Jul 22 2007
About my Professional Interests
Curriculum Vitae
Professional Interests
My current work involves a number of distinct research lines in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, complex adaptive systems and Computational Sciences (grid and cluster parallel computing applied to scientific models and problems). My main research interests are in autonomous agents, robotics and complex adaptive systems. I have had the good fortune to receive a strong interdisciplinary training and focus in my graduate activities, and have continued such a focus as an Assistant Professor in my own research activities. While at the University of Memphis, working on my Ph.D., I was a member of the Institute for Intelligent Systems, part of the newly created FedEx Research Center at the UofM. I have been involved on interdisciplinary grants working on natural language processing, robotics, automated computer tutoring systems, grid and cluster computing and computational neuroscience. Most of my research has been within strong interdisciplinary teams, with contributions from a wide range of disciplines including cognitive psychology, mathematics, neuroscience, computer science, physics, biology, and linguistics. Thus I have developed a strong interest in so called Computational Sciences, the application of grid and cluster super computing resources to solving and modeling scientific problems.
More specific research interests I have focused on include the use of nonlinear dynamics in neural models for the control of autonomous agents. In 2001 I initiated a grant funded by NASA to develop models of aperiodic neurodynamics for use in robotic exploration vehicles (SODAS). This grant formed part of my dissertation research. While at the Institute for Intelligent Systems I also played a significant role as researcher and system architect in designing and developing a simulated teaching agent, called AutoTutor, that utilized a virtual agent and natural language dialogs to tutor students on various academic subjects.
More recently, I have been involved on several grants in the areas of robotics, intentional systems, and artificial curiosity. In 2006 we received a 2 year Texas Advanced Research Program (ARP) grant for the investigation of Intentionality in Autonomous Systems. We are also involved with L3 Communications in research on Grid computing, and the development of distributed cognitive/learning systems in such an environment. You can find more information about these projects, past, present and future, on my research page.