Dr. Rika Havana
Fields of Research
School of Information Systems
· Solving Combinatorial Problems using Deep Learning
· Sarcasm Detection
· Data Science
Short Bio
Havana Holds a B.Sc. (summa cum laude) in computer science from Bar-Ilan University and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in computer science from the Weizmann Institute of Science under the supervision of Prof. Robert Krauthgamer. She has extensive teaching experience spanning over a decade, teaching both introductory and advanced courses in Programming, Machine Learning, Deep Learning Data Science, and Algorithms. Since 2020 she has been a faculty member at the Academic College of Tel-Aviv Yaffo and served as the Principal Investigator (PI) of a research lab at the Open University, focusing on explainable AI in the context of concept learning using Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) to address combinatorial problems. Additionally, her lab conducts research on sarcasm detection using Deep Learning and Large Language Models (LLMs), explores Feature Selection for dimensionality reduction, and develops predictive models for diverse datasets.
Selected Publications
H. Rika, I. Aviv, R. Weisfeld. (2022) Unleashing the Potentials of Quantum Probability Theory for Customer Experience Analytics. Big Data and Cognitive Computing Journal (BDCC), Vol. 6, Issue 4.
O. Barzilai, H. Rika, N. Voloch, M. Hajaj, O. Lavi Steiner, N. Ahituv. (2022) Using Machine Learning Techniques to Incorporate Social Priorities in Traffic Monitoring in a Junction with a Fast Lane. Transport and Telecommunication Journal, Vol. 24, Issue 1.
L. Gottlieb, R. Krauthgamer, H. Rika. (2020) Faster Algorithms for Orienteering and k-TSP. Journal of Theoretical Computer Science (TCS), 914, 73-83.
R. Krauthgamer, H. Rika. (2020). Refined Vertex Sparsifiers of Planar Graphs. SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics (SIDMA), 34(1): 101--129.
R. Krauthgamer, J. R. Lee, H. Rika. (2019). Flow-Cut Gaps and Face Covers in Planar Graphs. In Proceedings of the 30th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA), 525--534.
R. Krauthgamer, I. Rika. (2013). Mimicking Networks and Succinct Representations of Terminal Cuts. In Proceedings of the 24th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA), 1789--1799.
J. Tsai, N. Fridman, E. Bowring, M. Brown, S. Epstein, G. Kaminka, S. Marsella, A. Ogden, I. Rika, A. Sheel, M. Taylor, X. Wang, A. Zilka, M. Tambe. (2011). ESCAPES: Evacuation Simulation with Children, Authorities, Parents, Emotions, and Social Comparison. In International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), Vol. 1-3: 457--464.