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Artificial intelligence, Automatic intelligent control, Fuzzy systems, Knowledge-based reasoning, Graphical models (Petri, Neural and Bayesian networks), Machine learning, Human-computer interaction, Multimodal interfaces.

EDUCATION

- PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering - University "St. Cyril and Methodius", Department of Electrical Engineering - Skopje, Macedonia, 2002.
GPA 4.0/4.0, Major Computer Engineering, Minor: Intelligent Systems.
- MSc degree in Computer Engineering - University "St. Cyril and Methodius", Department of Electrical Engineering - Skopje, Macedonia, 1997, GPA 4.0/4.0.
- BSc degree in Computer Engineering - University "St. Cyril and Methodius", Department of Electrical Engineering - Skopje, Macedonia, 1995, GPA 3.9/4.0.

THESES:
- PhD THESIS TITLE: "Intelligent supervisory-organizing controllers based on parameterised, fuzzy and stochastic Petri nets" (advisor - Dr. G.M. Dimirovski)
- MSc THESIS TITLE: "Rule-base systems with fuzzy-Petri net reasoning and their application for reformulation of Saridis organizing supervisor"
- BS THESIS TITLE: "Cascade control system architecture with two-level fuzzy-logic controller"

EMPLOYMENT AND EXPERIENCE

- Current position - research assistant professor at Rutgers University, NJ, USA - Computer Science Dept.
- Teaching and research assistant professor at the Military Academy in Skopje, (1998-2002). Subjects: "Computer systems", "Operational researches", "Modelling and simulation";
Research: intelligent control (fuzzy logic, Petri nets, neural and Bayesian networks), multi-modal interfaces, system modelling and simulation, software development, computer graphics, knowledge-based reasoning.
- Chief of Information Technology department at the Ministry of Defence of Republic of Macedonia (1995-1998)

SKILLS
- Fluent English, Serbian , Croatian, Bulgarian.
- Working knowledge of: French, Russian, Albanian
- Software tools: C/C++, Visual Basic, Delphi, Matlab, Java, HTML, XML
- Platforms: UNIX (AIX, Ultrix, HP-UX), Windows NT/2000, OS/2
- Databases using: Access, Foxpro, Oracle (SQL)

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE AND PROJECTS

- "A multimodal human-computer interaction and modelling of the user behaviour" (for Rutgers University, 10/2002-06/2003);
- Application for human-computer multimodal interaction (speech and gaze) developed in Java. IBM Via Voice software used as a speech recognizer, and ISCAN as a gaze tracker. Current multimodal fusion based on frames with time-stamped utterances and gaze coordinates. Analysis of the user intention based of a large number of experiments and subjects - performed in MATLAB and statistical tool SPSS. Further improvement will be based on graphical models (Bayesian networks for fusion and for building a user model).

- "Development and implementation of algorithms for guidance, navigation and control of mobile objects" (for Military Academy - Skopje, 09/1999-05/2002);
- The models of the missile and the target developed. Trajectory generation for autonomous flying objects - missiles, using Matlab, Simulink and Fuzzy logic toolbox. Comparison of classical control algorithms (PID) with intelligent - fuzzy control algorithm, their reliability and quality. Real-time running and simultaneously display on the same screen of different target/missiles.

- "Autonomous automatic systems with distributed intelligence" (for Macedonian Ministry of Science, 09/1997- 06/1999);
- Investigated the principle of increased intelligence-decreased precision, via organizing, coordinating and executing level of an intelligent robot. Application of different Petri net models (parameterised, stochastic and fuzzified), as well as neural network, for simulation of the organising level of a mobile robot. The user gives the commands in natural language and they are scheduled before transmission to the transducers.

- "Analytical and non-analytical intelligent systems for deciding and control of uncertain complex processes" (for Macedonian Ministry of Science, 02/1995-06/1997);
- Developed a software tool (in Visual Basic) for uncertain reasoning based on fuzzified Petri nets. The user creates a text file with a rule base (IF condition THEN action), and start the evaluation of the rules. The application represents the knowledge base with a Petri net (on screen) and the reasoning process - flow of the markers and fuzzy distributions. Finally the distribution of an output variable is drawn, and it's crisp (defuzzified) value is computed.

- "Software simulation of the microprocessor system 8088" (for Department of Electrical Engineering, 1995);
- Software emulator developed in C - including graphical interfaces for instruction execution. User creates, edits and saves a program in assembling language. When the emulator is running - we can observe the program flow - fetching of the instructions, register filling and all arithmetic and logic operations. Complete architecture and instruction set of 8088 is implemented.

PUBLICATIONS

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES

[1] Gacovski, Z., Marsic, I. (2002), "Multi-modal interface to GIS for modelling of natural hazards and catastrophes"- South-Eastern Europe Conference for digital cartography, Skopje (MK).
[2] Marsic, I., Z. Gacovski (2002), "Intelligent fuzzy logic temporal reasoner for fusion of different modalities" - First Symposium for military technology, - Proceedings on CD, Ohrid (MK).
[3] Gacovski, Z., (2002), "Fuzzy-Petri net knowledge base representation for fusion of different modalities" - International Olympiad on Automatic Control, Winning award paper, St. Petersburg, (RU).
[4] Gacovski, Z., G. M. Dimirovski (2001), "Parameterized fuzzy-Petri net reformulation of fuzzy expert system", 7-th Fuzzy days - International Conference for machine intelligence, September, Dortmund (GE).
[5] Gacovski, Z. and S. Gorcevski (2001), "Modelling of combat actions via fuzzy expert system", NATO Modelling and Simulation Group Conference on Future Modelling and Simulation Challenges - November, Breda (NL).
[6] Gacovski, Z., G. M. Dimirovski and S. Deskovski (2000), "Reformulation of the organizing supervisory controller via parameterised fuzzy-Petri nets", Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on Applied Automatic Systems, Ohrid (MK).
[7] Gacovski, Z., G.M. Dimirovski and B. Percinkova (1999), "Trajectory generation and obstacle avoidance for mobile robots". In Proceedings of ICRAM Conference on Recent Advances in Mechatronics, pp. 40-45, Istanbul (TR).
[8] Dimirovski, G.M., Z. Gacovski and M.K. Vukobratovic (1999), "Reformulation of the organizing supervisory via parameterized fuzzy-Petri nets". In: Proceedings the 14th World Congress of the IFAC, pp. 391-396, Beijing (P.R. of China).
[9] Stankovski M.J., Z. Gacovski, G.M. Dimirovski and Ersin Tulunay, (1998) "A two-level system for industrial furnace control and supervision using iterative identification and design". Ohrid ESF-COSY Workshop, (MK).
[10] Gacovski, Z., I.I.Ivanoska, T.D.Kolemisevska, O.L.Iliev, G.M.Dimirovski (1996), "Researching cascade control system architecture with two-level fuzzy-logic controller". In Proc. of 40-th Conference of ETRAN, Budva (CG-YU).
[11] Gacovski, Z., G.M.Dimirovski, R. Hanus, A. T. Dinibutin, O. Kaynak (1996), "A contribution to Fuzzy-Petri net reformulation of intelligent organizing controller". In Proc. of 40-th Conference of ETRAN, Budva (CG-YU).
[12] Iliev O.L., G.M. Dimirovski, Z. Gacovski, (1996), "Discrete Event Object-Oriented Modelling of Intelligent Communication Protocols". In M. Jamshidi (Ed.) Proc. of World Automation Congress, Montpellier (FR).

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

[1] Gacovski, Z., G. M. Dimirovski and S. Gorcevski (2000), "Fuzzy-Petri net reasoning system and transferring of knowledge to the Markov chain". In: P. Sincak, J. Vascak, V. Kvasnicka, R. Mesiar (Eds.) Advances in Soft Computing, pp. 104-113.
[2] Dimirovski, G.M., Z. Gacovski, K. Schlacher and O. Kaynak (2000), "Mobile non-holonomic robots: On trajectory generation and obstacle avoidance", In P. Kopacek (Ed.) IFAC Edited Volume Series 2001, Oxford (UK).
[3] Gacovski, Z., B. R. Percinkova and G.M. Dimirovski (1998), "On Trajectory Generation for Mobile Robots with Non-Holonomic Constraints". SINTES 9- Intnl. Journal on Systems theory, Robotics, Computers and Process informatics, vol. 1, pp. 235-242.
[4] Gacovski, Z., G.M. Dimirovski, O. Kaynak and R.M. Henry (1997), "Expert Decision and Control: A Fuzzy-petri-Net Reasoning Simulator". In T. Cifcibasi, M. Karaman (eds.) New Trends in Artificial Intelligence and Neural Networks, pp. 177-184.
[5] Pessu, R. A., Z. Gacovski, A. Zakeri, N. E. Gough, P. Musgrove (1996), "Contribution to simulation modelling in intelligent control systems via artificial neural networks". In M. Jamshidi (Ed.) Intelligent Automation and Control, TSI Press, NM (USA).
[6] Dimirovski, G.M. and Z. Gacovski (1996), "On application of fuzzy-Petri nets to organising supervisory controller". In E. Garcia & P. Albertos (Eds.) ESF-COSY and European Science Foundation, Valencia.

ACADEMIC HONORS AND AWARDS

- Fulbright post-doctoral grant for research at Rutgers University, NJ (2003).
- NATO fellowship for participation at NATO Modeling and Simulation Conference in Ottawa, Canada, (2002);
- Wining Award Paper - on International Olympiad on Automatic Control, St. Petersburg, Russia, June 2002 (see publications);
- Fellowship SEDM (South-eastern Europe Defense Ministerial) for developing a project for application of GIS in Civil Protection (2000);
- Sponsorship from Ministry of Science for developing 2 projects - see the project list (1995-2001);
- Scholarship from Ministry of Science during MSc and PhD studies - fund for talented students (1995-2001);
- Scholarship from Ministry of Education during BSc studies - fund for talented students (1990-1995);
- "Outstanding graduate student", University of Skopje, Macedonia, 1998.
- Best PhD thesis, University of Skopje, 2002.
- "Outstanding student", University of Skopje, 1995.

MEMBERSHIP

- IEEE member: 1996-2003 (Including Computer Society).
- Chairman of NATO CMEP Working Group: 2000-2003.
- Member of Macedonian Engineering Society: 1995-2003.
- Member of the Program Committee for the International Symposium for Military Technology, Ohrid, Macedonia, 2002.

PRESENTATIONS AT MAJOR CONFERENCES

- NATO Modeling and Simulation Conference in Ottawa, Canada, 2002.
- IOAC - International Olympiad on Automatic Control, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2002.
- NATO Modeling and Simulation Conference in Breda, Netherlands, 2001.
- SEESIM - South-Eastern Europe Network Conference, Athens, Greece, 2001.
- ISCI - Intnl. Symposium for Computational Intelligence, Kosice, Slovakia, 2000.
- ARMY Operational research Conference, Ankara, Turkey, 1999.
- SINTES - Symposium for Intelligent Systems, Kraiova, Romania, 1998.
- WAC - World Automation Congress, Montpellier, France, 1996.

RELEVANT COURSES TAKEN

- Training at MIT for Galaxy Communicator architecture (Spoken Dialog Systems) (2003)
- Tutorial on Fuzzy Logic Control by Lotfi Zadeh (1996)

- Computer System Architecture         - Expert decision and control
- Computer Networks                         - Artificial intelligence
- Distributed computer systems          - Natural language processing
- Data structures and databases        - Nonlinear system theories
- Real-time computer systems             - Fuzzy systems and Neural nets
- Software engineering                       - Knowledge-based computer simulation
- Communication systems                   - Automatic and robot control
- Microcomputer systems                    - Random processes and Queue theory