Timothy Havens

Timothy Havens is a Professor at Michigan Technological University in the Department of Computer Science within the College of Computing. He holds the William and Gloria Jackson Professorship and serves as Executive Director of both the Great Lakes Research Center and the Institute of Computing and Cybersystems. Dr. Havens also directs the PRIME Lab and has been recognized for both teaching and research excellence, including the 2014-15 Professor of the Year award from IEEE Eta Kappa Nu and Best Paper Awards at FUZZ-IEEE 2012 and IEEE SMC 2011.

Dr. Havens received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Missouri, Columbia in 2010. Prior to joining Michigan Tech, he was an NSF/CRA Computing Innovation Postdoctoral Fellow at Michigan State University under Dr. Anil Jain. Before his Ph.D. work, he was an Associate Technical Staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. His educational background includes an M.S. in Electrical Engineering (2000) and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering (1999), both from Michigan Technological University.

His research focuses on pattern recognition and machine learning, signal processing, and sensor fusion, with specific expertise in fuzzy integrals, Choquet integration, community detection in networks, and heterogeneous data mining. Dr. Havens has made significant contributions to explainable AI, particularly through the application of fuzzy integrals to deep learning systems. His recent publications demonstrate strong activity in developing novel regularization techniques for fuzzy Choquet integrals, efficient algorithms for community detection, and similarity measures for interval data.

Dr. Havens' research has been consistently funded by prestigious organizations including DARPA, NSF, US Navy, Office of Naval Research, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Ford Motor Company, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and numerous other government and industry partners. His current projects include significant grants for radar systems in the Great Lakes, generative modeling of satellite imagery, and algorithms for autonomous robot systems.

Scientific Awards:

• 2014-15 Professor of the Year by IEEE Eta Kappa Nu, Beta Gamma Chapter
• Best Paper Award at FUZZ-IEEE 2012
• Best Paper Award at IEEE SMC 2011
• Best Student Paper Award Finalist (2018)
• IEEE Franklin V. Taylor Memorial Best Paper Award (2011)

Dr. Havens has successfully mentored numerous graduate students, many of whom appear as co-authors on his publications. His research grants demonstrate strong leadership in coordinating multi-institutional collaborations with substantial funding. Beyond his academic work, Dr. Havens is also an active musician, playing bass in several bands including MUFJAC, FLOTUS, Defenestra, Skills of Ortega, Psylocubik, Triptych, Wheels of Fire, and Odibil libidO.