There is a signup schedule for this event (UT EID required).Type
of Talk: UTCS Colloquia/AISpeaker/Affiliation: Ubbo Visser/Univer

sity of Miami, Department of Computer SciencesDate/Time: Friday, Oc

tober 9, 2009 11:00 a.m.

Location: TAY 3.128

Host: Peter
StoneTalk Title: "Statistics-based Real-time Sports Sim

ulation" Talk Abstract:Autonomous agents in rea

l-time and dynamic adversarial environments offer
numerous research ch

allenges. Perception, localization, decision-making,
communication

, and locomotion are good examples. The novel modern sports
simulator

we will discuss integrates results from ten years of research in
the a

rea of autonomous soccer playing robots (both softbots and physical
ro

bots) with RoboCup as a testbed.

We will explore the problem of

enabling autonomous agents in finding the
right passing point or in ma

king a complex decision within a soccer game
while dealing with time c

onstrains, hostile opponents, and dynamic
environments. We propose a
framework for spatio-temporal real-time analysis
of dynamic scenes. W

e introduce a knowledge processing pipeline ranging from
relevance-dri

ven compilation of a qualitative scene description to a
knowledge-base

d detection of complex event and action sequences, conceived
as a spa

tio-temporal pattern matching problem. We present experimental
results
from the RoboCup 3D soccer simulation that substantiate the online
ap

plicability of our approach under tournament conditions.

We then
take a closer look at new generation sports simulation online games
w

here the results of this research have been integrated. 175,000 users
currently operate the ''Official Bundesliga Manager'' created by the

University of Bremen''s spin-off company aitainment GmbH and which was
adopted by the German Bundesliga (one of the most prestigious soccer leagu

es
in the world). The ''Official Bundesliga Manager'' is a complex rea

l-time
soccer simulator that is based on user-models from actual data

(e.g. passing
performance, scoring accuracy) of real soccer players f

rom the German
Bundesliga. The underlying hierarchical three-tier mult

iagent system
consists of autonomous BDI agents that allows dynamic gr

oup structures (e.g.
an emergent situation for a wing attack). The onl

ine game runs seamlessly in
a web browser with a new and state-of-the-

art 3D visualization engine.
Latest developments include research resu

lts from a motion capturing lab and
face generators to enhance the bel

ievability of the players and the users''
visualization experience.Speaker Bio:Dr. Ubbo Visser is currently a Visiting Asso

ciate Professor in the
Department of Computer Science at the Universit

y of Miami. He received his
Habilitation in Computer Science (qualific

ation for Full Professor) from the
University of Bremen in 2003, his

PhD in Geoinformatics from University of
Muenster in 1995, and his MS

c in Landscape-ecology from University of
Muenster in 1988. His resear

ch specialization is in artificial intelligence,
more specifically on
knowledge representation and reasoning. He is
interested in the combi

nation of symbolic and sub-symbolic technologies in
the domain areas o

f "Semantic Web" and "Multiagent Systems (RoboCup,

Games)". His focus in the Semantic Web area lies in the development o

f
methods that combine terminological logics and spatio-temporal

representation and reasoning techniques. The focus in the Multiagent System

s
area lies in the development of techniques for agents that act in hi

ghly
dynamic and real-time environments. He won several awards for res

earch and
development of innovative AI software (e.g. Best AI Award fr

om the Society
for Informatics (GI) in Germany) and is a co-founder of
innovative software
companies both in Europe and in the United States

.