Bio

B.S. ​University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 1983M.S. ​Princeton University, 1985Ph.D. ​​University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 1992

"I design efficient algorithms and optimizations to solve practical real-world problems. I also serve as an expert witness in patent litigations, infringement analyses, and intellectual property court cases in all areas of computer science. "

Gabriel Robins, Professor

Research interests include:

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Electronic Design Automation (EDA), Algorithms, Optimization, Semiconductor Engineering, Data Sciences, Genomics

Professor Gabriel Robins earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA in 1992, where he received an IBM Fellowship and a Distinguished Teaching Award. He then joined the University of Virginia as Assistant Professor of Computer Science, where he received a National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, a Packard Foundation Fellowship, a Lilly Foundation University Teaching Fellowship, the SIAM Outstanding Paper Prize, an All-University Outstanding Teacher Award, a Faculty Mentor Award, a Virginia Engineering Foundation Faculty Appreciation Award, a two-year early promotion to Associate Professor, and the Walter N. Munster Endowed Chair. He served on the U.S. Army Science Board, and is an alumnus of the Defense Science Study Group, an advisory panel to the U.S. Department of Defense. He has created the CS Web Team, the UVa Computer Museum, the CS Department Lounge, and the CS Poster Drive. He served on the program committees of several leading conferences, and served as Associate Editor of multiple journals, including the flagship journal IEEE Transaction on VLSI. He has directed over thirty students, and authored or co-authored a book, several book chapters and patents, over 110 refereed papers.  Professor Robins also serve as an expert witness in patent litigations, infringement analyses, and other intellectual property disputes in all areas of computer science. 

Awards

  • Packard Foundation Fellowship 1995-2001
  • National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award 1994-1999
  • Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Outstanding Paper Prize 2007
  • Best Presentation Award, IEEE International Conference on Localization and Global Navigation Satellite Systems, Torino, Italy 2013
  • Walter N. Munster Endowed Chair 1997-2002
  • Faculty Mentor Award, UVa School of Engineering 1997
  • All-University Outstanding Teaching Award, University of Virginia 1994-1995
  • University Teaching Fellowship, University of Virginia 1995-1996
  • Faculty Appreciation Award, Virginia Engineering Foundation 1998
  • Award for "Tireless Dedication to Improving the Department in All Aspects", Department of Computer Science 1998
  • Web Team Award - "In Appreciation for Founding and Leading the Department's Excellent Web Team for 6 Years" 2001
  • National Science Foundation Research Initiation Award 1993
  • IBM Graduate Fellowship 1991-1992
  • Distinguished Paper Award, IEEE International Conference on Computer-Aided Design 1990
  • Distinguished Teaching Award, UCLA 1989
  • Chancellor's Distinguished Honor Award

Research Interests

  • Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
  • Algorithms
  • Optimization
  • Semiconductor Engineering
  • Electronic Design Automation
  • Genomics
  • Data Sciences

Selected Publications

  • Tighter Bounds for Graph Steiner Tree Approximation, SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, Vol. 19, No. 1, 2005, pp. 122-134. This paper won the SIAM Outstanding Paper Prize in 2007 ABS Robins, G. and Zelikovsky, A.
  • An RFID-Based Object Localization Framework, International Journal of Radio Frequency Identification Technology and Applications, Special Issue on RFID-Enhanced Technology Intelligence and Management, Vol. 3, No. 1/2, 2011, pp. 2-30. Invited paper ABS Chawla, K., and Robins, G.
  • Generalized Neighbor-Joining: More Reliable Phylogenetic Tree Reconstruction, Journal of Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol. 16, No. 6, pp. 806-816, 1999 ABS Pearson, W. R., Robins, G., and Zhang, T.
  • The Moving-Target Traveling Salesman Problem, Journal of Algorithms, Vol. 49, No. 1, October 2003, pp. 153-174 ABS Helvig, C. S., Robins, G., and Zelikovsky, A.
  • Binary Interval Search (BITS): A Scalable Algorithm for Counting Interval Intersections, Bioinformatics, Vol. 29, No. 1, 2013, pp. 1-7. ABS Layer, R., Skadron, K., Robins, G., Hall, I., and Quinlan, A.
  • On Optimal Interconnections for VLSI, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, MA, 1995, 304 pages. ABS Kahng, A. B. and Robins, G.
  • An Improved Approximation Scheme for the Group Steiner Problem, Networks, Vol. 37, No. 1, January 2001, pp. 8-20. ABS Helvig, C. S., Robins, G., and Zelikovsky, A.
  • A Methodology for Energy-Quality Tradeoffs Using Imprecise Hardware, Proc. ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference, San Francisco, CA, June 2012, pp. 504-509. ABS Huang, J., Lach, J. and Robins, G.

Courses Taught

  • Analysis of Algorithms (CS6161)
  • Theory of Computation (CS6160)
  • Algorithms (CS4102)
  • Theory of Computation (CS3102)
  • Computational Geometry
  • Discrete Mathematics
  • Algorithms and Problem Solving

Featured Grants & Projects

  • Packard Foundation Fellowship


    Packard Foundation, 1995-2001 ($500,000)

  • National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award


    National Science Foundation, 1994-1999 ($312,500)

  • Compression-Aware Algorithms for Massive Datasets


    National Science Foundation, 2011-2016 ($500,000)

  • New Algorithms and Tools for Large-Scale Genomic Analyses


    National Institute of Health, 2012-2017 ($2,459,825 co-PI)

  • New Directions in Reliability Security and Privacy for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems


    National Science Foundation, 2007-2011 ($450,000)

  • New Directions for Advanced VLSI Manufacturability


    National Science Foundation, 2004-2007 ($93,039)

  • Research in Layout Optimization for Advanced Manufacturability Considerations


    National Science Foundation, 2000-2003 ($421,943)