Welcome!

Manuela M. Veloso Herbert A. Simon Professor Computer Science Department School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890, USA email: my last name at cmu dot edu tel:(412) 268-1474, fax:(412) 268-4801 office: Gates Hillman Center (GHC) 7002

• Fall 2009 - 15-381, Introduction to AI
• Fall 2009 - 15-491, CMRoboBits - How to create intelligent robots - Project-Based Course, First Class on August 31st in GHC 3201.

• A set of videos on the history of our RoboCup teams. All the videos and publications are available in the CORAL website and also in my list of publications.
• The new NAO humanoid robots are available for sale by Aldebaran. We are using the NAOs as a platform for our research on multi-robot systems - in robot soccer - and robot learning by demonstration.
• CORAL - overarching research on intelligent robots that Cooperate, Observe, Reason, Act, and Learn. (The CORAL Web site has sorted publications and multimedia data.)
• Robot Soccer: AIBOs, Segways RMPs, small-size robots, and past efforts; Multiagent Collaborative and Adversarial Planning, Execution, and Learning.
• CMRadar - Calendar Management for Personal Assistants
• Planning, multi-robot planning, planning and learning, planning under uncertainty
• "Pick-up" robot teams - Teams of heterogenous robots and humans.
• Human-robot interaction - Robot learning from human demonstration.
• Activity recognition - Learning from sequential data.
• Model learning from negotiation in multiagent systems.
• SPIRAL Project -- Automated Libraries of Signal Processing Algorithms

• See a description of the V-Unit and send me email if you are interested in taking a V-Unit.
• The V-Unit is linked to the Technology Bridge World effort, which I strongly endorse.

• Stefan Zickler
• Sarah Aboutalib, Computer Science
• Nicholas Armstrong-Crews, Robotics (co-advised with Geoff Gordon)
• Stephanie L. Rosenthal, Computer Science (co-advised with Anind Dey)
• Somchaya Liemhetcharat, Robotics

• Joydeep Biswas, Robotics

• See our CORAL/Robot Soccer page for research and news.
• RoboCup-2007, the 11th International RoboCup Competitions and Symposium, July 1- July 10, Atlanta, USA.
  • Our CMDragons'07 team for the small-size league is world champion.
  • Our CMPack'07 team for the AIBO league came in 3rd place.
• RoboCup-2006, the 10th International RoboCup Competitions and Symposium, Bremen, Germany.
  • Our CMDragons'06 team for the small-size league is world champion.
• RoboCup-2005, the 9th International RoboCup Competitions and Symposium, July 13-19, 2005, Osaka, Japan.
• 2005 RoboCup USOpen, May 7-10, 2005, Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
• RoboCup-2004, the 8th International RoboCup Competitions and Symposium, June 27 - July 5, 2004, Lisbon, Portugal.
• The 2004 RoboCup US Open, April 24-27, 2004, University of New Orleans:
  • Our CMPack'04 team for the AIBO league is champion.
  • Our CMOwl'04 team for the coach simulation league is champion.
  • Our CMLoki'04 team for the soccer simulation league came in 3rd place.
• The First RoboCup American Open took place April 30 - May 4, 2003, at Carnegie Mellon.
• RoboCup-2003 was be held in Padua, Italy, July 1-12, 2003.
  
• RoboCup-2002 was held in Fukuoka, Japan, June 17-26, 2002.
  We entered two robot teams: our small-size robot team CMDragons'02, and our Sony legged robot team CMPack'02.
• We won first place in the RoboCup-2002 Sony legged league! :-) We are now World Champions.
  • Some pictures, and some more pictures.
• I was General Chair for RoboCup-2001, held for the first time in the USA - Check the results!
  

• Sonia Chernova - Ph.D. CS, May 2009, postdoc MIT Media Lab, Assistant Professor WPI.
  Thesis: "Confidence-Based Robot Policy Learning from Demonstration"
• Elisabeth Crawford - Ph.D. CS, May 2009, startup company.
  Thesis: "Learning to Improve Negotiation in Semi-Cooperative Agreement Problems"
• Colin McMillen - Ph.D. CS, May 2009, reCaptcha, Google.
  Thesis: "Thresholded-Rewards Decision Problems: Acting Effectively in Timed Domains"
• Brenna Argall (co-advised with Brett Browning) - Ph.D. RI, May 2009, postdoc EPFL.
  Thesis: "Learning Mobile Robot Motion Control from Demonstration and Corrective Feedback"
• Yang Gu - Ph.D. CS, August 2008, startup company.
  Thesis: "Effective Motion Tracking Using Known and Learned Actuation Models"
• Douglas Vail - Ph.D. CS, May 2008, Google, Pittsburgh.
  Thesis: "Conditional Random Fields for Activity Recognition"
• Elly Winner - Ph.D. CS, May 2008.
  Thesis: "Learning Domain-Specific Planners From Example Plans
• Maayan Roth (co-advised with Reid Simmons) - Ph.D. Robotics, September 2007, Google, Haifa.
  Thesis: "Execution-Time Communication Decisions for Coordination of Multi-Agent Teams"
• Juan Fasola - MSc. CS, August 2007, PhD student at USC.
• James Bruce - Ph.D. CS, December 2006, at Google, Mountain View.
  Thesis: "Real-Time Motion Planning and Safe Navigation in Dynamic Multi-Robot Environments"
• Kristina Rohlin (co-advised with Brett Browning), M.Sc. Robotics, May 2007, in the U.S. Navy.
• Scott Lenser - Ph.D. CS, August 2005, at iRobot, MA.
  Thesis: "On-line Robot Adaptation to Environmental Change"
• Patrick Riley - Ph.D. CS, March 2005, at Google, Mountain View.
  Thesis: "Coaching: Learning and Using Environment and Agent Models for Advice"
• Dinesh Govindaraju, M.Sc. Robotics, 2006, Singapore.
• John Gavin, M.Sc. CS, 2005, at Microsoft Research.
• Jeremy Searock, (co-advised with Brett Browning), M.Sc. Robotics, 2005, in the U.S. Navy.
• Francesco Tamburrino, M.Sc. Robotics, 2004, in Italy.
• Rune Jensen - Ph.D. CS, June 2003, Associate Professor at IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
  Thesis: "Efficient BDD-Based Planning for Non-Deterministic, Fault-Tolerant, and Adversarial Domains"
• Michael Bowling - Ph.D. CS, May 2003, Associate Professor at University of Alberta, Canada.
  Thesis: "Multiagent Learning in the Presence of Agents with Limitations"
• Paul Carpenter - M.Sc. CS, 2003, at the ICT, LA.
• William Uther - Ph.D. CS, August 2002, Researcher, National ICT, Sydney, Australia.
  Thesis: "Tree Based Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning"
• Belinda Thom - Ph.D. CS, December 2001.
  Thesis: "BoB: An Improvisational Music Companion"
• Bryan Singer - Ph.D. CS, December 2001, NSA, Washington, DC.
  Thesis: "Stochastic Search for Signal Processing Algorithm Optimization"
• Peter Stone - Ph.D. CS, December 1998, Professor at University of Texas, Austin.
  Thesis: "Layered Learning in Multi-Agent Systems"
• Astro Teller - Ph.D. CS, December 1998, CEO and founder of BodyMedia, Inc., Pittsburgh.
  Thesis: "Neural Programming and Signal Understanding"
• Kwun Han - 1998, Gigapixel, Inc., Palo Alto, CA.
• Karen Haigh - Ph.D. CS, May 1998, BBN.
  Thesis: "Situation-Dependent Learning for Interleaved Planning and Robot Execution"
• Yury Smirnov - Ph.D. CS, August 1997, CEO and founder of Akonite, Inc., CA.
  Thesis: "Hybrid Algorithms for On-Line and Combinatorial Optimization Problems"

• Fall 2008 - 15-491, CMRoboBits - How to create intelligent robots
• Fall 2008 - 15-887/16-830, Planning, Execution, and Learning, co-taught with Reid Simmons.
• 15-381, Introduction to AI
• Fall 2007 - 15-491, CMRoboBits - How to create intelligent robots
• Fall 2005 - 15-887/16-830, Planning, Execution, and Learning, co-taught with Reid Simmons. Lectures: Mon 1:30 - 2:50pm (NSH 3002).
• Fall 2005 - 15-491, CMRoboBits: Creating an Intelligent AIBO Robot, co-taught with Paul Rybski. Lectures: Mon 11:30 - 1:20PM (DH 1211), Labs: Wed 12:30 - 1:20PM (NSH 3206 - REL).
• Spring 2004 - 15-887/16-830, Planning, Execution, and Learning, MW 1:30pm-2:50pm, NSH 3001.
• 15-491, CMRoboBits: Creating an Intelligent AIBO Robot, Fall 2003
• 15-780/16-731, Advanced AI, Spring 2003
• 15-887*/16-830, Planning, Execution and Learning, Fall 2002
• 15-381, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, Fall 2001
• 15-887, Planning, Execution and Learning, Fall 2001
• 15-889A, Multi-Agent Systems: Theory and Hands-On Experience, Spring 2001.
• 15-381, Artificial Intelligence, Fall 2000.
• 15-889, Planning, Execution, and Learning, Spring 99.
• 15-381, Artificial Intelligence, Fall 98.
• 15-780, AI core course, Spring 98.
• 15-889, Planning and Learning, Fall 97.
• 15-381, Artificial Intelligence, Spring 97.

• I was on sabbatical leave for 2006/2007 as a Radcliffe Fellow at the
  Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
• I was the Program Chair for IJCAI-07, held January 6-12, 2007, in Hyderabad, India. It was a fantastic event! Thanks to all who participated.
  The theme of the conference was "AI and its Benefits to Society."
  The proceedings of the conference are available online at www.ijcai.org , where you can also find instructions on how to order a hard copy, if interested.
• I was program co-chair of AAAI-05, held July 9-13, 2005, in Pittsburgh.
• RoboCup'01, Seattle, USA, August 2-10, 2001.
• IJCAI-99 Workshop: The Third International Workshop on RoboCup, Stockholm, July 31 - August 1, 1999.
• RoboCup'98, La Villette, Paris, July 4-9, 1998.
• AIPS-98, The Fourth International Conference on AI Planning Systems, June 7-10, 1998, Carnegie Mellon Univerity, Pittsburgh, USA.
• NSF-CNPq sponsored workshop on "Intelligent Robotic Agents," Porto Alegre, Brazil, March 17-19, 1997.
• ICML/COLT 1997 Tutorial on "Learning in Planning".
• Immigration Course Fall 1996.

• Villa for rent in Algarve, Portugal.