Dr. Zbigniew Ras | Recommender Systems | Best Researcher Award
Professor of Computer Science & KDD Lab Director at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, United States
Zbigniew W. Ras is a distinguished computer scientist renowned for his extensive contributions to artificial intelligence, data mining, and intelligent information systems. With a career spanning multiple decades, he has held professorships and research positions at leading institutions in the United States, Europe, and Asia. His research interests span a broad range of interdisciplinary areas, including sentiment analysis, medical informatics, music information retrieval, and recommender systems. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Intelligent Information Systems and has been a pivotal figure in various international academic boards and conference steering committees. Recognized for both his research and teaching, he has received numerous awards and honors, including inclusion in the global list of top scientists. His leadership extends beyond academia through advisory roles in global AI organizations and think tanks. Ras’s work reflects a rare blend of theoretical depth, innovative application, and commitment to the advancement of both knowledge and academic communities.
Professional Profile
Google Scholar | Scopus Profile
Education
Zbigniew W. Ras has a rich and internationally respected academic background rooted in mathematics and computer science. He earned his M.S. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Warsaw, Poland. His academic journey advanced further with the prestigious D.Sc. (Habilitation) from the Polish Academy of Sciences, which marks a high level of scholarly independence and achievement in European academia. His accomplishments were further recognized when he was awarded the National Professorship Title by the President of Poland—one of the highest honors in the Polish academic system. This educational foundation not only highlights his expertise in formal systems and computation but also reflects a rigorous and progressive development of academic excellence. His training under globally respected mathematicians and computer scientists helped shape a career focused on both theoretical innovation and practical application in emerging areas of artificial intelligence, making him a well-rounded and influential academic figure.
Experience
Zbigniew W. Ras has accumulated a distinguished career in academia and research, with extensive international experience. He has been a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for several decades, where he also held leadership and mentoring roles. His experience includes appointments at the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, and the Polish Academy of Sciences, where he contributed to both research and academic development. Ras has also held visiting professorships at respected institutions across Europe, North America, and Asia, including in Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy, and Japan. Beyond academia, he has collaborated with industry through advisory roles with organizations in the United States, Switzerland, and Australia. His participation in international advisory boards and departmental councils reflects a strong commitment to institutional leadership. This wide-ranging experience underlines his global academic presence, multidisciplinary engagement, and capacity to foster international research collaboration and innovation.
Research Focus
Zbigniew W. Ras’s research encompasses a broad spectrum of topics within artificial intelligence and intelligent information systems. His work primarily focuses on data mining, granular computing, sentiment analysis, recommender systems, and actionability in decision-making processes. He has also explored emerging areas like music information retrieval, business and art analytics, and medical informatics, showcasing a commitment to applying AI methods across various domains. His research is characterized by a strong theoretical foundation coupled with practical applications, which has made significant contributions to fields such as flexible query answering and algebraic logic. Ras emphasizes the importance of actionable knowledge, striving to ensure that the outcomes of machine learning and data analysis can be effectively used in real-world decision contexts. His interdisciplinary focus demonstrates both depth and adaptability, enabling his work to impact diverse sectors including healthcare, education, cultural preservation, and enterprise intelligence, all while pushing the boundaries of computational and information sciences.
Award and Honor
Zbigniew W. Ras has received numerous awards and honors that reflect his excellence in both research and teaching. He was named among the world’s top 2% scientists in a list compiled by Stanford University and Elsevier, underscoring his global academic impact. He has received several institutional awards, including best paper honors and team achievement recognitions from Warsaw University of Technology. At the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, he was honored with multiple awards for outstanding faculty performance and mentorship, such as the Harshini V. de Silva Graduate Mentor Award. In addition, he was recognized as a finalist for major teaching excellence awards. Ras is also a Distinguished Fellow of the Kosciuszko Foundation’s Collegium of Eminent Scientists. His leadership roles include chairing and serving on advisory boards of several major academic conferences and societies, illustrating his influence within the international research community. These honors collectively affirm his sustained academic excellence and global recognition.
Publications Top Notes
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Title: Lecture notes in computer science (including subseries lecture notes in artificial intelligence and lecture notes in bioinformatics): Preface
Authors: M Dorigo, M Birattari, GA Di Caro, R Doursat, AP Engelbrecht, D Floreano, ZW Ras, et al.
Year: 2010
Citations: 280 -
Title: Action-rules: How to increase profit of a company
Authors: ZW Ras, A Wieczorkowska
Year: 2000
Citations: 256 -
Title: Multi-label classification of emotions in music
Authors: A Wieczorkowska, P Synak, ZW Ras
Year: 2006
Citations: 175 -
Title: Association action rules
Authors: ZW Ras, A Dardzinska, LS Tsay, H Wasyluk
Year: 2008
Citations: 105 -
Title: Action rules discovery: system DEAR2, method and experiments
Authors: LS Tsay, ZW Ras
Year: 2005
Citations: 96 -
Title: The Wisdom Web: New Challenges for Web Intelligence (WI)
Authors: J Liu, N Zhong, Y Yao, ZW Ras
Year: 2003
Citations: 95 -
Title: Action rules mining
Authors: AA Tzacheva, ZW Ras
Year: 2005
Citations: 86 -
Title: ARAS: Action rules discovery based on agglomerative strategy
Authors: ZW Ras, E Wyrzykowska, H Wasyluk
Year: 2007
Citations: 83 -
Title: Extracting emotions from music data
Authors: A Wieczorkowska, P Synak, R Lewis, ZW Ras
Year: 2005
Citations: 80 -
Title: Discovering extended action-rules (System DEAR)
Authors: ZW Ras, LS Tsay
Year: 2003
Citations: 80 -
Title: Foundations of Intelligent Systems
Authors: ZW Ras, A Skowron
Year: 1999
Citations: 72 -
Title: Action rule extraction from a decision table: ARED
Authors: S Im, ZW Ras
Year: 2008
Citations: 67 -
Title: Advances in Music Information Retrieval
Authors: Z Ras, A Wieczorkowska
Year: 2010
Citations: 64 -
Title: How to support consensus reaching using action rules: a novel approach
Authors: J Kacprzyk, S Zadrozny, ZW Ras
Year: 2010
Citations: 59 -
Title: Analysis of sound features for music timbre recognition
Authors: X Zhang, ZW Ras
Year: 2007
Citations: 59
Conclusion
The publication record of Zbigniew W. Ras clearly demonstrates a sustained and impactful contribution to the fields of artificial intelligence, data mining, and intelligent information systems. His most cited works reveal a strong emphasis on action rule discovery, emotion analysis in music, and decision support systems—topics of continuing relevance in both academic and applied contexts. Collaborations with various researchers across countries and institutions also reflect his ability to work across disciplinary and cultural boundaries. The high citation counts of multiple papers show that his research has not only been influential but also foundational in shaping discussions and developments within the AI and data science communities. His scholarly output highlights both theoretical depth and practical innovation, underscoring his position as a thought leader in his domain. This consistent and wide-ranging academic influence positions him as a strong candidate for recognition through prestigious awards and honors in research excellence.