An Interactive Simulation Environment for Constructivist Learning

Anthony J. Petrosino, Donald S. Fussell, Risto Miikkulainen

The University of Texas at Austin
Abstract
The conceptual framework of evolution involves mechanisms that are not familiar from everyday life, such as
long time scales, large populations, and complex emergent properties. It is therefore difficult for students to gain
a concrete, intuitive understanding of these concepts. This unfamiliarity may be one reason why unscientific but
simple explanations, such as intelligent design, persist in spite of our best efforts at science education [MBLP].
To teach science effectively, the concepts involved need to be made personal, concrete and interactive. One
solution is to use computer simulations to reduce the scale of these phenomena to human levels. This has been
practiced successfully with university students using artificial life simulations like Avida. While Avida-Ed is a
powerful tool for teaching evolution, the simulated environment is still a rather abstract one and may lack sufficient
concreteness to be effective at the pre-university level.
We propose to develop a system for teaching evolution that can overcome some of these difficulties by evolving
three dimensional virtual creatures in a world with simulated physics at the level of realism found in modern
computer games. This poses technical challenges beyond those in more abstract artificial life environments. In
addition to behavioral evolution, we will have to allow the evolution of the morphology of creatures against realistic
physical constraints, so the physical characteristics of our virtual creatures and their neural controllers will need
to evolve in tandem. Meeting this challenge will enable our goal of building a compelling system supporting the
teaching of evolution at the pre-university level [Luc11].

Proposed Work
Our overall project involves the following tasks.
• We will develop a new artificial life system embodying the evolution of three-dimensional artificial creatures
in an environment that presents a reasonable simulated analog of real-world physical constraints. This world
will implement a realistic simulation of the classical physics of the natural world. In this world, creatures will
evolve both morphology and neural behavioral controllers in competition and within the physical constraints
imposed.
• We will build a system for teaching evolution at the pre-university level based on this artificial life substrate.
In order to be convincing and compelling at this early stage of education, we will leverage the concrete three
dimensional world of our artificial life simulator to provide a gamelike environment for understanding the
mechanisms and power of evolution.
• We will deploy our educational tool within the context of the nationally recognized UTeach pre-service
teacher education program, and we will evaluate and refine its effectiveness at the task of teaching evolution
in a rigorous and content appropriate manner.
Our artificial life system will be based on two ongoing projects at the University of Texas Computer Science
Department. First, Prof. Miikkulainen’s research group has developed a technique that can in real time on
modern hardware evolve neural networks to perform challenging sequential decision tasks. This method, called
rtNEAT, has made possible a new kind of computer game, NERO, where the player interacts with agents that
learn to perform complex tasks in real time [SBM05a, SBM05b, SBKM06].
Based on this technology, Prof. Fussell’s group has undertaken a project to evolve both the morphology and
neural control of creatures in a three dimensional environment with realistic simulated physics. This project builds
on the pioneering work of Karl Sims on the evolution of three dimensional virtual creatures, and takes from that
work the notion of a geometric structural graph as the genotype determining the morphology of the creatures. By
subjecting both morphology and neural controllers for the morphology to evolutionary pressure, novel creatures
with complex structures and behaviors can now be evolved.
In order to complete a three dimensional artificial life system, this work will need to be extended in a significant
way. Currently, our creatures can interact in only the most rudimentary ways. Evolving creatures that can compete
directly, essentially fighting each other, over resources will mean a significant increase in the complexity of the
fitness functions used and in the sophistication of the neural controls for the creatures’ behavior. A reasonable
model of the damage imposed by one creature on another will be integral to this step. We will also need to work on
the appearance of the creatures to improve their realism for our intended use. Currently, creatures are composed
of simple geometric building blocks linked by joints that allow a certain range of motion. These latter are currently
indicated by links between the geometric blocks connected by the joints as shown in Figure 1. Developing a system
for “skinning” these creatures to produce realistic results when we do not know their geometry a priori will be
an interesting challenge. Finally, we will have to leverage the techniques used by successful artificial life systems
such as Avida and NERO to produce realistic evolutionary landscapes.

1
 Muscle Drives
Bodies are driven with muscles
Once this isinstead
done, we
ofmust embarkjoint
the typical on developing
drives. an educational system that lever-
ages our new artificial life platform for teaching purposes. The design and evaluation
of this system Motivation
will be based on computer-based instruction and evaluation methods
An attempt Petrosino’s
developed by Prof. Petrosino. to capture the research focuses on children’s and teacher’s
form-follows-function beauty of
scientific and mathematical reasoning
muscles in nature.
in the context of schooling, with an emphasis
on activities and tools for developing thought. There are two major strands to this
Allows body types not possible with
program. The first focuses ondrives.
traditional the creation and study of learning environments that
foster the development Never before used of
and growth experimentation
in EVCs, I think. and inquiry at the middle and
Figure 1: Evolved Creature
secondary levels. This research involves collaboration with teachers in local elemen-
tary and middle schools. A second strand of research focuses on investigating the opportunities for model-based
Implementation
reasoning (the abilityDefined
to construct and articulate
by two attachment points explanations of observable phenomena) that occur in typical
science classrooms as and
students move
a maximum conceptually from intuitive everyday understanding to more formalized scien-
strength.
tific understanding. Within both
Implemented as strands,
a “distancePetrosino
joint” in has designed and helped develop a number of Internet-based
tools for teachers andPhysX (acts as
students, a spring
with beyond to the role that such tools play in fostering communities of learners.
attention
maximum distance).
Petrosino’s previous work on the understanding of evolution [PLS02] and its corresponding components [Luc11]
Controlled by changing spring
as well as work with graduate students in his seminars [MBLP] puts him in a unique position to leverage the work
configuration.
of Prof. Fussell and Prof. Miikkulainen and adding an important applied learning component to this line of work.
The evaluation will be implemented under UTeach-Natural Sciences, an existing program at UT for recruiting,
developing and retaining STEM teachers [PD03]. Petrosino has over 10 years of involvement with the UTeach
Dan Lessin Evolving Creature Content
program and has designed 2 of the 3 College of Education courses for the program. Volunteers will be recruited
from this program to incorporate our system into their classroom teaching experience. Another group of UTeach
participants will be recruited to teach the same material using traditional methods. Afterwards, the two groups
students will be tested and evaluated using measures well established in the learning science research literature and
the differences highlighted. This approach represents a significant divergence from most approaches to deploying
game technology for education in that we will focus primarily on preparing teachers to teach evolution using
these tools rather than on the students who will be the ultimate recipients of the education (teacher focused
rather than student focused). This has several advantages. It supports deeper understanding by teachers of the
difficult scientific concepts they will be teaching. It supports the development of an integrated curriculum with
which teachers are familiar as an entire curriculum, thereby enabling effective integration of computer simulation
technology in a natural way with the remainder of the course curriculum. It allows for the potential of scaling
(1 teacher teachers on average over 100 students a year). And finally, it enables us to work with a group of
education domain experts in the development and refinement of our tools and the specific scenarios to be used in
the classroom.

References
[Luc11] Lucero,M.M, Petrosino,A.J., McVaugh,N.K., & Birchfield,J., “Confirmation for Increased Attention
to Four Core Areas of Evolution Understanding: Observations from Classroom Instruction”, Poster
presented at annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Orlando,
FL., April 2011.
[MBLP] McVaugh,N.K., Birchfield,J., Lucero,M.M., & Petrosino,A.J., “Evolution education: Seeing the forest
for the trees and focusing our efforts on the teaching of evolution”, Evolution Education and Outreach
(in press).
[PD03] Petrosino, A.J., & Dickinson, G., “Integrating technology with meaningful content and faculty re-
search: The UTeach natural sciences program”, Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher
Education, 3(1), pp. 95-115, 2003.
[PLS02] Petrosino, A. J., Lehrer, R., & Schauble, L., “Structuring Error and Experimental Variation as Dis-
tribution in the Fourth Grade”, Journal of Mathematical Thinking and Learning. 5(2&3), 131–156,
2002.
[SBM05a] Stanley, Kenneth O., Bryant, B.D. and Miikkulainen, R., “Evolving Neural Network Agents in the
NERO Video Game”, Proceedings of the IEEE 2005 Symposium on Computational Intelligence and
Games, 2005.
[SBM05b] Stanley, Kenneth O., Bryant, B.D. and Miikkulainen, R., “Real-Time Neuroevolution in the NERO
Video Game”, , IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation 9, pp. 653–668, 2005.
[SBKM06] Stanley, Kenneth O., Bryant, B.D., Karpov, I. and Miikkulainen, R., “Real-Time Evolution of Neu-
ral Networks in the NERO Video Game”, Proceedings of the Twenty-First National Conference on
Artificial Intelligence, 2006.

2
 !"#
#

!"#$%"&'()'*+#,%-."%'
#
#
$%&'&()#$*'+)+*(# # ,--+.&#/00%&''#
#
/''*.+1)&#$%*-&''*%## # 2&31%)4&()#*-#56%%+.6764#1(0#8(')%6.)+*(#
56%%+.6764#1(0#8(')%6.)+*(# # 9:;#<"!=/#>?>!#93&&0@1A#
BC&#D(+E&%'+)A#*-#B&F1'#1)#/6')+(# # BC&#D(+E&%'+)A#*-#B&F1'#1)#/6')+(#
/6')+(G#BH#IJI>!# # /6')+(G#BH#IJI>!#
# # KL>!M#!N!=?"J>#
O06.1)+*(#
#
5%&+PC)*(#D(+E&%'+)A# # # $'A.C*7*PA# # # # ;Q9Q#>?J<#
5*764R+1#D(+E&%'+)AG#B&1.C&%'#5*77&P&## O06.1)+*(17#/04+(+')%1)+*(# # SQ/Q#>??T#
U1(0&%R+7)#D(+E&%'+)A# # # O06.1)+*(#1(0#V641(#2&E&7*34&()## $C2#>??J#
# # # K9.+&(.&#O06.1)+*(#1(0#B&.C(*7*PAM# #
D(+E&%'+)A#*-#W+'.*('+(# # # # $*')=2*.#O06.1)+*(17#$'A.C*7*PA# # >X?J=JX??#
#
$%*-&''+*(17#OF3&%+&(.&#
#
/''*.+1)&#$%*-&''*%## D(+E&%'+)A#*-#B&F1'#1)#/6')+(# !TTL=3%&'&()#
/''+')1()#$%*-&''*%## D(+E&%'+)A#*-#B&F1'#1)#/6')+(# >???=!TTL#
$*')0*.)*%17#Y&77*@# D(+E&%'+)A#*-#W+'.*('+(# # >??J=>???#
Z%1061)&#/''+')1()# U1(0&%R+7)#D(+E&%'+)A# # >??>=>??J#
#
$6R7+.1)+*('#[&71)&0#)*#)C+'#$%*\&.)#
#
S1%'C177G#]QG#$&)%*'+(*G#/Q#]QG#S1%)+(G#BQ#K!T>TMQ#$%&'&%E+.&#B&1.C&%'^#5*(.&3)+*('#1(0#O(1.)4&()'#
*-#$%*\&.)=;1'&0#8(')%6.)+*(Q#!"#$%&'(")(*+,-%+-(./#+&0,"%(&%/(1-+2%"'"34G#36R7+'C&0#*(7+(&#!T>TQ##
#
$&)%*'+(*G#/Q#]Q#K!TT?MQ#S*0&7#[*._&)'Q#O(.A.7*3&0+1#*-#Z+-)&0(&''G#5%&1)+E+)AG#1(0#B17&()Q#KO0+)*%#;1%R1%1#
`&%%MQ#9/ZO#$6R7+.1)+*('#8(.Q#
#
$&)%*'+(*G#/Q#S1%)+(G#BQ#1(0#9E+C1G#UQ#K!TTIMQ#O0+)*%'Q#93&.+17#8''6&#*(#;+*4&0+.17#O(P+(&&%+(P#O06.1)+*(Q#
5-6(7,$-+0,"%8()"$(1-&+2,%3(9(:-&$%,%3Q#]*''&A#;1''#$6R7+.1)+*('Q##
#
$&)%*'+(*G#/Q#]Q#1(0#`*&C7&%G#SQ#K!TTIMQ#B&1.C&%'#1'#2&'+P(&%'a#$%&=#1(0#8(=9&%E+.&#B&1.C&%'#/6)C*%+(P#*-#
/(.C*%#U+0&*#1'#1#S&1('#)*#$%*-&''+*(17#2&E&7*34&()Q#8(##[Q#Z*7041(G#[Q#$&1G#;Q#;1%%*(G#1(0#9Q#2&%%AG#
b##KO0'QMQ#U+0&*#[&'&1%.C#+(#)C&#c&1%(+(P#9.+&(.&'Q#c1@%&(.&#O%7R164#b#/''*.+1)&'Q#
#
$&)%*'+(*G#/Q]Q##K!TT<MQ##8()&P%1)+(P#56%%+.6764G#8(')%6.)+*(G#1(0#/''&''4&()#+(#3%*\&.)=;1'&0#8(')%6.)+*(a#
/#51'&#9)60A#*-#1(#OF3&%+&(.&0#B&1.C&%Q##!"#$%&'(")(*+,-%+-(./#+&0,"%(&%/(1-+2%"'"34#
#
$&)%*'+(*G#/Q#]QG#c&C%&%G#[QG#9.C16R7&G#cQ#K!TTNMQ#9)%6.)6%+(P#&%%*%#1(0#&F3&%+4&()17#E1%+1)+*(#1'#
0+')%+R6)+*(#+(#)C&#-*6%)C#P%10&Q#;&02-<&0,+&'(12,%=,%3(&%/(:-&$%,%3G#LK!bNMG#33Q#>N>=>L"Q#
#
9)%*63G#WQ#SQ#b#$&)%*'+(*G#/Q#]Q#K!TTNMQ#/(#1(17A'+'#*-#C*%+d*()17#1(0#E&%)+.17#0&E+.&#0&'+P(#-*%#'.C**7=
%&71)&0#)&1.C+(P#1(0#7&1%(+(PQ#O06.1)+*(G#5*446(+.1)+*(#b#8(-*%41)+*(#U*7QNG#e,QNG#33Q#N!I=N<"Q#
#
e1)C1(G#SQ#]Q#b#$&)%*'+(*G#/Q#]Q#K!TTNMQ#OF3&%)#R7+(0#'3*)#14*(P#3%&'&%E+.&#)&1.C&%'Q#/4&%+.1(#
O06.1)+*(17#[&'&1%.C#]*6%(17Q#<TK<MG#?TL=?!JQ#
#
c&C%&%G#[QG#9.C16R7&G#cQG#$&)%*'+(*G#/Q#]Q#K!TT>MQ#[&.*('+0&%+(P#)C&#%*7&#*-#&F3&%+4&()#+(#'.+&(.&#&06.1)+*(Q#
8(#5%*@7&AG#`QG#9.C6((G#5Q#2QG#b#,_101G#BQ#KO0'QM#K!TT>MQ#2&'+P(+(P#-*%#'.+&(.&a#8437+.1)+*('#-%*4#
&E&%A01AG#.71''%**4G#1(0#3%*-&''+*(17#'&))+(P'Q#S1C@1CG#e]a#c1@%&(.&#O%7R164#/''*.+1)&'Q#
#
 !I#
#

;1%%*(G#;Q]QG#9.C@1%)dG#2QcQG#UA&G#eQ]QG#S**%&G#/QG#$&)%*'+(*G#/Q]QG#:&.CG#cQG#;%1('-*%0G#]Q2QG#1(0#5BZUQ#
K>??JMQ#2*+(P#@+)C#6(0&%')1(0+(Pa#c&''*('#-%*4#%&'&1%.C#1(0#3%*\&.)=# #
R1'&0#7&1%(+(PQ##]*6%(17#*-#)C&#c&1%(+(P#9.+&(.&'Q#V+77'017&G#e]a#c1@%&(.&#O%7R164Q#
#
9A(&%P+')+.#/.)+E+)+&'Q##
#
2%Q# /()C*(A# ]Q# $&)%*'+(*#]%# +'# 1(#/''*.+1)&# $%*-&''*%#*-#9BOS# O06.1)+*(# 1)# BC&#D(+E&%'+)A# *-# B&F1'# 1)#
/6')+(Q#;&-*%&#\*+(+(P#)C&#-1.67)A#1)#BC&#D(+E&%'+)A#*-#B&F1'G#$&)%*'+(*#@1'#1#$*')0*.)*%17#Y&77*@#1)#BC&#
e1)+*(17#5&()&%#Y*%#843%*E+(P#9)60&()#c&1%(+(P#1(0#/.C+&E&4&()#+(#S1)C&41)+.'#1(0#9.+&(.&#Ke589c/M#
1)# )C&# D(+E&%'+)A# *-# W+'.*('+(Q# 2%Q# $&)%*'+(*^'# 0*.)*%17# @*%_# @1'# .*437&)&0# 1)# U1(0&%R+7)# D(+E&%'+)AG#
6(0&%# )C&# P6+01(.&# *-# ]*C(# ;%1('-*%0Q# WC+7&# 1)# U1(0&%R+7)G# $&)%*'+(*# @1'# 1(# 1.)+E&# 4&4R&%# *-# )C&#
c&1%(+(P#B&.C(*7*PA#5&()&%Q##V+'#S1')&%^'#@1'#0*(&#1)#B&1.C&%'#5*77&P&G#5*764R+1#D(+E&%'+)AQ#V&#+'#17'*#
1#.&%)+-+&0#`=>!#9.+&(.&#)&1.C&%#1(0#104+(+')%1)*%#@+)C#J#A&1%'#*-#&F3&%+&(.&Q#2%Q#$&)%*'+(*#+'#)C&#16)C*%#*%#
.*=16)C*%# *-# *E&%# !T# 3&&%# %&E+&@&0# \*6%(17# 1%)+.7&'# +(.760+(P# ><-$,+&%( ./#+&0,"%&'( ?-8-&$+2( !"#$%&'@(
;&02-<&0,+&'(12,%=,%3(&%/(:-&$%,%3@(!"#$%&'(")(*+,-%+-(./#+&0,"%(&%/(1-+2%"'"34G#1(0#12-(!"#$%&'(")(
02-( :-&$%,%3( *+,-%+-8G# "T# (1)+*(17# 1(0# +()&%(1)+*(17# %&'&1%.C=R1'&0# .*(-&%&(.&# 3%&'&()1)+*('G# >N# R**_#
.C13)&%'# 1(0# (64&%*6'# +(E+)&0# 3%&'&()1)+*('Q# V&# @1'# 1@1%0&0# )C&# !TT!# 8()&%(1)+*(17# 9*.+&)A# *-#
B&.C(*7*PA# +(# O06.1)+*(# K89BOM# eOB9# 2+')+(P6+'C&0# /.C+&E&4&()# /@1%0# $%*P%14# -*%# &F.&77&(.&# +(#
)&1.C&%#3%&31%1)+*(#6'+(P#)&.C(*7*PA#KDB&1.CM#1(0#+'#*(#)C&#&F&.6)+E&#R*1%0#*-#)C&#8()&%(1)+*(17#9*.+&)A#*-#
)C&# c&1%(+(P# 9.+&(.&'Q# V&# C1'# 31%)+.+31)&0# +(# %&'&1%.C# 3%&'&()1)+*('# 1(0# .*771R*%1)+*('# @+)C# .*77&1P6&'#
-%*4#5C+(1G#S&F+.*G#8)17AG#Z&%41(AG#1(0#/6')%17+1Q#2%Q#$&)%*'+(*#@1'#1#-*6(0+(P#4&4R&%#*-#)C&#DB&1.C#
3%&='&%E+.&#)&1.C&%#&06.1)+*(#3%*P%14Q##
#
‡5*=0&E&7*3&%#@+)C#*)C&%#4&4R&%'#*-#)C&#5*P(+)+*(#1(0#B&.C(*7*PA#Z%*63#1)#U1(0&%R+7)#*-#fBC&#
/0E&()6%&'#*-#]1'3&%#W**0R6%Ag#1#467)+4&0+1#41)C&41)+.17#3%*R7&4#'*7E+(P#'&%+&'#K&06.1)+*(17#3%*06.)#
-*%#`=>!MQ##
‡ 1DWLRQDO &HQWHU IRU ,PSURYLQJ 6WXGHQW /HDUQLQJ DQG $FKLHYHPHQW LQ 0DWK&41)+.'# 1(0# 9.+&(.&Q# K3*')#
0*.)*%17#-&77*@M#
‡9DQGHUELOW=e*%)C@&')&%(G#B&F1'G#V1%E1%0#O(P+(&&%+(P#%&'&1%.C#5&()&%#KU1eBV#O5M#Kc&1%(+(P#9.+&()+')M#
#
5*771R*%1)*%'#b#,)C&%#/--+7+1)+*('Q##
#
;%+P+0#;1%%*(# 9)1(-*%0#D(+E&%'+)A# ]*C(#;%1('-*%0# # D(+E&%'+)A#*-#W1'C+(P)*(#
9&1(#;%*3CA# U1(0&%R+7)#D(+E&%'+)A# 96'1(#Z*7041(# # D(+E&%'+)A#*-#877+(*+'#
[+._#26'.C7# [6)P&%'#D(+E&%'+)A# [+.C1%0#c&C%&%# # U1(0&%R+7)#D(+E&%'+)A#
S1)C&@#`*&C7&%# S+.C+P1(#9)1)&#D(+E&%'+)A## S+).C#e1)C1(# # D(+E&%'+)A#*-#W+'.*('+(#
H+*0*(P#c+(# 5*764R+1#D(+E&%'+)A# c&*(1#9.C16R7&# # U1(0&%R+7)#D(+E&%'+)A#
]*A.&#S**%&# D(+E&%'+)A#*-#8*@1# W17)&%#9)%*63# # D(+E&%'+)A#*-#B&F1'#
]+4#$&77&P%+(*# D(+E&%'+)A#*-#877+(*+'# #
# # # # #
#
Z%1061)&#1(0#$*')#2*.)*%17#/0E+'*%'Q##
#
]*C(#;%1('-*%0#K5*=2*.)*%17#/0E+'*%M# # D(+E&%'+)A#*-#W1'C+(P)*(#K)C&(#U1(0&%R+7)M#
;*R#9C&%@**0#K5*=2*.)*%17#/0E+'*%M# # 8(0+1(1#D(+E&%'+)A#K)C&(#U1(0&%R+7)M#
c&*(1#9.C16R7&#K$*')=0*.)*%17#/0E+'*%M# # U1(0&%R+7)#D(+E&%'+)A#K)C&(#DW=S10+'*(M#
[+.C1%0#c&C%&%#K$*')=0*.)*%17#/0E+'*%M# # U1(0&%R+7)#D(+E&%'+)A#K)C&(#DW=S10+'*(M#
#
#
 Donald S. Fussell

Education
B.S. Mathematics and Social Science, Dartmouth College (1973)
M.S. Mathematical Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas (1977)
Ph.D. Mathematical Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas (1980)

Academic Positions
1995 - Present: Professor, Department of Computer Sciences, UT Austin
1986 - 1995: Associate Professor, Department of Computer Sciences, UT Austin
1980 - 1986: Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Sciences, UT Austin
UT Austin

Five Relevant Publications

1. C. Miller, O. Arikan, and D.S. Fussell, “Frankenrigs: Building character rigs from multiple sources,”
in ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games, ACM Press, February 2010.
2. G. Bernstein and D.S. Fussell, “Fast, Exact, Linear Booleans,” Proceedings of the Eurographics
Symposium on Geometry Processing, Berlin, July 15-19, 2009, published as Computer Graphics
Forum 28-5:1269-1278, Eurographics Association.
3. E. Camahort, F. Abad, and D.S. Fussell, “A Line-Space Analysis of Light-Field Representations,”
Graphical Models 71(5):169-183, September 2009, doi:10.1016/j.gmod.2009.02.003
4. J. Park, J.C. Browne, and D.S. Fussell, “Motion Control Using Extended Generalized Coordinate
Transformations,” Proceedings 1992 Eurographics Workshop on Animation, September 1992.
5. J. Park, J.C. Browne, D.S. Fussell, and M. Pandey, “Realistic Animation Using Musculotendon Skele-
ton Dynamics and Suboptimal Control,” Proceedings 1992 Eurographics Workshop on Animation,
September 1992.

Five Other Representative Publications

1. W. Hunt, D.S. Fussell, and W. Mark, “Fast and Lazy Build of Acceleration Structures from Scene
Hierarchies,” 2007 IEEE/EG Syposium on Interactive Ray Tracing, Ulm, Germany, October 10–12,
2007.
2. P. Navrátil, D.S. Fussell, W. Mark, and C. Lin, “Ray Scheduling to Improve Ray Coherence and
Bandwidth Utilization,” 2007 IEEE/EG Syposium on Interactive Ray Tracing, Ulm, Germany, October
10–12, 2007.
3. A.T. Campbell and D.S. Fussell, “Adaptive Mesh Generation for Global Diffuse Illumination,” Com-
puter Graphics (SIGGRAPH 90), vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 155–164, August 1990.
4. C. Buckalew and D.S. Fussell, “Illumination Networks: Fast Realistic Rendering with General
Reflectance Functions,” Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 89),vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 89–98, August 1989.
5. A. Fournier, L. Carpenter, and D.S. Fussell, “Computer Rendering of Stochastic Models,” Commu-
nications of the ACM, vol. 24, no. 6, pp. 371–384, June 1982.

1
Synergistic Activities
• I designed and implemented a system for rapid development of game based training systems for the
U.S. Army. This system is now deployed for training of battle captains at Fort Hood and for training
of battlefield medical officers at Fort Sam Houston.
• After serving as Chief Scientist and Vice President for Engineering at Matrix NetSystems, an Internet
startup, I developed a graduate curriculum for entrepreneurship in the CS department. This has led to
at least five of our graduate students becoming involved in founding technology startups.
• I was instrumental in the founding and design of the Bridging Disciplines Program on digital media at
the University of Texas. This program allows undergraduates from various departments and colleges
across the university to take courses in a variety of areas to better prepare them for a career in digital
media production.
• I am currently establishing an interdisciplinary Digital Media Institute in the Department of Computer
Science. This will broaden the impact of the current Digital Media Laboratory, of which I am
Associate Director, to allow it to accomodate faculty from a number of colleges and departments in
intedisciplinary research and teaching in the area of digital media.
• In conjunction with the establishment of the Digital Media Institute, I am developing a area con-
centration curriculum in digital media for the Computer Science Department. This will provide a
concentrated education for Computer Science undergraduates in skills needed for the development of
computer games and related media applications.

Collaborators and Other Affiliations

Collaborators and Co-Editors
F. Abad, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain; O. Arikan, Animeeple, Inc.; G. Bernstein, The
University of Washingon, Seattle; E. Camahort, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain; W. Hunt, Intel
Corp.; A. Krishnan, UT Austin; C. Lin, UT Austin; W. Mark, Intel Corp.; M. Markey, UT Austin; P.
Navrátil, UT Austin; M. Salganicoff, UT Austin; Y. Shin, Microsoft Corp; Q. Wu, UT Austin

Graduate Advisors and Postdocoral Sponsors

Z. Kedem, Graduate Advisor, New York University; A. Silberschatz, Graduate Co-Advisor, Yale University

Thesis Advisor and Postgraduate-Scholar Sponsor

26 PhDs Supervised; 0 Postdoctoral Scholars Sponsored
C. Mohan, IBM Corp.; I.V. Ramakrishnan, SUNY Stony Brook; Peter Varman, Rice University; Krishna
Palem, Rice University; Richard Simpson, Retired IBM Corp.; Ramakrishna Thurimella, University of Den-
ver; Chris Buckalew, California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, CA; Sampath Rangarajan, NEC
Laboratories America; Shinichiro Haruyama, Sony Research, Japan; K.R. Subramanian, North Carolina
State University; Karl Kelvin Thompson, Industrial position, Austin, TX; Won Woo Park, Samsung Corp.,
Korea; Alvin T. Campbell, Industrial position, Austin TX; Boaz Super, CMU; Jawahar Jain, Fujitsu Labo-
ratories America; John Bunda, Industrial position, Austin, TX; Mark Tarlton, Industrial position, Atlanta,
GA; Jihun Park, Hongik University, Korea; Robert Read, Industrial position, Houston, TX; Glenn G. Lai,
Industrial positon, San Jose, CA; Priyadarsan Patra, Intel Corp.; Wei Xu, UC San Diego; Emilio Camahort,
Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain; Dana Marshall, Industrial position, Austin, TX; Young-In Shin,
Microsoft; Qiu Wu, UT Austin

2
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

RISTO MIIKKULAINEN
Professor of Computer Science
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712
tel. (512) 471-9571, fax (512) 471-8885
risto@cs.utexas.edu, www.cs.utexas.edu/users/risto

Professional Preparation
Helsinki University of Technology Applied Mathematics MS 1986
University of California, Los Angeles Computer Science PhD 1990

Appointments
Professor, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, since 2002;
Associate Professor, 1996–2002; Assistant Professor, 1990–1996.
Faculty Member, the Institute for Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, since 2000.

Five Most Relevant Publications

Yong, C. H. and Miikkulainen, R. (2010). Coevolution of Role-Based Cooperation in Multi-Agent Sys-
tems. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development 1:170–186, http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/-
?yong:ieeetamd10.
Kohl, N. and Miikkulainen, R. (2009). Evolving Neural Networks for Strategic Decision-Making Prob-
lems. Neural Networks 22:326–337, http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/?kohl:nn09.
Gomez, F., Schmidhuber, J., and Miikkulainen, R. (2008) Accelerated Neural Evolution through Coopera-
tively Coevolved Synapses. Journal of Machine Learning Research 9:937–965. nn.cs.utexas.edu/?
gomez:jmlr08.
Whiteson, S., Kohl, N., Miikkulainen, R., and Stone, P. (2005). Evolving Keepaway Soccer Players
through Task Decomposition. Machine Learning 59:5–30, http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/?whiteson:mlj05.
Stanley, K. and Miikkulainen, R. (2004). Competitive Coevolution through Evolutionary Complexification.
Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research 21:63–100, nn.cs.utexas.edu/?stanley:jair04.

Five Other Publications

Valsalam, V., Bednar, J. A., and Miikkulainen, R. (2007). Developing Complex Systems using Evolved Pat-
tern Generators. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 11:181–198. nn.cs.utexas.edu/?val-
salam:ieeetec06.
Stanley, K., Bryant, B., and Miikkulainen, R. (2005). The NERO Real-time Video Game. IEEE Transac-
tions on Evolutionary Computation 9:653–668, http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/?stanley:ieeetec05
Miikkulainen, R., Bednar, J. A., Choe, Y., and Sirosh, J. (2005). Computational Maps in the Visual Cortex.
New York: Springer, www.computationalmaps.org.
Stanley, K. and Miikkulainen R. (2003). A Taxonomy for Artificial Embryogeny. Artificial Life 9:93–130,
http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/?stanley:alifej03
Miikkulainen, R. (1993). Subsymbolic Natural Language Processing: An Integrated Model of Scripts,
Lexicon, and Memory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, nn.cs.utexas.edu/?miikkulainen:subsymbolic.
Synergistic Activities
Developer of 28 software packages for neuroevolution, natural language processing and computational
neuroscience, nn.cs.utexas.edu/soft-list.php (with Matt Alden, Chris Ball, James A. Bednar, Bobby
D. Bryant, Matt Buckland, Yoonsuck Choe, Julien Ciroux, Judah De Paula, Aliza Gold, Faustino
Gomez, Colin Green, Mattias Fagerlund, Derek James, Igor Karpov, Riitta Katila, Cynthia Matuszek,
Marty Mayberry, Christian Mayr, David Moriarty, Alan Oursland, Jefferson Provost, Jacob Schrum,
John Sheblak, Joseph Sirosh, Yiu Fai Sit, Kenneth O. Stanley, Bram Stolk, Philip Tucker, and Udo
Vierucci).
Editor (with Joseph Sirosh and Yoonsuck Choe) of a pioneering electronic book, Lateral Interactions in
the Cortex: Structure and Function ISBN 0-9647060-0-8, 1996, www.cs.utexas.edu/users/nn/web-
pubs/htmlbook96.
Technical Chair, Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC-2011), July 2011; Program Chair, The 2010
IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG-10), August 2010; Workshop on
Self-Organizing Maps (WSOM-09), October 2009; The Fourth IEEE Symposium on Computational
Intelligence and Games (CIG-08), December 2008.
Member of the Board of Directors, International Neural Network Society; Member of the IEEE Computa-
tional Intelligence Society Technical Committees for Neural Networks, Autonomous Mental Devel-
opment, and Computational Intelligence in Games (vice chair).
Associate/action editor, Neural Networks, Machine Learning, IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental
Development, IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games, Cognitive Systems
Research.

Collaborators and Co-Editors (outside UT Austin)

Thomas D’Silva (Intel), Kay Holekamp (MSU), Ralph Hoffman (Yale), Ben Kerr (University of Washing-
ton), Riitta Katila (Stanford), Swathi Kiran (Boston University), Peter Norvig (Google, Inc.), Jose Prı́ncipe
(University of Florida), Jürgen Schmidhuber (IDSIA), Clifford D. Saron (UC Davis), Chern-Han Yong (Na-
tional University of Singapore).

Graduate Advisor
Michael G. Dyer (UCLA).

Thesis Advisor and Postgraduate-Scholar Sponsor

Twenty PhD and eight postdoctoral advisees: Matt Alden (University of Washington, Tacoma), James
Bednar (University of Edinburgh), Bobby D. Bryant (University of Nevada, Reno), Li-Chiu Chang (Na-
tional Taiwan University), Harold Chaput (Electronic Arts), Yoonsuck Choe (Texas A&M University), Igor
Farkas (Comenius University, Slovakia), Faustino Gomez (IDSIA, Switzerland), Elizabeth C. Kaczmarczyk
(UCSD), Nate Kohl (FactSet Inc.), Wee Kheng Leow (National University of Singapore), Paul McQuesten
(University of Redlands), Marshall Mayberry (University of California, Merced), David Moriarty (Apple,
Inc.), Judah De Paula (Pioneer, Inc.), Daniel Polani (University of Hertfordshire, UK), Jefferson Provost
(Amazon, Inc.), Melissa Redford (University of Oregon), Yaron Silberman (NiTi Medical Solutions Inc.,
Israel), Joseph Sirosh (Amazon, Inc.), Yiu Fai Sit (University of Texas at Austin), Kenneth O. Stanley (Uni-
versity of Central Florida), Tal Tversky (Apple, Inc).

2
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

RISTO MIIKKULAINEN
Professor of Computer Science
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712
tel. (512) 471-9571, fax (512) 471-8885
risto@cs.utexas.edu, www.cs.utexas.edu/users/risto

Professional Preparation
Helsinki University of Technology Applied Mathematics MS 1986
University of California, Los Angeles Computer Science PhD 1990

Appointments
Professor, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, since 2002;
Associate Professor, 1996–2002; Assistant Professor, 1990–1996.
Faculty Member, the Institute for Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, since 2000.

Five Most Relevant Publications

Yong, C. H. and Miikkulainen, R. (2010). Coevolution of Role-Based Cooperation in Multi-Agent Sys-
tems. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development 1:170–186, http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/-
?yong:ieeetamd10.
Kohl, N. and Miikkulainen, R. (2009). Evolving Neural Networks for Strategic Decision-Making Prob-
lems. Neural Networks 22:326–337, http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/?kohl:nn09.
Gomez, F., Schmidhuber, J., and Miikkulainen, R. (2008) Accelerated Neural Evolution through Coopera-
tively Coevolved Synapses. Journal of Machine Learning Research 9:937–965. nn.cs.utexas.edu/?
gomez:jmlr08.
Whiteson, S., Kohl, N., Miikkulainen, R., and Stone, P. (2005). Evolving Keepaway Soccer Players
through Task Decomposition. Machine Learning 59:5–30, http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/?whiteson:mlj05.
Stanley, K. and Miikkulainen, R. (2004). Competitive Coevolution through Evolutionary Complexification.
Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research 21:63–100, nn.cs.utexas.edu/?stanley:jair04.

Five Other Publications

Valsalam, V., Bednar, J. A., and Miikkulainen, R. (2007). Developing Complex Systems using Evolved Pat-
tern Generators. IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, 11:181–198. nn.cs.utexas.edu/?val-
salam:ieeetec06.
Stanley, K., Bryant, B., and Miikkulainen, R. (2005). The NERO Real-time Video Game. IEEE Transac-
tions on Evolutionary Computation 9:653–668, http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/?stanley:ieeetec05
Miikkulainen, R., Bednar, J. A., Choe, Y., and Sirosh, J. (2005). Computational Maps in the Visual Cortex.
New York: Springer, www.computationalmaps.org.
Stanley, K. and Miikkulainen R. (2003). A Taxonomy for Artificial Embryogeny. Artificial Life 9:93–130,
http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/?stanley:alifej03
Miikkulainen, R. (1993). Subsymbolic Natural Language Processing: An Integrated Model of Scripts,
Lexicon, and Memory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, nn.cs.utexas.edu/?miikkulainen:subsymbolic.
Synergistic Activities
Developer of 28 software packages for neuroevolution, natural language processing and computational
neuroscience, nn.cs.utexas.edu/soft-list.php (with Matt Alden, Chris Ball, James A. Bednar, Bobby
D. Bryant, Matt Buckland, Yoonsuck Choe, Julien Ciroux, Judah De Paula, Aliza Gold, Faustino
Gomez, Colin Green, Mattias Fagerlund, Derek James, Igor Karpov, Riitta Katila, Cynthia Matuszek,
Marty Mayberry, Christian Mayr, David Moriarty, Alan Oursland, Jefferson Provost, Jacob Schrum,
John Sheblak, Joseph Sirosh, Yiu Fai Sit, Kenneth O. Stanley, Bram Stolk, Philip Tucker, and Udo
Vierucci).
Editor (with Joseph Sirosh and Yoonsuck Choe) of a pioneering electronic book, Lateral Interactions in
the Cortex: Structure and Function ISBN 0-9647060-0-8, 1996, www.cs.utexas.edu/users/nn/web-
pubs/htmlbook96.
Technical Chair, Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC-2011), July 2011; Program Chair, The 2010
IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games (CIG-10), August 2010; Workshop on
Self-Organizing Maps (WSOM-09), October 2009; The Fourth IEEE Symposium on Computational
Intelligence and Games (CIG-08), December 2008.
Member of the Board of Directors, International Neural Network Society; Member of the IEEE Computa-
tional Intelligence Society Technical Committees for Neural Networks, Autonomous Mental Devel-
opment, and Computational Intelligence in Games (vice chair).
Associate/action editor, Neural Networks, Machine Learning, IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental
Development, IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI in Games, Cognitive Systems
Research.

Collaborators and Co-Editors (outside UT Austin)

Thomas D’Silva (Intel), Kay Holekamp (MSU), Ralph Hoffman (Yale), Ben Kerr (University of Washing-
ton), Riitta Katila (Stanford), Swathi Kiran (Boston University), Peter Norvig (Google, Inc.), Jose Prı́ncipe
(University of Florida), Jürgen Schmidhuber (IDSIA), Clifford D. Saron (UC Davis), Chern-Han Yong (Na-
tional University of Singapore).

Graduate Advisor
Michael G. Dyer (UCLA).

Thesis Advisor and Postgraduate-Scholar Sponsor

Twenty PhD and eight postdoctoral advisees: Matt Alden (University of Washington, Tacoma), James
Bednar (University of Edinburgh), Bobby D. Bryant (University of Nevada, Reno), Li-Chiu Chang (Na-
tional Taiwan University), Harold Chaput (Electronic Arts), Yoonsuck Choe (Texas A&M University), Igor
Farkas (Comenius University, Slovakia), Faustino Gomez (IDSIA, Switzerland), Elizabeth C. Kaczmarczyk
(UCSD), Nate Kohl (FactSet Inc.), Wee Kheng Leow (National University of Singapore), Paul McQuesten
(University of Redlands), Marshall Mayberry (University of California, Merced), David Moriarty (Apple,
Inc.), Judah De Paula (Pioneer, Inc.), Daniel Polani (University of Hertfordshire, UK), Jefferson Provost
(Amazon, Inc.), Melissa Redford (University of Oregon), Yaron Silberman (NiTi Medical Solutions Inc.,
Israel), Joseph Sirosh (Amazon, Inc.), Yiu Fai Sit (University of Texas at Austin), Kenneth O. Stanley (Uni-
versity of Central Florida), Tal Tversky (Apple, Inc).