I don't want to go on the level of neurons to
understand how humans make decisions. I want to understand
it on a higher level."
Alternative career: Historian or journalist. "With
history, you learn about the past; with journalism, the
present. I just want to understand why humans do things and
try to help them."