People

Biography

Dr. Fazel Famili obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University. He joined the National Research Council (NRC) in 1984 as a Research Officer and became a Senior Research Officer in 1992, having worked in the private sector for a number of years before joining NRC.

Fazel's research interests include machine learning, data pre-processing, constructive induction, bioinformatics, disease modeling based on genomics and proteomics data, and knowledge discovery from on-line data. His research currently focuses on data mining, automated knowledge discovery, bioinformatics and disease modeling using functional genomics data.

In 1999, Fazel initiated the BioMine project, for which is the Project Leader. BioMine is a joint data mining in genomics and bioinformatics project between the NRC Institute for Information Technology (NRC-IIT) and the NRC Institute for Biological Sciences (NRC-IBS), which is partially funded by the Genome Health Initiative. Other collaborators in the project include the NRC Plant Biotechnology Institute (NRC-PBI), the NRC Institute for Marine Biosciences (NRC-IMB) and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. The BioMiner data mining infrastructure, developed as a result of research and development in this project, is currently being used for gene identification, gene response classifications and disease modeling in several applications.

Fazel also initiated the ADAM project in 1994, to conduct R&D in the area of data mining and automated knowledge discovery for fleet monitoring of commercial aircraft. He initiated and managed an Intelligent Supervisory System project, the result of which was a generic data mining software - IMAFO - which has since been commercialised by Quadrillion Corp. in Ottawa.

The IMAFO software applies machine learning techniques to analyse real world data to assist engineers and operators in data mining / management, quality control, process optimisation, planning, scheduling, and process monitoring of industrial processes (e.g., semiconductor manufacturing). The software has been licensed to Mitel Corporation and Gennum semiconductor manufacturing companies. Fazel has also developed a rule-based integrity mechanism for a relational database.

Fazel received an NRC Outstanding Achievement Award in 1994 and an NRC Institute for Information Technology Outstanding Achievement Award in 1993. He has published more than 20 articles in refereed scientific journals and conference proceedings, as well as one book, Artificial Intelligence Applications in Manufacturing (MIT / AAAI Press, 1992). He has also contributed chapters to two different books on data analysis and manufacturing databases.

In addition to conducting research at NRC, Fazel often supervises graduate students in computer science at Canadian universities and is frequently sought as an external examiner for PhD candidates. Fazel is a member of the Editorial Boards of Intelligent Data Analysis, the International Journal of Production Planning and Control, and the International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. He is associated with a number of artificial intelligence societies and has been a member of the organizing committees of many international artificial intelligence and data mining conferences.

Additional Information

• Research Project Portfolio:
  • BioIntelligence
  • Data Mining in Functional Genomics (BioMine)