Sam is researching ad hoc teamwork and reinforcement learning. His research focuses on how to cooperate with unknown teammates to accomplish a shared task with no precoordination. As part of RoboCup's Standard Platform League, he works on creating actions, teamwork, and intelligent behaviors for robot soccer. He was previously an NDSEG fellow, and he also worked at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in applying machine learning to detect terrorist threats. Outside work, Sam enjoys rock climbing, ultimate frisbee, racquetball, and playing flute.