Paul Raff

Post-Doctoral Researcher – Cognitive Assistants as Analysts’ Deputies

2009

How does one determine document quality? Although quality is subjective, we can still investigate common meanings of quality (in a foreign intelligence sense) and design systems that adapt based on the user’s own idea of quality. In this project, I will be using a corpus of intelligence reports, already graded by intelligence judges, as gold-star data to create statistical models of document quality that can be used broadly.

Graduate Student – Rutgers University, New Brunswick

2004-2009

I graduated with my Ph.D. in Mathematics from Rutgers University in October 2009, working under the supervision of Professor Doron Zeilberger. My thesis, Automated Proof and Discovery in Three Combinatorial Problems, looked at the idea of using computers to not only find patterns, but to prove that the patterns that it is seeing are indeed correct. The end-result are useful mashes of written proofs and computer proofs, where ideas that were taken in the implementation of the computer proofs are used to find out more about the structure of the patterns observed. This paradigm was used to solve many problems in three different areas: the problem of avoiding differences, the problem of counting the number of spanning trees in grid graphs, and the firefighter problem.

For the first year of graduate school I was a grader for Math 300 (Introduction to Mathematical Reasoning). In subsequent terms I was either an instructor or a teaching assistant for a wide variety of courses. In my final semester, the spring of 2009, I was a Graduate Assistant working on the Monitoring Message Streams project, which led to my postdoc.

Mathematical Skills Intern – ETS, Princeton, NJ

2008-current

I was a Mathematical Skills Intern for Educational Testing Services in Princeton, NJ in the summer of 2008, and I continue to work for them periodically. We spent the summer creating problems for use in the SAT and GRE and learning how those problems are processed and analyzed for proper usage. Through the internship, I gained a lot of insight into the nuances of test creation. The talents that I picked up on test creation are not solely applied to the SAT, GRE, or other tests ETS creates; these ideas are useful for test creation in all areas. Having understood the ideas quickly, I was able to produce 20% more questions than my peers over the summer.

Shielding Intern – Bechtel Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, West Mifflin, PA

Summer 2005

I was an intern in the Shielding group at the Bechtel Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West Mifflin, PA. I worked on testing of a new computer simulation of the shielding apparatus. The new simulation cut the time necessary by orders of magnitude.

Mathematics Researcher – National Security Agency, Ft. George G. Meade, MD

Summer 2003

I was a participant in the NSA’s Director’s Summer Program, a program for the “brightest mathematics undergraduates in the United States”.