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Faculty

UT professor puts computer game research in context of “Pixels”

08/17/2015 - AUSTIN (KXAN) – A computer science professor at the University of Texas at Austin stopped by KXAN to talk about his research on computer gaming and the human brain. Dr. Risto Miikkulainen is studying the brain to figure out how it works and translate that knowledge to making better computer games.

Computer Scientists Find Mass Extinctions Can Accelerate Evolution

08/12/2015 - A computer science team at The University of Texas at Austin has found that robots evolve more quickly and efficiently after a virtual mass extinction modeled after real-life disasters such as the one that killed off the dinosaurs. Beyond its implications for artificial intelligence, the research supports the idea that mass extinctions actually speed up evolution by unleashing new creativity in adaptations.

UT Austin Villa Wins RoboCup 2015

07/24/2015 - The Austin Villa Robot Soccer Team participated in two competitions in the RoboCup 2015 competition in Hefei, China: the Standard Platform League (SPL) and the 3D simulation league.

Risto Miikkulainen and Jacob Schrum Win Best Paper Award

07/20/2015 - Jacob Schrum and Risto Miikkulainen won the Best Paper Award in the Digital Entertainment and Arts track at the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO). 2015 Conference for their paper on "Solving Interleaved and Blended Sequential Decision-Making Problems through Modular Neuroevolution."

Peter Stone Wins Outstanding Paper Award

07/20/2015 - Peter Stone and his co-authors Miland Tambe and Fei Fang (both from USC) won the IJCAI 2015 Computational Sustainability Track Outstanding Paper Award for their paper titled “When Security Games Go Green: Designing Defender Strategies to Prevent Poaching and Illegal Fishing.” The Computational Sustainability Track "aims to apply computational techniques to the balancing of environmental, economic, and societal needs, in order to support sustainable development and a sustainable future.”

Inderjit Dhillon Awarded ACM Fellowship & Texas 10 Teaching Award

05/01/2015 - Every year, the Texas Exes Alcalde asks UT alumni to vote on their favorite UT professors for a teaching award called the "Texas 10." This year, UT Computer Science is proud to have our own Dr. Inderjit Dhillon represented among the winners. This prestigious award comes on the heels of Dhillon being named 2014 Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery in recognition of outstanding research. The story below is a profile of a professor who has achieved remarkable success both in his research and in the classroom.

Researchers Tackle The Dark Side Of Moore's Law

04/15/2015 - This month marks the 50th Anniversary of Moore's Law, an observation that every couple of years, computer chip manufacturers manage to squeeze twice as many transistors onto a computer chip. Because transistors are the tiny on-off switches that perform calculations and temporarily store information, Moore’s Law also embodies the exponential increase in raw computing power that has unleashed a blizzard of tech innovations.

Peter Stone: Trinity planners should figure for effects of self-driving cars

04/12/2015 - Certain technologies go from being almost unimaginable to commonplace in what seems like the blink of an eye. For example, it was a relatively short time between when microwave ovens were introduced and when they became a standard appliance. Similar changes were brought about by the introduction of refrigerators, televisions, cell phones and personal computers. One of the next technologies that is likely to have similarly large and unforeseen effects is self-driving, or autonomous, cars.

Peter Stone Earns Teaching Excellence Award

Professor Peter Stone

03/27/2015 - Professor Peter Stone has earned a 2015 College of Natural Sciences Teaching Excellence Award winner. The Teaching Excellence Award celebrates the members of CNS faculty that excel in the classroom. The Awards were established by Dean Mary Ann Rankin to increase recognition of the college's many exceptional faculty who are committed to teaching at either the undergraduate or graduate level.