1. Mohak Shah
School of Information Technology and Engineering Ph: (613) 858 7483
University of Ottawa Fax: (613) 562 5664
Ottawa, Canada email: mshah@site.uottawa.ca
http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~mshah
Research Interests
Machine Learning: Computational Learning Theory, Sample Compression Algorithms, PAC-
Bayesian Bounds;
Machine Learning Applications
Natural Language Processing: Learning from Electronic Negotiations, Sentiment
Analysis.
Bioinformatics: Classification of DNA Microarray data
Education
Ph.D. Computer Science May, 2006
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada (CGPA: 9.9/10)
Master of Computer Science August 2002
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada (Transferred to PhD)
Bachelor of Engineering (with Excellence) June 2001
Devi Ahilya University, India.
Honors and Awards
Ontario Graduate Scholarship (International), Canada, 2004-’05, 2005-’06
University of Ottawa Excellence Scholarship, University of Ottawa 2004-‘05
Doctoral Research Award, University of Ottawa, 2004-‘05
Arnold Smith Commonwealth Scholar, Royal Commonwealth Society 2001-’02
University of Ottawa International Scholarship, University of Ottawa 2001-‘04
University of Ottawa Graduate Admission Scholarship (MCS and PhD), University of Ottawa
2001-‘04
National Scholarship, Department of Human Resources, Govt. of India, 1995
Bank of Baroda Scholarship, 1997, 1999
Ranked in the State Merit List, state of MP, India, High School Certificate Examination, 1995 (top
20 students in the state from among about 700,000 students).
Travel Awards: NIPS Travel Award, 2004; University of Ottawa Travel Grant 2004.
Professional Activities

2. Organization Membership: ACM, IEEE, Computer Society
Reviewer: Pattern Recognition Journal
IEEE- Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
Research Experience
1. Research Assistant Winter 2006
Research in Sentiment Analysis under the supervision of Nathalie Japkowicz: Investigate
the trends in customers’ opinions focusing on the services industry
2. Research Assistant Fall 2001-Fall 2005
Research in Machine Learning under the supervision of Mario Marchand: Investigating
the Margin-Sparsity trade-off in the Sample Compression settings, Deriving
Generalization Risk bounds and utilizing them for model selection, Extension of the SCM
framework for feature selection.
3. Research Assistant Winter 2005
Research in Natural Language Processing under the supervision of Stan Szpakowicz:
Studying the behavior of Electronic Negotiations, identifying outcome indicative traits
based on the textual data, Process-Specific Feature Selection to extract language
indicators for successful characterization and prediction of negotiation outcomes.
4. Research Assistant Winter 2004
Research in Bioinformatics under the supervision of Marcel Turcotte: Application of
Machine Learning in classification of DNA Microarray data. In particular, utilizing the
hypothesis of learning conjunction/disjunction of features to perform feature selection in
this high dimensional space.
 Other Collaborations:
Member of the Negotiation, Behavior and Language Project. See the NeBeL page at
http://nebel.site.uottawa.ca
Member of the Bioinformatics Lab, University of Ottawa. See the Bioinformatics page at
http://bio.site.uottawa.ca.
Teaching Experience
Algorithms in Bioinformatics Fall 2003
Teaching Assistant for the course “CSI 7162 -Algorithms in Bioinformatics”, an advanced
graduate course, taught by Marcel Turcotte, University of Ottawa.
Principles of Assembly Language Programming Winter 2002, 2003, 2004
Teaching Assistant for the course “CSI 2121-Principles of Assembly Language Programming”,
taught by Mario Marchand (2002), Jelber Sayyad (2003) and Misbah Islam (2004) at the
University of Ottawa
Introduction to Computer Science Fall 2004
Teaching Assistant for the course “CSI 1100-Introduction to Computer Science” taught by Alan
Williams
Mohak Shah -2- Curriculum Vitae

3. Computing Concepts in Business Fall 2001, 2002, 2003
Teaching Assistant for the course “CSI 1301-Computing Concepts in Business” taught by Don
Farmer, School of Management, University of Ottawa.
Publications
 Theses
1. PhD Thesis: Sample Compression, Margins and Generalization: Extensions to the
Set Covering Machine.
University of Ottawa, 2006.
2. Master’s Thesis: Extensions to the Set Covering Machine (Transferred to PhD)
University of Ottawa, 2002
3. Undergraduate Thesis: Dexearch, A small scale search engine utilizing the meta-data
and hyperlink details
Devi Ahilya University, India, 2001.
 Refereed Journal Publications and Book Chapter(s)
4. M. Shah, M. Sokolova and S. Szpakowicz. Process-Specific Information for Learning
E-negotiation Outcomes, to appear in Fundamenta Informaticae, Accepted June
2006.
5. M. Sokolova, M. Shah and S. Szpakowicz. Comparative Analysis of Data from
Successful Face-to-Face and E-Negotiation, in Group Decision and Negotiation,
15(2), pp. 127-140 Springer. (Extended version of the FINEXIN workshop paper [11])
6. M. Sokolova, V. Nastase, S. Szpakowicz, M. Shah. Analysis and Models of
Language in Electronic Negotiations, in M. Draminski, P. Grzegorzewski, K.
Trojanowski, S. Zadrozny (eds.), Issues in Intelligent Information Systems, Models
and Techniques, Akademicka Oficyna Wydawnicza EXIT, Warszawa, 2005, ISBN:
83-87674-91-5, pp. 197-211.
 Refereed Conference and Workshop Publications
7. F. Laviolette, M. Marchand and M. Shah. A PAC-Bayes approach to the Set Covering
Machine, to appear in the Proceeding of the Nineteenth Conference on Neural
Information Processing Systems (NIPS-2005).
8. M. Sokolova, V. Nastase, M. Shah and S. Szpakowicz. Feature Selection for
Electronic Negotiation text, to appear in the Proceedings of the Fifth International
Conference on Recent Advances in Natural Language Processing (RANLP-2005),
pp: 518-524, 2005.
9. F. Laviolette, M. Marchand and M. Shah. Margin-Sparsity tradeoff for the Set
Covering Machine. to appear in the Proceedings of the Sixteenth European
Conference on Machine Learning (ECML-2005), Springer LNAI vol. 3720, pp:
206-217, 2005.
Mohak Shah -3- Curriculum Vitae

4. 10. M. Marchand, M. Shah. PAC-Bayes Learning of Conjunctions and Classification of
Gene Expression Data, in Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 17,
(Proceeding of NIPS 2004), pp: 881-888, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2005.
11. M. Shah, M. Sokolova, S. Szpakowicz. Comparative Analysis of Text Data in Face-
to-Face and Electronic Negotiations, in Proceedings of the Workshop on Informal
and Formal Information Exchange during Negotiations (FINEXIN), Ottawa, pp: 31-42,
2005.
12. M. Shah, M. Sokolova, S. Szpakowicz. The Role of Domain Specific Knowledge in
Classifying the Language of E-negotiations, in Proceedings of International
Conference on Natural Language Processing, ICON 2004, pp. 99-108, Allied, India
(2004).
13. M. Marchand, M. Shah, J. Shawe-Taylor, M. Sokolova. The Set Covering Machine
with Data-Dependent Half-Spaces, in Proceedings of the Twentieth International
Conference on Machine Learning, (ICML 2003), pp: 520-527, Morgan Kaufmann,
San Francisco, CA, USA, 2003.
 Non-refereed Workshop Papers and Technical Reports
14. M. Shah, M. Marchand. Learning Rays’ Conjunction for Classifying DNA Microarray
Data, IRIS Machine Learning Workshop, Ottawa, Canada, 2004.
15. M. Shah, M. Sokolova, S. Szpakowicz. Using Domain Specific Knowledge to Classify
E-negotiations, InterNeg Working Paper, INR 07/04. (http://interneg.org).
Invited Talks
1. Learning in the Sample Compression Framework, Special Lecture, Department of
Computing Sciences, University of Alberta, April, 2006.
2. Margin-Sparsity trade-off for the Set Covering Machine
• National ICT Australia, Statistical Machine Learning Group Seminar, RSISE,
Australian National University, November, 2005
• TAMALE Seminar, University of Ottawa, October, 2005.
3. An Introduction to the Support Vector Machine and the Set Covering Machine,
University of Ottawa, March 2005.
4. Learning with Rays.
• TAMALE Seminar, University of Ottawa, January 2005.
• Probability and Statistics Seminar, University of Ottawa, November 2005.
5. Learning Ray’s Conjunctions for Classifying DNA Microarray Data, IRIS Machine
Learning Workshop, Ottawa, June 2004.
6. An overview of the Set Covering Machine, University of Ottawa, March 2004.
Technical Skills
Machine Learning Tools and Algorithms: Support Vector Machine, Set Covering Machine,
Various Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition Libraries, WEKA.
Mohak Shah -4- Curriculum Vitae

5. Bioinformatics: Exposure to various Bioinformatics tools and formats.
Languages: C, C++, Java.
Platforms: VC++
Operating Systems: MS Windows, Linux and versions.
Other Experience
1. Co-founder and Vice President (Communications), Indian Students’ Association,
University of Ottawa, 2001-2002.
2. Chief Editor (Reports), Training and Placement Cell, Institute of Engineering and
Technology, Devi Ahilya University, August 2000- July 2001.
3. Public Relations In-charge, Abacus Students’ Club, Institute of Engineering and
Technology, Devi Ahilya University, August 1999-July 2000.
4. Co-Organizer and Marketing In-charge, “Deeksha” Annual Educational Convention of
the Abacus Students’ Club, Institute of Engineering and Technology, Devi Ahilya
University, India, 2001.
Extra-Curricular
 Holder of Sangeet-Vid (equivalent to the Bachelor of Music) from Indira University of
Music and Fine Arts, India.
 Other interests include Hiking, Camping, and Rock-climbing.
References
Available upon Request
Mohak Shah -5- Curriculum Vitae