I spent a decade working at the interface with logic and philosophy. Then I
spent a decade working at the interface with game theory and economics. I am now
pulling back and to some extent fusing these directions. Our group is looking at
a variety of problems which don't all fall into tidy buckets other than the
broad umbrella of multiagent systems (and sometimes even that is too tight a
circumscription). That said, here are two broad directions which are are
beginning to focus on:
- Game theory pragmatics: This is a term I coined, by analogy with
pragmatics in linguistics. Our work includes experimental work such as our
work on computational pool games ('pool' as in billiards or 8-ball), and
formal models of computational limitations in games.
- The Intelligent Avatar: Turning passive virtual world puppets into active,
intelligent entities.
- Formal and useful models of motivational mental attitudes: Informational
relations between agents and propositions - notions such as knowledge,
certainty and belief are well studies in AI, philosophy, game theory, and
many others. In comparison, motivational relations - notions such as goal,
desire, intention, want, and others - are much less well studied. We are
after formal models - whether logical, Bayesian, or other - that are
rigorous, intuitive, and useful.
We have three ongoing NSF grants, each exploring different interdisciplinary
issues concerning multiagent systems.