About

Michael I. Shamos is a Distinguished Career Professor in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and serves as the Director of the M.S. in Artificial Intelligence and Innovation in the Language Technologies Institute. His research interests include eBusiness technology, artificial intelligence, electronic voting, graph models of financial systems, and experimental mathematics. He has made significant contributions to the field of computational geometry, co-authoring the first book in the field titled "Computational Geometry: An Introduction" with Franco Preparata, and developing fundamental algorithms in the area. Dr. Shamos obtained his A.B. in Physics from Princeton University in 1968, followed by an M.A. in Physics from Vassar College in 1970. He earned multiple degrees from Yale University, including an M.S. and M.Phil. in Computer Science, and a Ph.D. in 1978 with a thesis on computational geometry. His professional career includes roles as an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was responsible for introductory programming courses and analysis of algorithms, and later as a Principal Systems Scientist and Director of the Universal Library project. He has also worked extensively in intellectual property law, serving as an expert witness in over 360 cases involving computer technology, and has been involved in electronic voting system examinations and legislation. His academic and professional pursuits reflect a broad engagement with computer science, law, and societal issues related to technology.

Research topics

• Computer science
• Mathematics
• Algorithm
• Combinatorics
• Geometry

Selected publications

• Property Enumerators and a Partial Sum Theorem

  Figshare · 2018-06-30

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Institute for Software Research

  OA PDFDOI

• A Multiparty Computation for Randomly Ordering Players and Making Random Selections

  Open MIND · 2018-01-01 · 9 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Consider a set of players who wish to randomly arrange themselves without a trusted third-party. For example, if there are 3 players, a, b and c, then a trusted third party could order them as abc, acb, bac, bca, cab, or cba. In the absence of a trusted third party, the players want to select one of these permutations for themselves at random. In this writing, a protocol (named “RandomSelect”) is presented using multiplayer computation. From a bag of all possible ways the players could be ordered, RandomSelect provides a means for players to make local choices that when combined, jointly select a permutation randomly. The RandomSelect protocol supports any number (n) of two or more players and computes properly even if n-1 players collude. Communication is O(n) using a broadcast channel. More generally, necessary and sufficient conditions for a class of functions called “RandomOrder” functions are defined. A RandomOrder function uses n inputs to make a random selection of a string from a bag of n! strings where all possible selections are uniformly distributed over the possible inputs and over the strings. Any RandomOrder function can be used in the RandomSelect protocol. Bio-terrorism surveillance is used as an example application.

  OA PDFDOI

• Forum on International Initiatives on Copyright

  Research Showcase @ Carnegie Mellon University (Carnegie Mellon University) · 2018-01-01

  articleSenior author

  Explore the future of copyright with international experts on the subject. This session was offered in conjunction with the 3rd International Conference on the Universal Digital Library (ICUDL 2007), hosted by Carnegie Mellon University Libraries and the School of Computer Science.

  PublisherDOI

• A Problem in Multivariate Statistics: Algorithm, Data Structure, and Applications

  Research Showcase @ Carnegie Mellon University (Carnegie Mellon University) · 2018-06-30 · 51 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Computer Science Department

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Realities of E-voting Security

  IEEE Security & Privacy · 2012-09-01 · 7 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  There has been substantial debate about e-voting security in the past 10 years. As a result, e-voting has evolved away from lever machines and punched cards, through touchscreen voting machines, to a voter-verifiable paper audit trail phase, and voter-marked paper ballots paired with optical scan tabulators. Still, the debate over e-voting security continues. The guest editors introduce the articles in this special issue, which cover technology aimed at both improving election integrity and providing confidence through postelection audits. These articles advance the e-voting security debate and will contribute to long-term election integrity.

  PublisherDOI

• 16. Privacy and Public Records

  University of Washington Press eBooks · 2011-12-31

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Panel: The Google Settlement

  Research Showcase @ Carnegie Mellon University (Carnegie Mellon University) · 2009-11-07

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• How Big a Problem is Copyright

  eCommons (Cornell University) · 2006-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Contributing institution: Carnegie Mellon University

  PublisherOA PDF

• Machines as readers: A solution to the copyright problem

  Journal of Zhejiang University. Science A · 2005-10-11 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Copyright and its international complications have presented a significant barrier to the Universal Digital Library (UDL)'s mission to digitize all the published works of mankind and make them available throughout the world. The discuss the effect of existing copyright treaties and various proposals, such as compulsory licensing and the public lending right that would allow access to copyrighted works without requiring permission of their owners. We argue that these schemes are ineffective for purposes of the UDL. Instead, making use of the international consensus that copyright does not protect facts, information or processes, we propose to scan works digitally to extract their intellectual content, and then generate by machine synthetic works that capture this content, and then translate the generated works automatically into multiple languages and distribute them free of copyright restriction.

  PublisherDOI

• Machines as readers: A solution to the copyright problem

  Research Showcase @ Carnegie Mellon University (Carnegie Mellon University) · 2005-11-01 · 3 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Copyright and its international complications have presented a significant barrier to the Universal Digital Library (UDL)'s mission to digitize all the published works of mankind and make them available throughout the world. We discuss the effect of existing copyright treaties and various proposals, such as compulsory licensing and the public lending right that would allow access to copyrighted works without requiring permission of their owners. We argue that these schemes are ineffective for purposes of the UDL. Instead, making use of the international consensus that copyright does not protect facts, information or processes, we propose to scan works digitally to extract their intellectual content, and then generate by machine synthetic works that capture this content, and then translate the generated works automatically into multiple languages and distribute them free of copyright restriction.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Franco P. Preparata

  15 shared

• Jon Bentley

  3 shared

• Leroy S. Lavine

  3 shared

• William H. Dodrill

  West Virginia University

  2 shared

• Doris K. Lidtke

  Towson University

  2 shared

• Cynthia D. Brown

  2 shared

• Philip L. Miller

  Imperial College London

  2 shared

• G. Yuval

  Microsoft (United States)

  2 shared

Labs

• BELTI CommitteePI

Education

• B.A., Physics

  Princeton University

  1968

• M.A., Physics

  Vassar College

  1970

• M.S., Technology of Management

  American University

  1972

• M.S., Computer Science

  Yale University

  1973

• Other, Computer Science

  Yale University

  1974

• Ph.D., Computer Science

  Yale University

  1978

• Other

  Duquesne University

  1981

Awards & honors

• Distinguished Career Professor, Carnegie Mellon University (…