Chaofan Chen

Dr. Chen joined the University of Maine as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science in Fall 2020. He is interested in the area of interpretable machine learning, and the applications of machine learning in high-stakes decision making. He is actively involved in the Maine eDNA project.

Dr. Chen’s research involves the design of interpretable machine learning models that can be understood (“interpreted”) by human beings. His recent publications include papers on interpretable deep learning for computer vision, and optimization of decision lists with constraint. He is interested in developing new techniques to enhance the interpretability and transparency of machine learning models, especially deep learning models, and in applying such techniques to healthcare, finance, and other application domains, where high-stakes decisions are made and interpretability is key for whether one can trust the predictions made by machine learning models. Dr. Chen also participates in the Maine environmental DNA (eDNA) project: he is developing computational techniques to understand eDNA.