The Innovation Series chronicles the innovative, important research and activities taking place at UTCS. Stories feature faculty, staff and students engaged in work of interest to science and the world at large. The first story is about the work of post doctoral student, Ken Stanley, who designed a full-fledged video game for his dissertation with the help of the UT Digital Media Collaboratory. The second story is about Professor Peter Stone who turned a lifetime love of soccer into groundbreaking research on artificial intelligence.
If you would like to contact us regarding publishing a story on UTCS research, please contact Nancy Hatchett at nph@cs.utexas.edu, or call (512)471-9753. To contact the scientists in the articles, please use their email addresses listed in the article, or visit their web sites and find out more about their research. All UTCS research papers are also published as downloaded PDF or postscript files online.
Dr. Stanley concepted and oversaw the development of a complex video game, Nero, that uses his real time learning algorithm, rtNEAT, which is currently patent pending. rtNEAT allows the players to evolve as the game is played through a process called neuroevolution, where only the strongest survive. The game is updated and revised by current students and is available online.
Dr. Stone is an assistant professor at UTCS with a passion for soccer and the research his soccer-playing robot dogs have spawned. Stone and his students compete internationally in a robot soccer competition called RoboCup, as well as an international trading agent competition. His team is using the knowledge gained from soccer competitions to develop research on automated automobiles and traffic control.