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Josiah Hanna jphanna [at] cs.utexas.edu School of Informatics The University of Edinburgh I am a research associate in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh working with Stefano Albrecht. I recently completed my PhD in the Learning Agents Research Group in the Computer Science Department at the University of Texas at Austin where I worked with Peter Stone. Starting Fall 2021, I will be an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I study a branch of machine learning called reinforcement learning (RL). Reinforcement learning allows autonomous agents to learn to complete sequential decision making tasks given only a reward signal and interaction with their environment. The goal of my research is to develop and apply reinforcement learning algorithms that are effective with a limited amount of time interacting with a task. My long-term research goal is to develop AI systems that can quickly master a new task with a small number of attempts at the task. I graduated from the University of Kentucky with a B.S. in computer science and mathematics. As an undergraduate I worked with Judy Goldsmith on algorithms for multi-objective and factored Markov Decision Processes. I also spent a summer working with Patrice Perny and Paul Weng at LIP6 in Paris, France working on approximating the set of Pareto optimal solutions for multi-objective MDPs. During my PhD, I interned at Google where I worked with Craig Boutillier and Ofer Meshi.

News

2019

• I successfully defended my dissertation, "Data Efficient Reinforcement Learning with Simulated and Off-Policy Data."
• I have accepted an assistant professor position in the Computer Science department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison beginning in Fall 2021. Until then, I will be a research associate at the University of Edinburgh working with Stefano Albrecht.

2018

• I am honored to have been selected to receive an IBM PhD Fellowship for 2018-2019!

2017

• I completed my PhD Dissertation proposal.
• I interned at Google under the supervision of Craig Boutillier.
• The UT Austin Villa RoboCup team reached the semi-finals of the RoboCup Standard Platform League competition!

2016

• UT Austin Villa wins competition at Beijing's World Robot Conference [Reuters Article]
• The UT Austin Villa RoboCup team reached the finals of the RoboCup Standard Platform League league competition losing in penalty kicks.

2015

• The UT Austin Villa RoboCup 3D Simulation team won first place in the RoboCup 3D Simulation league competition!.