Lukasz Golab

Lukasz Golab

Professor and Canada Research Chair in Data for Good
Department of Management Science and Engineering
Cross-appointed to the Cheriton School of Computer Science
University of Waterloo

Email: lgolab at uwaterloo dot ca

Bio: I joined Waterloo in 2011 and was awarded a Canada Research Chair in 2015. From 2006 to 2011 I was a Senior Member of Research Staff at AT&T Labs. I have a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Toronto (with High Distinction) and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo (with Alumni Gold Medal). My recent research interests include decentralized, explainable and trustworthy data systems.

Current and upcoming professional service: Associate Editor for Information Systems; Area chair for ICDE 2024; Steering Committee and PC Member for DOLAP 2024; PC Member for EDBT 2025, EDBT 2024 and SIGMOD 2024.

Publications: see here for my DBLP profile

Recent projects and representative publications

1. Explainable data systems (explainable AI / model diagnostics / language simplification)

A. Esmaeilizadeh, L. Golab, K. Taghva, InfoMoD: Information-theoretic Model Diagnostics, SSDBM 2023, 19:1-19:4. Best Short Paper Award
V. Dadvar, L. Golab, D. Srivastava, POEM: Pattern-Oriented Explanations of Convolutional Neural Networks, PVLDB 16(11):3192-3200, 2023. Demo paper @ VLDB 2022 here
A. Chai, A. Vezvaei, L. Golab, M. Kargar, D. Srivastava, J. Szlichta, M. Zihayat, EAGER: Explainable Question Answering Using Knowledge Graphs, GRADES-NDA@SIGMOD 2023, 4:1-4:5
J. Rorseth, P. Godfrey, L. Golab, M. Kargar, D. Srivastava, J. Szlichta, CREDENCE: Counterfactual Explanations for Document Ranking, ICDE 2023, 3631-3634, demo paper. Tech report here
M. Dehghan, D. Kumar, L. Golab, GRS: Combining Generation and Revision in Unsupervised Sentence Simplification, ACL Findings, 2022, 949-960
D. Kumar, L. Mou, L. Golab, O. Vechtomova, Iterative edit-based unsupervised sentence simplification, ACL 2020, 7918-7928
K. El Gebaly, G. Feng, L. Golab, F. Korn, D. Srivastava, Explanation Tables, IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin, 41(3):43-51, 2018

2. Bringing order to data (data exploration / pattern discovery / data cleaning)

R. Karegar, M. Mirsafian, P. Godfrey, L. Golab, M. Kargar, D. Srivastava, J. Szlichta, Discovering Domain Orders via Order Dependencies, ICDE 2022, 1098-1110. Tech report here
Z. Zheng, L. Zheng, M. Alipourlangouri, F. Chiang, L. Golab, J. Szlichta, S. Baskaran, Contextual Data Cleaning with Ontology Functional Dependencies, J. of Data and Inf. Quality, 14(3):20:1-20:26, 2022. Tech report here
V. Dadvar, L. Golab, D. Srivastava, Exploring Data Using Patterns: A Survey, Information Systems 108, September 2022, 101985. Preprint here
R. Karegar, P. Godfrey, L. Golab, M. Kargar, D. Srivastava, J. Szlichta, Efficient Discovery of Approximate Order Dependencies, EDBT 2021, 427-432. Tech report with proofs here
H. Saxena, L. Golab, I. Ilyas, Distributed Implementations of Dependency Discovery Algorithms, PVLDB 12(11): 1624-1636, 2019
Z. Abedjan, L. Golab, F. Naumann, T. Papenbrock, Data Profiling, Morgan & Claypool Publishers, 2018

3. Graphs and social networks

L. Hebert, L. Golab, P. Poupart, R. Cohen, FedFormer: Contextual Federation with Attention in Reinforcement Learning, AAMAS 2023, 810-818. Tech report here
L. Hebert, L. Golab, R. Cohen, Predicting Hateful Discussions on Reddit using Graph Transformer Networks and Communal Context, WI-IAT 2022, 9-17. Tech report here
M. Kargar, L. Golab, D. Srivastava, J. Szlichta, M. Zihayat, Effective Keyword Search over Weighted Graphs, TKDE 34(2):601-616, 2022
S. Bryson, H. Davoudi, L. Golab, M. Kargar, Y. Lytvyn, P. Mierzejewski, J. Szlichta, M. Zihayat, Robust Keyword Search in Large Attributed Graphs, Information Retrieval 23:502-524, 2020
L. Chen, L. Golab, Micro-Journal Mining to Understand Mood Triggers, Computing 102(5):1227-1244 (2020). Preprint here
A. Khan, L. Golab, M. Kargar, J. Szlichta, M. Zihayat, Compact Group Discovery in Attributed Graphs and Social Networks, J. of Inf. Processing and Management 57(2): 102054, March 2020. Preprint here

4. High-speed data systems (blockchains / real-time analytics)

H. Saxena, L. Golab, S. Idreos, I. Ilyas, Real-Time LSM-Trees for HTAP Workloads, ICDE 2023, 1208-1220. Tech report here
A. Mitra, C. Gorenflo, L. Golab, S. Keshav, TimeFabric: Trusted Time for Hyperledger Fabric, FAB 2021, 4:1-4:15
R. Agarwal, D. Kumar, L. Golab, S. Keshav, Consentio: Managing Consent to Data Access using Permissioned Blockchains, ICBC 2020
C. Gorenflo, L. Golab, S. Keshav, XOX Fabric: A Hybrid Approach to Transaction Execution, ICBC 2020
C. Gorenflo, S. Lee, L. Golab, S. Keshav, FastFabric: Scaling Hyperledger Fabric to 20,000 Transactions per Second, Int. J. of Network Management 30(5): e2099, September/October 2020. Tech report here
Y. Yang, L. Golab, M. T. Ozsu, ViewDF: Declarative Incremental View Maintenance for Streaming Data, Information Systems 71 (2017) 55-67. Preprint here

5. Educational data mining

V. Salm, S. Chopra, L. Golab, Student success in co-operative education: A comparison of remote and in-person workplace performance evaluations, Int. J. of Work Integrated Learning 24(2):169-207, 2023
M. S. Parsa, L. Golab, Social Media Mining to Understand the Impact of Co-operative Education on Mental Health, Int. J. of Work-Integrated Learning 22(4):521-537, 2021
S. Chopra, A. Khan, M. Mirsafian, L. Golab, Gender differences in work-integrated learning experiences of STEM students: From applications to evaluations, Int. J. of Work-Integrated Learning 21(3):253-274, 2020
S. Chopra, H. Gautreau, A. Khan, M. Mirsafian, L. Golab, Gender Differences in Undergraduate Engineering Applicants: A Text Mining Approach, EDM 2018, 44-54
A. Andrade, S. Chopra, B. Nurlybayev, L. Golab, Quantifying the Impact of Entrepreneurship on Cooperative Job Creation, Int. J. of Work Integrated Learning 19(1): 51-68, 2018

6. Data analytics for sustainability

S. Ghasemitaheri, A. Holcomb, L. Golab, S. Keshav, On the Data Quality of Remotely Sensed Forest Maps, QDB workshop@VLDB 2023, 3:1-3:8
M. S. Parsa, L. Golab, S. Keshav, Climate Action During COVID-19 Recovery and Beyond: A Twitter Text Mining Study, SBP-BRiMS 2021. Tech report here
G. Tang, S. Keshav, L. Golab, K. Wu, Bikeshare Pool Sizing for Bike-And-Ride Multimodal Transit, Trans. on Intelligent Transportation Systems 19(7): 2279-2289, 2018. Preprint here
C. Gorenflo, I. Rios, L. Golab, S. Keshav, Usage Patterns of Electric Bicycles: An Analysis of the WeBike Project, J. of Advanced Transportation 2017, Article ID 3739505
R. Miller, L. Golab, C. Rosenberg, Modelling Weather Effects for Impact Analysis of Residential Time-of-Use Electricity Pricing, Energy Policy 105 (2017) 534-546. Preprint here
X. Liu, L. Golab, W. Golab, I. Ilyas, S. Jin, Smart Meter Data Analytics: Systems, Algorithms and Benchmarking, TODS 42(1): 2:1-2:39, 2017. Preprint here
Y. Jiang, R. Levman, L. Golab, J. Nathwani, Analyzing the Impact of the 5CP Ontario Peak Reduction Program on Large Consumers, Energy Policy 93 (2016) 96-100. Preprint here