Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of West Florida
Phone: (850) 474-2973
Office Location: Bldg 4, Room 238
Email: bgonenuwf.edu


Short Bio

Dr. Bilal Gonen is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of West Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Nevada, Reno. He received his M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Georgia. He received a B.E. in Computer Engineering in Turkey. Before joining UWF, he worked as a Term Assistant Professor at University of Alaska, Anchorage. Dr. Bilal Gonen’s teaching and research interests include Network Science, Social Network Analysis, Semantic Web, Computer Networks, Bioinformatics, programming in Java, C, C++, C#, Python.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

  • Semantic Browser
    Semantic Browser is a tool that enables the users to traverse among the semantically connected documents easily. The documents are connected by using the relationships, such as "causes", "adjacent to", "produces"...etc.
  • Probabilistic Trans-Algorithmic Search (Ph.D. Thesis)
    Automated configuration and management of highly dynamic networks is a challenging problem for network practitioners. We use a black-box optimization algorithm, called Probabilistic Trans-Algorithmic Search (PTAS), to search for better IGP link weights giving result to higher network throughput.
  • Simulation of Spatial Self-Organization in a Stepping Stone Environment
    Self-organization is the process where a structure or pattern appears in a system without a central authority or external element imposing it through planning. We developed a free online simulation tool which computes and displays spatial self-organizing behavior of individuals in a stepping stone environment.
  • Annotation of Hyperlinks with Semantic Meaning
    Annotate webpages and their links with concepts. This project presents new idea of propagating concept from a webpage to the links pointing to that page or from the links to the webpage.
  • SemDis (Semantic Discovery: Discovering Complex Relationships in Semantic Web)
    A second generation of the Web, "Semantic Web", will be built by adding semantic annotations that software can understand and from which humans can benefit. Modeling, discovering and reasoning about complex relationships on the Semantic Web will enable this vision.
  • Lowering Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon by Genetic Algorithm [published paper], [slides]
    Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon refers to a game where you try to link any actor to Kevin Bacon by the fewest movies. Every actor has a Bacon number. If an actor appears in the same movie as Kevin Bacon his Bacon number is 1. This paper creates a new movie with a cast that lowers the weighted average for Kevin Bacon, which could be useful for increasing the connectivity of a network.
  • Improving Music Artist Recommendations Through Analysis of Influences [published paper], [slides]
    To improve the quality of search results in huge digital music databases, we developed a simple algorithm based on artist influences and complex network theory that produces interesting and novel results. Traditionally, music recommendation engines use audio feature similarity to suggest new music based on a given artist. We propose a search that takes influences into account provides a richer result set than one based on audio features alone. We constructed an artist influence network using the Rovi dataset and studied it using complex network theory. Analysis revealed many complex network phenomena which we used to tune the search algorithm.