James A. Pita
University of Southern California
Powell Hall of Engineering (PHE)
3737 Watt Way
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0781
Phone: (307) 371-2139
Fax: (213) 740-7285
Email: jpita@usc.edu
http://teamcore.usc.edu/pita
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems, game theory, behavioral game theory, security applications
EDUCATION
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Ph.D Computer Science in progress
Teamcore, advised by Milind Tambe
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823
BS Computer Science
Graduated with High Honors
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Fall 2008 to Present
Research Assistant, Computer Science Department, TEAMCORE
University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering, Los Angeles, CA 90089
 Developing new game-theoretic models and solutions algorithms for security domains
 Developing new behavioral algorithms for human adversaries in security domains
Fall 2005 to 2007
Research Assistant, Computer Science Department, The Digital Evolution Laboratory
Michigan State University Engineering College, East Lansing, MI 48825
 Assisted in current research regarding reconstruction of the most central bifurcation of a
phylogeny
 Developed software to both reconstruct and display phylogeny bifurcations
Fall 2003 to 2005
Professorial Assistant, Computer Science Department
Michigan State University Department of Computer Science, East Lansing, MI 48825
 Lead research on new genomic sequence searching algorithm
 Applied critical thinking and problem solving skills in the creation of a new database
search algorithm for bioinformatics
 Assisted in preparation of a research paper for database search algorithms
Summer 2002
Research Assistant, Microbiology Department
University of Wyoming Department of Microbiology, Laramie, WY 82072
 Created and inserted a working plasmid vector for spider silk creation
 Assisted and cooperated with a research team in the gathering of data regarding
synthetically created spider silk
 Applied biological principles and worked on the creation of a synthetic spider silk
HONORS AND AWARDS
Research: Major Awards
2009
Commendation, City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles World Airports Police Department As a lead member of
a team of researchers from CREATE (Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events) that
developed ARMOR, “Assistant for Randomized Monitoring Over Routes”. The commendation states
“To merit this commendation you have performed an exceptional service to the Airport police Division,
the Los Angeles Worl Airports and the city of Los Angeles. Your outstanding service facilitates the
critical link between the laboratory and the operational world. Thank you for your outstanding
contributions to the security of our nation.”
2009
Certificate of Recognition, DHS University Programs Received by CREATE “The DHS Office of
University Programs recognizes CREATE for the outstanding contributions to the security of our nation
that the Assistant for Randomized Monitoring over Routes (ARMOR) has made to the police operations
at the Los Angeles World Airports.”
Research: Best Paper Awards and Finalists
2011
Best paper, AAMAS’2011 Innovative Applications track Our paper from the International Conference on
Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2011) won the innovative applications best paper
award. The paper is entitled “GUARDS – Game Theoretic Security Allocation on a National Scale.”
2008
Finalist for Best paper, AAMAS’2008 Industry track Our paper from the International Conference on
Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2008) a finalist for the industry track best paper
ward. The paper is entitled “Deployed ARMOR Protection: The Application of a Game Theoretic Model
for Security at the Los Angeles International Airport.”
Research: Best Paper Awards and Finalists in Operations Research Meetings
2011
Finalist for RIST Prize, Military Operations Research Society Our abstract a finalist for the RIST prize.
The abstract is entitled “Software Assistants for Patrol Planning at LAX, Federal Air Marshals Service,
and Transportation Security Administration.”
2010
Finalist, EURO Operations Research Conference Excellence in Practice Award EEPA’2010 Our paper
from the journal “Interfaces” selected to be a finalist for the EEPA’2010 award. The paper is entitled
“Software Assistants for Randomized Patrol Planning for The LAX Airport Police and The Federal Air
Marshals Service.”
Research: Best Paper Awards and Finalists in Other Society Meetings
2010
Student Merit Award, Security and Defense, Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) meeting I won the student
merit award for our abstract at the SRA annual meeting. The abstract is entitled “Research allocation
decisions against adaptive adversaries.”
Other Honors and Awards
2009
Homeland Security Fellowship Awarded by the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism
Events (CREATE) renewable for three years.
2007
Annenberg Graduate Fellowshop Awarded by the University of Southern California Annenberg School
for Communication & Journalism renewable for four years.
2007
Michigan State University Distinguished Academic Achievement Award Awarded by the Michigan State
University Department of Computer Science and Engineering in 2005, 2006, and 2007.
2007
Michigan State University Distinguished Service Award Awarded by the Michigan State University
Department of Computer Science and Engineering in 2006 and 2007.
2006
Michigan State University Homecoming Court Elected to represent the student body of Michigan State
University on Homecoming Court at the Homecoming game in 2006.
2003
Hispanic National Merit Scholarship Awarded by Michigan State University for being named a Hispanic
National Merit Scholar based on my PSAT scores.
PUBLICATIONS
Rigorously Refereed Journal Articles
1. Robust Solutions to Stackelberg Games: Addressing Bounded Rationality and Limited Observations in
Human Cognition (J. Pita, M. Jain, F. Ordóñez, M. Tambe, and S. Kraus). Artificial Intelligence Journal,
174(15):1142-1171, 2010.
2. Software Assistants for Randomized Patrol Planning for The LAX Airport Police and The Federal Air
Marshals Service (M. Jain, J. Tsai, J. Pita, C. Kiekintveld, S. Rathi, F. Ordóñez, M. Tambe) Interfaces,
40(4):267-290, 2010. (FINALIST, Euro Excellence in Practice Award EEPA’2010)
Rigorously Refereed Conferences: Full Papers
1. GUARDS – Innovative Application of Game Theory for National Airport Security (J. Pita, M. Tambe, C.
Kiekintveld, S. Cullen, and E. Steigerwald). Twenty-second International Joint Conference on Artificial
Intelligence, July 2011. (Best Paper Track)
2. GUARDS – Game Theoretic Security Allocation on a National Scale (J. Pita, M. Tambe, C. Kiekintveld, S.
Cullen, and E. Steigerwald). Tenth International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems,
May 2011. [Best Industry Track Paper]
3. Effective Solutions for Real-World Stackelberg Games: When Agents Must Deal with Human Uncertainties
(J. Pita, M. Jain, F. Ordóñez, M. Tambe, S. Kraus, and R. Magori-Cohen). Eighth International Conference
on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, May 2009.
4. Computing Optimal Randomized Resource Allocations for Massive Security Game (C. Kiekintveld, M. Jain,
J. Tsai, J. Pita, F. Ordóñez, and M. Tambe). Eighth International Conference on Autonomous Agents and
Multiagent Systems, May 2009.
5. Deployed ARMOR Protection: The Application of a Game Theoretic Model for Security at the Los Angeles
International Airport (J. Pita, M. Jain, J. Marecki, C. Western, C. Portway, M. Tambe, F. Ordóñez, P.
Paruchuri, and S. Kraus). Industry Track of the Seventh International Conference on Autonomous Agents and
Multiagent Systems, May 2008. (Nominated for Best Industry Paper)
6. TRUE STORY: Dynamically Generated, Contextually Linked Quests in Persistent Systems (J. Pita, B.
Magerko, and S. Brodie). Future Play, 2007
Refereed Technical Magazine Articles
1. Using Game Theory for Los Angeles Airport Security (J. Pita, M. Jain, F. Ordóñez, C. Portway, M. Tambe,
C. Western, P. Paruchuri, and S. Kraus). AI Magazine, 30(1):43-57, 2009
Refereed Articles
1. GUARDS and PROTECT: Next Generation Applications of Security Games (B. An, J. Pita, E. Shieh, M.
Tambe, C. Kiekintveld, and J. Marecki). SIGecom Exchanges, 10(1), 2011.
2. Security Applications: Lessons of Real-World Deployment (J. Pita, H. Bellamane, M. Jain, C. Kiekintveld, J.
Tsai, F. Ordonez, and M. Tambe). SIGecom Exchanges, 8(2), December 2009
3. Bayesian Stackelberg Games and their Application for Security at Los Angeles International Airport (M. Jain,
J.Pita, M. Tambe, F. Ordóñez, P. Paruchuri, and S. Kraus). SIGecom Exchanges, 7(2), June 2008
Rigorously Reviewed Conferences: Short Papers
1. Real-World Security Games: Toward Addressing Human Decision-Making Uncertainty (J. Pita). Tenth
International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, May 2011.
Book Chapters
1. ARMOR Software: A Game Theoretic Approach for Airport Security (J. Pita, M. Jain, F. Ordóñez, C.
Portway, M. Tambe, C. Western, P. Paruchuri, and S. Kraus). In “Protecting Airline Passengers in the Age of
Terrorism, Praeger Publishers, 2009
Demo Papers
1. ARMOR Security for Los Angeles International Airport (J. Pita, M. Jain, F. Ordóñez, C. Portway, M. Tambe,
C. Western, P. Paruchuri, and S. Kraus). AAAI Intelligent Systems Demonstrations, 2008
Workshop Papers
1. Toward Addressing Human Behavior with Observational Uncertainty in Security Games (J. Pita, R. Yang, M.
Tambe, and R. John). AAAI Workshop on Applied Adversarial Reasoning and Risk Modeling (AARM), 2011
2. Randomizing Security Activities with Attacker Circumvention Strategies (J. Pita, C. Kiekintveld, M. Tambe,
and M. Scott). AAMAS Workshop on Optimization in Multi-Agent Systems (OPTMAS), 2010
3. Robust Solutions in Stackelberg Games: Addressing Boundedly Rational Human Preference Models (M. Jain,
F. Ordóñez, J. Pita, C. Portway, M. Tambe, C. Western, P. Paruchuri, S. Kraus). AAAI 4th Multidisciplinary
Workshop on Advances in Preference Handling, 2008
Oral Presentations
1. Resource Allocation for Heterogeneous Security Activities Against Diverse Threats (J. Pita, C. Kiekintveld,
and M. Tambe). INFORMS Computing Society Conference, 2011
2. Resource Allocation Decisions Against Adaptive Adversaries (J. Pita, C. Kiekintveld, and M. Tambe).
Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting, 2010 [Student Merit Award, Security and Defense Group]
3. Lessons Learned from Deployed Game Theoretic Security Applications (J. Pita, M. Tambe, M. Jain, J. Tsai,
and F. Ordóñez) Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting, 2010
Poster Presentations
1. Game Theoretic Approaches for Randomization in Security Resource Allocation (J. Pita, C. Kiekintveld, M.
Jain, and M. Tambe). DIMACS/CCICADA Workshop on Adversarial Decision Making, 2010
2. A Game Theoretic Approach for Randomization in Security: A Report from the Trenches (M. Tambe, C.
Kiekintveld, M. Taylor, J. Pita, and F. Ordóñez). Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting, 2009
3. Dealing with Human Uncertainties in Stackelberg Games (J. Pita and M. Tambe). The Third Annual
Department of Homeland Security University Network Summit, 2009
4. Infrastructure Security via Randomization: A Game Theoretic Model and its Application at the Los Angeles
International Airport (J. Pita, M. Jain, J. Marecki, F. Ordóñez, C. Portway, M. Tambe, C. Western, P.
Paruchuri, and S. Kraus). IEEE International Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security, 2008
EMPLOYMENT
Summer 2007
Software Engineer, MATRIX: The Center for the Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Science
Michigan State University, 409 Natural Sciences Building, East Lansing, MI 48824
 Developed and maintained web sites for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences
 Developed and maintained Sequel databases for online data collection
 Enhanced existing web code
Summer 2005
Software Engineer, Intrado
Dry Creek 1600 Dry Creek Rd, Longmont, CO 80503
 Enhanced existing project code on secondary distribution system for Amber Alerts
 Created automated build environments for multiple projects
 Refactored code and created automated unit test for quality assurance
Fall 2004 to 2006
Academic Assistant, Guided Learning Center, Diversity Programs Office
Michigan State University Engineering College, East Lansing, MI 48825
 Provided tutoring to students in Computer Science and Physics
 Tailored teaching to different learning styles
 Debugged different styles of C++ code
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE AND AFFILIATIONS
Member, Tau Beta Pi National Engineering Honor Society, TBP; 2005 to present
Treasurer, Independent Greek Council, IGC; 2004 to 2005
President (2005, 2006), Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, SHPE; 2004 to 2007
Leadership Team (2005, 2006), Honor’s Students Actively Recruiting, H-STAR; 2003 to 2007
President (2006), Association for Computing Machinery, ACM; 2003 to 2007
Secretary (2003) President (2005), Phi Iota Alpha Fraternity Inc., PIA; 2003 to present
SKILLS
C++, C, Java, Assembly, Ant, FitNesse testing, XML, UNIX, PHP, Sequel, Tomcat, and Oracle