neural networks research group
areas • people • projects • demos • publications • software/data •
Game Playing
Games constitute an effective platform for developing and testing artificial intelligence techniques: they are well defined and easy to implement, yet challenging and fun. Our work in this area involves learning to play traditional games such as Othello and Go, on learning general game playing, and most recently, on developing intelligent behaviors for non-player characters in video games.
Publications
     [Expand to show all 83][Minimize]
DIAS: A Domain-Independent Alife-Based Problem-Solving System Babak Hodjat, Hormoz Shahrzad, Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the 2022 Conference on Artificial Life, 2022. 2022
Generalization of Agent Behavior through Explicit Representation of Context Cem Tutum, Suhaib Abdulquddos, Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE Conference on Games( ), 2021. 2021
Adapting to Unseen Environments through Explicit Representation of Context Cem C Tutum, Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE 2020), 581--588, Montreal, Ca... 2020
Effective Reinforcement Learning through Evolutionary Surrogate-Assisted Prescription Olivier Francon, Santiago Gonzalez, Babak Hodjat, Elliot Meyerson, Risto Miikkulainen, Xin Qiu, Horm... In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2020), 2020. 2020
Object-model transfer in the general video game domain Alexander Braylan Masters Thesis, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 2... 2019
Discretization of Game Space by Environment Attributes Alexander Braylan and Risto Miikkulainen To Appear In The 2nd Knowledge Extraction from Games Workshop, 2019. AAAI. 2019
Hierarchical Policy Design for Sample-Efficient Learning of Robot Table Tennis Through Self-Play Reza Mahjourian PhD Thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 2018. 2018
Opponent Modeling and Exploitation in Poker Using Evolved Recurrent Neural Networks Xun Li PhD Thesis, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin., Austin, TX, 2018. 2018
Learning Useful Features For Poker Arjun Nagineni Technical Report, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 20... 2018
Opponent Modeling and Exploitation in Poker Using Evolved Recurrent Neural Networks Xun Li and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2018), Kyoto, Ja... 2018
Dynamic Adaptation and Opponent Exploitation in Computer Poker Xun Li and Risto Miikkulainen In AAAI-18 Workshop for Imperfect Information Games, New Orleans, LA, USA, 2018. 2018
Evolving Adaptive Poker Players for Effective Opponent Exploitation Xun Li and Risto Miikkulainen In AAAI-17 Workshop on Computer Poker and Imperfect Information Games, San Francisco, CA, USA... 2017
Solving Multiple Isolated, Interleaved, and Blended Tasks through Modular Neuroevolution Jacob Schrum and Risto Miikkulainen Evolutionary Computation, 24(3):459--490, September 2016. MIT Press. 2016
Discovering Multimodal Behavior in Ms. Pac-Man through Evolution of Modular Neural Networks Jacob Schrum and Risto Miikkulainen IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games, 8(1):67--81, March 2016. 2016
Reuse of Neural Modules for General Video Game Playing Alexander Braylan, Mark Hollenbeck, Elliot Meyerson and Risto Miikkulainen To Appear In Proceedings of the 30th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-16), 20... 2016
Constructing Game Agents Through Simulated Evolution Jacob Schrum and Risto Miikkulainen In Newton Lee, editors, Encyclopedia of Computer Graphics and Games, 1--10, 2016. Springer. 2016
Object-Model Transfer in the General Video Game Domain Alexander Braylan, Risto Miikkulainen To Appear In Proceedings of the Twelfth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactiv... 2016
On the Cross-Domain Reusability of Neural Modules for General Video Game Playing Alexander Braylan, Mark Hollenbeck, Elliot Meyerson and Risto Miikkulainen In IJCAI'15 Workshop on General Intelligence in Game-Playing Agents, 7--14, 2015. 2015
Frame Skip Is a Powerful Parameter for Learning to Play Atari Alexander Braylan, Mark Hollenbeck, Elliot Meyerson and Risto Miikkulainen In AAAI-15 Workshop on Learning for General Competency in Video Games, 2015. 2015
Solving Interleaved and Blended Sequential Decision-Making Problems through Modular Neuroevolution Jacob Schrum and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2015), 345--352,... 2015
General Video Game Playing as a Benchmark for Human-Competitive AI Joel Lehman and Risto Miikkulainen In AAAI-15 Workshop on Beyond the Turing Test, 2015. 2015
Evolving Strategies for Social Innovation Games Erkin Bahceci, Riitta Katila and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2015), Madrid, S... 2015
Evaluating team behaviors constructed with human-guided machine learning Igor V. Karpov, Leif M. Johnson and Risto Miikkulainen To Appear In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Games, Augus... 2015
Evolving Multimodal Behavior With Modular Neural Networks in Ms. Pac-Man Jacob Schrum and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2014), 325--332,... 2014
Evolving Multimodal Behavior Through Modular Multiobjective Neuroevolution Jacob Schrum PhD Thesis, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, May 2014. Tech Report TR-14-07. 2014
Competitive Multi-Agent Search Erkin Bahceci PhD Thesis, Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, Dec... 2014
IJCNN-2013 Tutorial on Evolution of Neural Networks Risto Miikkulainen To Appear In 2013. Tutorial slides.. 2013
Boosting Interactive Evolution using Human Computation Markets Joel Lehman and Risto Miikkulainen To Appear In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on the Theory and Practice of Natura... 2013
Evolutionary Feature Evaluation for Online Reinforcement Learning Julian Bishop and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of 2013 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG2013), 267... 2013
Humanlike Combat Behavior via Multiobjective Neuroevolution Jacob Schrum, Igor V. Karpov and Risto Miikkulainen In Philip F. Hingston, editors, Believable Bots, 119--150, 2012. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. 2012
Believable Bot Navigation via Playback of Human Traces Igor V. Karpov, Jacob Schrum, Risto Miikkulainen In Philip F. Hingston, editors, Believable Bots, 151--170, 2012. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. 2012
HyperNEAT-GGP: A HyperNEAT-based Atari General Game Player Matthew Hausknecht, Piyush Khandelwal, Risto Miikkulainen, Peter Stone In Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO) 2012, 2012. 2012
Multiagent Learning through Neuroevolution Risto Miikkulainen, Eliana Feasley, Leif Johnson, Igor Karpov, Padmini Rajagopalan, Aditya Rawal, an... In J. Liu et al., editors, Advances in Computational Intelligence, LNCS 7311, 24-46, Berlin, ... 2012
Evolving Multimodal Networks for Multitask Games Jacob Schrum and Risto Miikkulainen IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games, 4(2):94--111, June 2012. IEE... 2012
Evaluating Modular Neuroevolution in Robotic Keepaway Soccer Anand Subramoney Masters Thesis, Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 2012.... 2012
Evaluation Methods for Active Human-Guided Neuroevolution in Games Igor Karpov, Leif Johnson, Vinod Valsalam and Risto Miikkulainen In 2012 AAAI Fall Symposium on Robots Learning Interactively from Human Teachers (RLIHT), Nov... 2012
Evolving Multimodal Networks for Multitask Games Jacob Schrum and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 2011), 102... 2011
UT^2: Human-like Behavior via Neuroevolution of Combat Behavior and Replay of Human Traces Jacob Schrum, Igor V. Karpov and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 2011), 329... 2011
UT^2: Human-like Behavior via Neuroevolution of Combat Behavior and Replay of Human Traces Jacob Schrum, Igor V. Karpov and Risto Miikkulainen New Orleans, LA, June 2011. Extended Abstract for the Human-like Bot Workshop at the IEEE Congress o... 2011
Human-Assisted Neuroevolution Through Shaping, Advice and Examples Igor V. Karpov, Vinod K. Valsalam and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the 13th Annual Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2011) 2011
Creating Intelligent Agents through Shaping of Coevolution Adam Dziuk and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the Congress on Evolutionary Computation, New Orleans, LA, 2011. IEEE. 2011
Assisting Machine Learning Through Shaping, Advice and Examples Igor Karpov, Vinod Valsalam and Risto Miikkulainen In 2011 IJCAI Workshop on Agents Learning Interactively from Human Teachers (ALIHT), July 201... 2011
Creating Intelligent Agents through Shaping of Coevolution Adam Dziuk Technical Report HR-11-01, Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin, 2011. 2011
Coevolution of Role-Based Cooperation in Multi-Agent Systems Chern Han Yong and Risto Miikkulainen IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development, 1:170--186, 2010. 2010
An Analysis of Automated Decision Making Methodologies in Role Playing Video Games: Centralized Approach Christopher Bush Technical Report HR-10-03, Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin, 2010. 2010
An Analysis of Distributed Decision Making Methodologies in Role Playing Video Games Matthew Johnston Technical Report HR-10-09, Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin, 2010. 2010
Hierarchical Neural Networks for Behavior-Based Decision Making David Robson Technical Report HR-10-02, Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin, 2010. 2010
Evolving Adaptive Intelligence: Using NeuroEvolution with Temporal Difference Methods in the Game Domain Nathaniel Tucker Technical Report HR-09-04, Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin., 2009. 2009
Transfer of Evolved Pattern-Based Heuristics in Games Erkin Bahceci and Risto Miikkulainen In IEEE Symposium On Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG 2008), 220-227, Perth, Austral... 2008
Evolving Opponent Models for Texas Hold 'Em Alan J Lockett and Risto Miikkulainen In IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence in Games, Perth, Australia, 2008. 2008
Evolving Controllers for Simulated Car Racing using Neuroevolution Aravind Gowrisankar Masters Thesis, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX/US, 2... 2008
Coevolving Strategies for General Game Playing Joseph Reisinger, Erkin Bahceci, Igor Karpov and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the {IEEE} Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games, 320-327, Pis... 2007
Acquiring Evolvability through Adaptive Representations Joseph Reisinger and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceeedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, 1045-1052, 2007. 2007
Acquiring Visibly Intelligent Behavior with Example-Guided Neuroevolution Bobby D. Bryant and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the Twenty-Second National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Menlo Par... 2007
Exploiting Sensor Symmetries in Example-based Training for Intelligent Agents Bobby D. Bryant and Risto Miikkulainen In Sushil M. Louis and Graham Kendall, editors, Proceedings of the {IEEE} Symposium on Computatio... 2006
Evolving Stochastic Controller Networks for Intelligent Game Agents Bobby D. Bryant and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the 2006 Congress on Evolutionary Computation, Piscataway, NJ, 2006. IEEE. 2006
Integration and Evaluation of Exploration-Based Learning in Games Igor V. Karpov, Thomas D'Silva, Craig Varrichio, Kenneth O. Stanley, Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the {IEEE} Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games, Reno, NV, 20... 2006
Evolving Visibly Intelligent Behavior for Embedded Game Agents Bobby D. Bryant PhD Thesis, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 2006. Technical Repo... 2006
Creating Intelligent Agents in Games Risto Miikkulainen The Bridge:5-13, 2006. 2006
Coevolution of Neural Networks using a Layered Pareto Archive German A. Monroy, Kenneth O. Stanley, Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, 329-336, Seattle, Wash... 2006
Computational Intelligence in Games Risto Miikkulainen, Bobby D. Bryant, Ryan Cornelius, Igor V. Karpov, Kenneth O. Stanley, and Chern H... In Gary Y. Yen and David B. Fogel, editors, Computational Intelligence: Principles and Practice<... 2006
Real-time Neuroevolution in the NERO Video Game Kenneth O. Stanley, Bobby D. Bryant, and Risto Miikkulainen IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation:653-668, 2005. IEEE. 2005
Retaining Learned Behavior During Real-Time Neuroevolution Thomas D'Silva, Roy Janik, Michael Chrien, Kenneth O. Stanley and Risto Miikkulainen Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment, 2005. American Association for... 2005
Real-Time Learning in the NERO Video Game Kenneth O. Stanley, Ryan Cornelius, Risto Miikkulainen, Thomas D'Silva, and Aliza Gold In Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference (A... 2005
Evolving Keepaway Soccer Players through Task Decomposition Shimon Whiteson and Nate Kohl and Risto Miikkulainen and Peter Stone Machine Learning, 59(1):5-30, May 2005. 2005
Evolving Neural Network Agents in the NERO Video Game Kenneth O. Stanley, Bobby D. Bryant, and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the IEEE 2005 Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG'05), P... 2005
Academic AI and Video Games: A Case Study of Incorporating Innovative Academic Research into a Video Game Prototype Aliza Gold In Proceedings of the IEEE 2005 Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG'05), 2... 2005
Incorporating Advice into Evolution of Neural Networks Chern Han Yong, Kenneth O. Stanley, and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2005), 2005. Lat... 2005
Coevolution of Neural Networks Using a Layered Pareto Archive German A. Monroy Masters Thesis, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 2005... 2005
Evolving a Roving Eye for Go Kenneth O. Stanley and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO-2004), Berlin, 2... 2004
Efficient Evolution of Neural Networks Through Complexification Kenneth O. Stanley PhD Thesis, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 2004. 2004
Neuroevolution for Adaptive Teams Bobby D. Bryant and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the 2003 Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC 2003), 2194-2201, Pisca... 2003
Neuroevolution through Augmenting Topologies Applied to Evolving Neural Networks to Play Othello Timothy Andersen Technical Report HR-02-01, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 2002. 2002
Co-Evolving A Go-Playing Neural Network Alex Lubberts and Risto Miikkulainen In Coevolution: {T}urning Adaptive Algorithms Upon Themselves, Birds-of-a-Feather Workshop, Gene... 2001
Applying ESP And Region Specialists To Neuro-Evolution For Go Andres Santiago Perez-Bergquist Technical Report TR-01-24, Department of Computer Science, University of Texas at Austin, 2001. 2001
Online Interactive Neuro-Evolution Adrian Agogino, Kenneth O. Stanley, and Risto Miikkulainen Neural Processing Letters:29-38, 2000. 2000
Evolving Neural Networks To Play Go Norman Richards, David Moriarty, and Risto Miikkulainen In Thomas B{"a}ck, editors, Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Genetic Algori... 1998
Evolving Hierarchical Neural Networks to Play Go Todd Greer Technical Report HR-94-01, Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin, 1998. 1998
Symbiotic Evolution Of Neural Networks In Sequential Decision Tasks David E. Moriarty PhD Thesis, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 1997. 117. Technical... 1997
Learning Sequential Decision Tasks David E. Moriarty and Risto Miikkulainen Technical Report AI95-229, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, 1995. 1995
Discovering Complex Othello Strategies Through Evolutionary Neural Networks David E. Moriarty and Risto Miikkulainen Connection Science, 7:195--209, 1995. 1995
Evolving Neural Networks To Focus Minimax Search David E. Moriarty and Risto Miikkulainen In Proceedings of the Twelfth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-94), 1371-... 1994
Evolving Finite State Behavior using Marker-Based Genetic Encoding of Neural Networks Brad Fullmer Technical Report HR-91-01, Department of Computer Science, The University of Texas at Austin, 1991. 1991
People
     [Expand to show all 35][Minimize]
Suhaib Abdulquddos Masters Alumni suhaib [at] cs utexas edu
Adrian Agogino Former Collaborator adrian k agogino [at] nasa gov
Timothy D. Andersen Undergraduate Alumni andert [at] alum rpi edu
Julian Bishop Former Ph.D. Student julian [at] cs utexas edu
Bobby D. Bryant Ph.D. Alumni bdbryant [at] cse unr edu
Chris Bush Undergraduate Alumni
Ryan Cornelius Undergraduate Alumni
James Craver Undergraduate Alumni
Matthew de Wet Undergraduate Alumni
Adam C. Dziuk Undergraduate Alumni
Olivier Francon Collaborator olivier francon [at] cognizant com
Aliza Gold Former Collaborator
Todd Greer Undergraduate Alumni
Matthew Johnston Undergraduate Alumni
Igor V. Karpov Masters Alumni ikarpov [at] gmail com
Nate Kohl Ph.D. Alumni nate [at] natekohl net
Joel Lehman Postdoctoral Alumni joel [at] cs utexas edu
Dan Lessin Ph.D. Alumni dlessin [at] cs utexas edu
Alex Lubberts Former Visitor
Reza Mahjourian Ph.D. Alumni reza [at] cs utexas edu
Elliot Meyerson Ph.D. Alumni ekm [at] cs utexas edu
Risto Miikkulainen Faculty risto [at] cs utexas edu
German Monroy Masters Alumni gmonroy [at] cs utexas edu
David E. Moriarty Ph.D. Alumni moriarty [at] alumni utexas net
Arjun Nagineni Undergraduate Alumni arjun nagineni [at] utexas edu
Daniel Polani Postdoctoral Alumni d polani [at] herts ac uk
Joseph Reisinger Former Ph.D. Student joeraii [at] cs utexas edu
Norman Richards Undergraduate Alumni orb [at] toki dhs org
Jacob Schrum Ph.D. Alumni schrum2 [at] southwestern edu
Hormoz Shahrzad Masters Alumni hormoz [at] cognizant com
Kenneth Stanley Postdoctoral Alumni kstanley [at] cs ucf edu
Anand Subramoney Masters Alumni anands [at] cs utexas edu
Cem C Tutum Former Research Scientist tutum [at] cs utexas edu
Shimon Whiteson Former Collaborator s a whiteson [at] uva nl
Chern Han Yong Masters Alumni cherny [at] nus edu sg
Projects
Coevolution of Competitive and Cooperative Agent Behavior Since 2009
The OpenNERO AI Research and Education Platform Since 2009
The Role of Emotion and Communication in Cooperative Behavior 2013 - 2016
Learning Strategic Behavior in Sequential Decision Tasks 2009 - 2014
Human-like Bots in Unreal Tournament 2008 - 2012
Constructing Intelligent Agents in Simulated Worlds 2008 - 2010
NERO: NeuroEvolving Robotic Operatives 2003 - 2009
Diverse Behavior in Teams of Homogeneous Agents 2001 - 2007
Demos
Multimodal Behavior in Isolated Ms. Pac-Man Jacob Schrum 2015
Multimodal Behavior in Imprison Ms. Pac-Man Jacob Schrum 2014
Multimodal Behavior in Multiple Lives Ms. Pac-Man Jacob Schrum 2014
Multimodal Behavior in One Life Ms. Pac-Man Jacob Schrum 2014
UT^2: Winner of 2012 BotPrize in Unreal Tournament 2004 Jacob Schrum, Igor Karpov 2012
Evolving Cooperation in Multiagent Systems Chern Yong 2007
Neuro-Evolving Robotic Operatives (NERO) Kenneth Stanley 2007
Adaptive Teams of Agents in the Legion II game Bobby Bryant 2006
Software/Data
ContextSkillFlappyBall Download at GitHub.

Context-skill model for extrapolati...

2021
BBMS BBMS is software for Brian Boyles's Masters thesis on evolving scout agents for military simulations. It includes a simu... 2015
MM-NEAT Download at GitHub

Modular Multiobjective NEAT is a software fra... 		2014
UT^2: Winning Botprize 2012 Entry The Botprize Competition is an annual competition to program bots that appear human-l... 2012
BREVE Monsters BREVE is a system for designing Artificial Life simulations available at http://spiderlan... 2010
OpenNERO OpenNERO is a general research and education platform for artificial intelligence. The platform is based on a simulatio... 2010
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