High Quality on Youtube: When Algorithms Inform Real Life: Novelty Search and the Myth of the Objective (16th Portuguese Conference on Artificial Intelligence Invited Keynote)

With high-quality audio and sound: Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective (inspired by our book by the same name) (TTI/Vanguard 2015 Conference on Collaboration and the Workplace of the Future)

News: Our original journal paper on NEAT (co-authored by Ken Stanley and Risto Miikkulainen), Evolving Neural Networks through Augmenting Topologies ( link ), won the 2017 International Society for Artficial Life (ISAL) Award for Outstanding Paper of the Decade 2002 - 2012 .

Research

I am the director of the Evolutionary Complexity (EPlex) Research Group at UCF. Our research focuses on abstracting the essential properties of natural evolution that made it possible to discover astronomically complex structures such as the human brain. Our work is in part an approach to artificial intelligence.

I developed a method, called NEAT (NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies), that begins evolution with a population of very simple networks and complexifies the networks over generations by adding new neurons and connections.

We recently developed an extension to NEAT called HyperNEAT that can evolve neural networks with millions of connections and exploit geometric regularities in the task domain. Here is a page on fracture in CPPNs and HyperNEAT.

Another new approach that we recently introduced is called novelty search. Unlike most evolutionary algorithms, novelty search has no defined objective; instead it simply searches for novel behaviors. Nevertheless, it finds surprisingly robust solutions, raising questions about fundamental assumptions on why search works.

I discuss some of my research interests in several interviews that are available online: This audio interview (9/30/06) conducted by Tom Barbalet for biota.org discusses some of my general interests. In this text interview (12/11/08) with AIGameDev.com, I discuss Galactic Arms Race and my thoughts on automatic content generation for video games through evolution. A TV interview (on G4TV) from February 2010 also discusses GAR. In yet another text interview, I discuss GAR with Game Developer Magazine in April 2010.

Before joining UCF, I was a member of the UTCS Neural Networks Research Group.

Gunter Bachelier created a gallery of computerized portraits of myself , generated through an evolutionary process, as part of our recognition for winning the Best Paper Award at EvoMUSART 2008. Gunter added another set here Teaching New: Fall 2015: NeuroEvolution and Generative and Developmental Systems (CAP 6616): Syllabus | Lectures and Assignments Old: Spring 2014: AI for Game Programming (CAP 4053): Syllabus | Lectures and Assignments Previous Courses Taught NEAT and HyperNEAT Users Derek James runs a NEAT Users Group on Yahoo. Please feel free to join to discuss NEAT or HyperNEAT-related issues. If you are a NEAT user, or interested in working with NEAT, please see the NEAT Users Page , which includes a helpful FAQ. New! There is now also a HyperNEAT Users Page Schedule Meeting You can schedule a meeting with me here: Online Meeting Schedule (please follow the instructions there) Note that you must be logged into the EPlex website in order to use this feature. If you see the message, "You are not authorized to view this resource," then you need to log in first and the page will appear. If you do not have a login, please send me an email to schedule a meeting. Evolutionary Games and Entertainment Galactic Arms Race Multiplayer online space combat with evolving weapons.





Picbreeder