George Ferguson

George Ferguson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Rochester. He serves as the Co-Director of the Undergraduate Program and has been recognized with multiple teaching awards, including the Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2023) and the UR Students’ Association Professor of the Year in Engineering and Applied Sciences (2018-2019).

Education:

• Ph.D. in Computer Science (University of Rochester, 1995)
• M.Sc. in Computer Science (University of Rochester, 1989)
• M.Sc. in Computing Science (University of Alberta, 1989)
• B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science (McGill University, 1987)

Research Interests: Ferguson’s work bridges Artificial Intelligence, Human-Computer Interaction, and Medical Informatics. He focuses on Intelligent Conversational Assistants using Natural Language Understanding and Temporal Reasoning for domains like healthcare and logistics. His Dialogue Systems and Knowledge Representation research have led to innovations in Collaborative Problem-Solving and User-Centered Design.

Scientific Awards:

• Outstanding Paper Award at AAAI-2007
• Program Co-Chair for AAAI-2004
• Invited Participation in NSF-NIH Symposia

Teaching: Ferguson has taught a range of courses, from Introductory Programming (Java/Python/JavaScript) to advanced topics like Artificial Intelligence and Programming Language Design. He is also involved in outreach to middle/high school computing education.